Dr Tatiana Bur wants us to view technology the way the ancient Greeks did: as a marvel, not just a tool.

Before Dr Tatiana Bur became an ancient Greek historian, she felt torn between two worlds.  

Growing up in Australia after spending her early childhood in France, she fell in love with classical antiquity in the history classroom, captivated by the comedies and tragedies of Greek drama.   

But even as the humanities became her intellectual refuge, there was something fascinating about the natural sciences that always nudged her curiosity.

By the time she began her master’s research, Bur was already exploring ways these often held apart disciplines might intersect.

A trip to Greece helped crystallise her ideas.

Standing at the Sanctuary of Asklepios in the city of Epidaurus, she drank in the beauty of one of the best-preserved theatres of the ancient world.

“This fourth-century BCE theatre is attached to a larger site that once served as a sanctuary to Asklepios, the god of medicine,” Bur says. 

“The Greeks would go there to practice something known as ‘incubation’, a ritual where they would sleep overnight in the site hoping the god would heal them.”

In this breathtaking enclave, ancient pilgrims carved inscriptions into stones and plaques –testimonies of miracles, cures, and therapies that transformed their lives and that today enrich our understanding of ancient medicine, and of ancient religion.

Witnessing these historical remnants was a eureka moment for Bur: a realisation that her passion for classical culture and her interest in science could, in fact, coexist.

“It helped me see that there was no division in antiquity between these things. The divide between science and humanities is such an artificial construct of the European university system,” she says.  

Her latest monograph, Technologies of the Marvellous in Ancient Greek Religion, is the culmination of that journey combining two worlds.  

In the book, the ANU Centre for Classical Studies researcher explores how Greek gods were not distant figures perched on Mount Olympus but active presences in daily life through awe-inspiring, technological devices.

Awe-inspiring is no exaggeration. Millennia before modern robotics, self-moving machines were already a thing, acting as bridges between heaven and earth.

This is an abridged article originally published by ANU Reporter, read the full article here.