Note 894 — Chapter V · ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE AND MAGIC: VITRUVIUS, HERO, AND THE GREEK ALCHEMISTS

But perhaps this is a medieval interpolation in the nature of a crude Christian attempt to depict “the firmament in the midst of the waters” (Genesis, I, 6). However, it also somewhat resembles the universe of the Greek philosopher, Leucippus, who “made the earth a hemisphere with a hemisphere of air above, the whole surrounded by the supporting crystal sphere which held the moon. Above this came the planets, then the sun”—Orr (1913), p. 63 and Fig. 13. See also K. Tittel, “Das Weltbild bei Heron,” in Bibl. Math. (1907-1908), pp. 113-7.