Category: | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

Christophe Chaffardon

Aristarchos' Manuscript [Le manuscrit d’Aristarque]

The action takes place in the 3rd century B.C. Athens and later Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt. A physician practicing advanced and not yet sanctioned medicine is forced to flee Athens with his daughter Ophelia as stowaways on a small ship going to Alexandria. He dies suddenly, having been poisoned when the ship reaches its destination. Before he dies he manages to tell his daughter to look for a certain Aristarchus, who turns out to have been a revolutionary astronomer who believed that the Eart(...)

literary

YEAR: 2016

COUNTRY: France

TAGS: Alexander the Great Alexandria Archimedes Aristarchus of Samos Athens Eratosthenes (of Cyrene) Greek Astronomy Greek Medicine Library of Alexandria Pharos of Alexandria Ptolemaic Egypt

Albert Barillé

Once Upon a Time... The Discoverers (Series, S01E03): Heron of Alexandria [Il était une fois… les Découvreurs: Héron d’Alexandrie]

Héron d’Alexandrie is the third episode of the series about discoverers entitled Il était une fois… It presents in a way, suitable for children, the achievements of ancient Alexandrian science, in particular the character of Heron of Alexandria, against a historical and cultural background. The structure corresponds to the template used in all of the episodes in the series: the white-bearded old Maestro narrates tales of important inventions from the past to a group of(...)

audiovisual

YEAR: 1994

COUNTRY: France

TAGS: Alexander the Great Alexandria Ctesibius Greek History Greek Science Heron of Alexandria Library of Alexandria Ptolemy

István Száva, Tamás Szecskó

The Giant of Syracuse [A szirakuzai óriás]

The entry is based on the Polish edition Olbrzym z Syrakuz, Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia, 1966.A Sicilian Greek boy, Sporos, plays with his friend Zeuxippos*. Sporos, son of the mathematician and astronomer Phidias**. Out of curiosity, he uses a bifurcated branch to draw circles on sand to see how many of them could be placed on the circumference of the central one; he discovers that the correlation ratio is not dependent on the size of the circles. His friend wants to go home, so he destroys the (...)

literary

YEAR: 1959

COUNTRY: Hungary

TAGS: Achilles Alexandria Ancient Warfare Archimedes Artemis Callimachus Ctesibius Eratosthenes (of Cyrene) Eureka! Greek Science Greek Theatre Hecatomb Hiero II Library of Alexandria Punic Wars Sicily Syracuse

Natalia Rolleczek, Zbigniew Łoskot

The Splendid and the Most Splendid [Świetna i najświetniejsza]

Based on: Katarzyna Marciniak, Elżbieta Olechowska, Joanna Kłos, Michał Kucharski (eds.), Polish Literature for Children & Young Adults Inspired by Classical Antiquity: A Catalogue, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2013, 444 pp.Tyche, the goddess of destiny plays with the fate of two Greek siblings, Apion and Ammonia who meet two young Egyptian boys Enum and Uni; the former is the son of a distressed dignitary Theta, the latter lives his life in poverty(...)

literary

YEAR: 1979

COUNTRY: Poland

TAGS: Aeneid Alexandria Anagnorisis Aphrodite Apollo Arachne Caesar Circe Cleopatra VII Egypt Herodotus Homer Horace Iliad Library of Alexandria Mark Antony Mercury Odysseus / Ulysses Odyssey Orpheus Poseidon Tyche