Platonic Astronomy and the Development of Ancient Sphairopoiia

Abstract Plato’s views on astronomy are still somehow debated, however various scholars have associated his name with the project of “saving the appearances”, which is thought to have aimed at offering a precise geometrical account of celestial motions. A passage from Theon of Smyrna’s treatise on Platonic mathematics relates this project with the construction of mechanical models of the cosmos. New information deriving from the study of the so-called Antikythera mechanism, found nearly 100 years ago in an ancient shipwreck in the Aegean, seems to provide important technical evidence illustrating the evolution of this endeavour during the Hellenistic period.