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Secondary sourcePainting1688

Heron von Alexandria

Unknown · 1688

An imaginary 1688 portrait of Hero of Alexandria from a German edition of his Pneumatica, since no portrait from his lifetime exists.

This imagined 1688 portrait shows how later generations pictured Hero, since no true likeness of him survives.

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Engraved illustration of a bearded man in long robes seated at a table, holding a scroll or open document, with a large vase-like vessel, a small apparatus, and a cylindrical object on the table. Partial printed text appears in the lower right corner.
Imagined portrait of Hero of Alexandria, German edition of the Pneumatica, 1688.

About this source

What it is

This engraving appears in a German edition of Hero of Alexandria's Pneumatica published in 1688. The artist is unknown, and the image shows a bearded man in long robes seated with a scroll, a large vessel and small devices on a table.

Why it matters

No portrait of Hero made during his own lifetime survives, so this image is an invention by an early-modern artist imagining what an ancient engineer might have looked like. It reflects how 17th-century Europeans pictured ancient scientists rather than showing Hero's true appearance.

This tells us about the admiration that later engineers and scholars had for Hero, projecting their own ideas of a scholar-inventor onto him.

Look closer

  • What details in the image suggest the artist wanted to show Hero as a thinker and inventor?
  • Since no real likeness of Hero exists, why might publishers still want to include an imagined portrait?
  • What clues tell you this image was made long after Hero lived?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hero of Alexandria on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Hero of Alexandria sources

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Manuscript page with Greek text in brown ink at top and bottom, and colored line drawings in the middle showing Hero's hydraulic bird-singing apparatus: several birds perched on pipes and arches, a tall cylindrical water vessel, a horizontal tank, and a bell-shaped weight on a chain.Book

Secondary source

Pneumatica

Hero of Alexandria · 1st century AD (this copy later)

Page from a Greek manuscript showing a colored line drawing of a temple-like structure with columns, arches, and a dome-like roof, with hidden tanks and mechanisms below. Greek handwritten text fills the lower part of the page.Book

Secondary source

Automata (Bacchus diagram)

Hero of Alexandria · 1st century AD (this copy later)

Painted miniature from a Greek manuscript: a bearded man with long grey hair in a golden-brown cloak extends his right hand toward the left, beside a dark archway. Red Greek lettering reads 'ΗΡΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟ' beside him.Painting

Secondary source

Hero of Alexandria in the Codex of Saint Gregory Nazianzenos

Unknown author · 9th century AD

Illuminated manuscript page with colored design drawing of a large siege engine or cannon in red, blue, green and tan, with a vertical arrow-like beam at top, surrounded by Greek text in brown ink on parchment.Document

Secondary source

Belopoiika (design drawing of a siege engine)

Hero of Alexandria · 1st century AD (this copy later)

Title page of a 1589 Italian book, engraved in black and white with an ornate architectural border of columns, scrolls and a central medallion. Printed text reads Di Herone Alessandrino De gli automati, ouero Machine se moventi, libri due, tradotti dal greco da Bernardino Baldi, with a small shield reading In Venetia, appresso Girolamo Porro, 1589.Book

Secondary source

De gli automati, ouero Machine se mouenti

Hero : Alexandrinus · 1589

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