Acknowledgements

In 2015, the five Teubner volumes of Hero of Alexandria’s works were gifted to me by Eric Csapo. It was a gesture characteristic both of his generosity and of his scholarly sagacity. It is thanks to Eric that, as an MPhil student, I started to think about the cultural life of ancient automata, and he has helped, read, emailed, and chatted all the way through.

When I wanted to expand the project beyond automata to ancient technology and religion, Robin Osborne saw some potential in the topic through the mess of a proposal that landed in his inbox from down under. Robin was a kind and generous, sharp and scrupulous doctoral supervisor. Since then, he has proven himself to be unfailingly enthusiastic about rereading endless variations on a theme. Above all, Robin pushed me from our first face-to-face encounter to think about what kind of scholar I wanted to be, and that has been some great advice.

Verity Platt and Rebecca Flemming were thorough, kind, honest, patient, and giving as examiners. They absorbed the topic and re-digested it to me in the most useful ways. I am especially grateful for how they hosted a friendly, productive viva, which allowed for discussion about the dissertation and what could lie beyond. My time as the Moses and Mary Finley Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge was crucial to writing the book, and an all-round wonderful, formative experience. The final version of the book owes a lot to the critiques, sharp eyes, and fair judgement of Cambridge University Press’ anonymous reviewers.

Albert Bates, Sylvia Berryman, Gabor Betegh, Tallulah Bur, Barbara Carè, Eric Csapo, Maya Feile-Tomes, Yannis Galanakis, Maria Gerolemou, Francesco Grillo, Daniel Hanigan, Richard Hunter, Rebecca Laemmle, Geoffrey Lloyd, Karen ní Mheallaigh, Maya Muratov, Reviel Netz, Lea Niccolai, Tulsi Parikh, Alessio Santoro, Cédric Scheidegger Laemmle, Richard Seaford, Hugo Shakeshaft, Estelle Strazdins, Caroline Vout, and Colin Webster all read and/or discussed parts of the book with me, forcing me to defend and helping me to refine my arguments. Ben O’Hagan and Jemima McPhee helped the manuscript over the finish line.

The Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney supported me in undertaking the PhD abroad, and Ben Brown, Bob Cowan, Ely Cowan, Julia Kindt, Paul Roche, Anne Rogerson, Kathryn Welch, and Peter Wilson, as well as Alastair Blanshard (now from a bit further away), have always received me with open arms whether to give a paper or to visit with a baby in tow. I feel very lucky to have counted on Julia Kindt for her knowledge of the ancient world, consistent support, optimism, friendship, and wise advice since my undergraduate years. The Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge as well as Trinity College, Cambridge offered extra financial assistance over the course of the PhD, also allowing me to present my work at the University of Vienna, the University of Exeter, the University of St Andrews, and King’s College London, and to spend valuable time in Greece in 2018.

In its final stages, the book benefitted from the experience, efficiency, and professionalism of Katie Idle, Michael Sharp, and the team at Cambridge University Press, as well as financial support from the Classics Endowment Fund of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University, where I am now based , living and working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. As it turns out, the ANU department came equipped with a top-notch crew of colleagues: Caillan Davenport, Tom Geue, Simona Martorana, Meaghan McEvoy, Elizabeth Minchin, Georgia Pike-Rowney, and Estelle Strazdins make day-to-day fun. Anna-Sophie Jürgens introduced me to science communication and showed me how to make science go pop.

The book has two human siblings, Ayala and Soah, and I have had help in navigating pregnancies, maternity leaves, and motherhood through postgraduate studies, and postdoctoral and early-career life thanks to the wisdoms and interventions of Rosa Andújar, Barbara Caine, Agnieszka Echolc, Emily Gowers, Julia Kindt, Rebecca Laemmle, Jane Marks, Thomas Nulley-Valdés, Rosanna Omitowoju, Lucyna Prochnicka, and Kathryn Welch. An extra note of thanks must go to the University of Sydney for financially supporting my maternity leave round one; Darwin College supported round two.

I am grateful to those with whom I spent time in the air to keep me grounded: Lola Panozzo and Olga Plocienniczak in Cambridge; Kalile Lima and the Integral Aerial family in Sydney. Thanks are due also to Mariana Ricciardi and Salt Studio in Ericeira. Jamie Armitage, Guillaume de Boyer-Montegut, Jinny Dawson, Maya Feile Tomes, Tara Foord, Ollie Francis, Sasha Haco, Katie Keeling, James McDougall, Tulsi Parikh, and David Woodman have been incredible friends.

Finally, Sylvie, Christophe, Tallulah, and Cyril Bur have been sounding boards at every stage. I want to thank them for their unconditional love and for helping me to keep perspective. My biggest debt of gratitude goes to Diogo Godoy Amaral for his selflessness, compassion, and love, whose superhuman solo-parenting efforts got us through the COVID19 crisis in the first instance, and whose cheeky (and slightly relentless) ‘is the book done yet?’ was only ever an offer to pick up (even) more slack at home.