between myth and history 199
(estimated to have been about 3 miles long), the automaton mechanism,
as modern engineers agree, must have been technologically robust.
How did the Nysa automaton work? In 2015, historians of mechanical
engineering Teun Koetsier and Hanfried Kerle analyzed and diagrammed
several hypothetical designs. If the statue was 12 feet high when sitting,
it would have been 15 feet tall when standing. Assuming it was powered
by mechanical means and with components available at the time, they
conclude that a complex arrangement of cams, weights, and a sprocket
chain or gear wheels were carefully timed to make Nysa rise from her
chair, pour milk, and sit down in a slow, stately manner.
Who made the unprecedented Nysa automaton, one of world’s first
working robots? The ancient sources do not say. One candidate was the
engineer Ctesibius, thought to have been the first director of the mu-
seum at Alexandria. No writings by Ctesibius survive, sad to say, but his
inventions, based on hydraulics (pumps, siphons) and pneumatics (com-
pressed air), were very highly regarded, described by Vitruvius, Pliny,
Athenaeus, Philo of Byzantium (who worked in Alexandria), Proclus, and
Heron of Alexandria. Ctesibius was active in 285– 222 BC, and he created
a pneumatic drinking horn in a temple honoring Ptolemy II’s late wife,
Arsinoe II. Ctesibius, or some of his colleagues, would seem to be the
most likely builders of the Nysa robot in Ptolemy’s Grand Procession. 36
What about Philo of Byzantium (Philo Mechanicus), the eminent
Greek engineer and writer who lived most of his life in Rhodes and
Alexandria? His exact dates are unknown, but it is now believed that
Philo was born about 280 BC, making him a bit too late for Ptolemy II’s
Grand Procession. Philo’s impressive list of machines and plans for self-
moving devices in the forms of humans and animals were greatly admired
in antiquity and the Middle Ages and are still studied today. 37
Philo’s compendium of mechanical works ranged from siege towers to
theatrical machines, and he designed a host of devices and automata.
Most of his treatises have been lost, but the plans and instructions were
preserved in later sources, by Heron and Islamic writers. 38 We’ve already
met Philo’s version of the god Hephaestus’s robotic assistants, a realistic
life- size serving maid with the ability to pour a cup of wine and then