Machines powered by human or animal muscle, by water, by air, by steam, and by falling weights were employed in Greek and Roman agriculture, quarries and mines, manufacturing establishments, service businesses and homes, either to make tasks easier to perform or allow them to be performed at all. Knowledge about them was formed and disseminated in writing. Known books on machinery include those written by Agesistratos, Arkhimedes, Arkhutas, Demokles, Diphilos, Diades, Ktesibios, Kharias, Numphodoros, Philon of Byzantion, Poluidos and Purrhos.

The Antikythera Mechanism may be sidelined by skeptics as highly unusual but that cannot be said of other ancient machines. The pragmatic deployment of mechanical aids in ordinary life is attested in various domains. For example, orthopedics is a transparent branch of medicine, insofar as it is not hard to identify a dislocated joint or fractured limb, and good words and placebos are not enough to restore function. Brute force is required. Since Hippokrates’ time that force was typically supplied either by a couple of strong assistants or by machines that stretched the human frame to allow the doctor to manipulate the bones back into place. The Hippocratic bench was joined by other mechanisms large and small, often bearing the name of their developer, such as Andreas’ engine, Pasikrates’ spanner, and Aristion’s chest. Nymphodoros’ chest, an endless screw mechanism in a little box, enabled doctors to exert and control significant force with little fuss and less display.

Machines for moving and lifting loads took priority over machines for war and entertainment in Philon’s Mechanical Compendium of ca 200 bce. Heron chose not to describe “many kinds of presses that have been in use in great numbers for a long time among the common people” because they were less effective than the lever and screw presses that he did discuss and analyze (Mechanics 3.20); clearly there was more variety on the ground than is recorded in his work, as we should expect of any technology. His rhetoric may be misleading, but effectiveness was his declared priority, which refutes a common modern presumption that ancient authors on mechanics attended to the theoretically most complicated or novel devices.