When I was visiting the Acropolis in Athens, the tour guide told us that the Parthenon was constructed before the invention of the wheel. Can this really be? That was only 2,500 years ago. I always assumed the wheel was a part of very early human development.
Was she correct? And if she wasn’t, what might she have been trying to say?
Tell me about the invention of the wheel!
Well, the ancient Egyptians had wheeled chariots and the like, and that was approximately 4000 years ago.
And Greeks were using wheeled chariots by 2000 BCE, so it’s not true on a local level, either.
ETA: In fact, the war chariot was nearing the end of its life in Greece by the time the Parthenon was built.
We don’t know who first invented the wheel, but (assuming it was a man) his wife undoubtedly yelled at him for making such a mess of the kitchen table, and then the concept was stolen from him by investors while a lynch mob strung him up for being such a smartass. Meanwhile, he went on to develop the compound bow, the autogyro, and the point & click interface, but failed to hire a good IP attorney and died destitute and insane still trying to make toast that falls butter side up.
There is no rest for the noble, only pain and fury.
Stranger
Stranger On A Train - Are you kidding? Everyone knows the wheel was first invented by a neanderthal named Ayla who was raised by Cro-Magnon (other was known as the Clan of the Cave Bear). She invented everything, including domesticating animals and the incandescant bulb.
StG
What makes the tour guide’s claim especially absurd is that the Parthenon’s own frieze itself showed chariots with wheels.
Alya was Cro-Magnon raised by Neandert(h)als not vice versa.
Yeah. I was thinking of many stories in Greek mythology that involve chariots. I have to assume if there were wheels for transportation, there had to be wheels for making labor easier.
What on earth was she talking about?
Who knows? Tour guides will say just about anything. Did she explain how the expression “the whole nine yards” originated at the Parthenon?
That she’s a loyal tour guide who dutifully parrots what she was told in her 45-minute job indoctrination.
On an entirely tangential note, I’m told that there’s great fun to be had in going to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and demanding to see a picture of his wife. “No, his first wife. You know, Jane Wyman. That’s her? In the distance, in a bathing suit, facing away from the camera? You don’t have a better picture of her? Come on, they were married for eight years and raised two children. There has to be more than that.”
I also wanted to put a spelling exhibit in the Dan Quayle Vice-Presidential Library, but now that it’s only open the third Tuesday of alternating months, there isn’t much of a point.
Stranger
I got a kick out of this;
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/0000001.pdf
Almost like someone had a sence of humor.
They reinvented the … and patented it!
Here’s an injection of facts into this GQ thread!
Why did the peoples of the New World fail to invent the wheel?
