Archytas

Archytas was a representative of the Pythagorean school and a close friend of Plato. His teacher was Philolaus and his pupil Eudoxos of Knidus.

Although Archytas was a philosopher, he is considered the founder of mechanics, thanks to his writing "Mechanica", of which he is probably the author. He defined the term "harmonic mean" or dealt with the duplication of the cube. In mathematics, the "Archytas curve" is named after him. Moreover, Aulus Gellius claims that Archytas designed and built the first artificial self-propelled flying machine. It was supposed to be a model of a bird, probably powered by steam, which could fly as far as 200 metres.

A crater on the moon is named after Archytas.