MIKKO RAHIKKA

The electrical things have their lives too, paltry as those lives are.

Statue of Archimedes in Syracuse

In October 2026 I spent a week in Syracuse, mainly on the island of Ortigia. Archimedes was visible in quite a few places in the city in various ways. The central square of Ortigia is called Piazza Archimede, there is a large Archimedes spiral at the Belvedere viewpoint, two museums have exhibits about Archimedes and many cafes have Archimedes in their names, there is an area near the Greek amphitheater where Archimedes’ inventions are presented, the Pi statue is a tribute to Archimedes in Piazza Pantheon, etc.

The statue of Archimedes is located between the bridges leading to Ortigia. The statue was erected in 2016 and was designed by sculptor Pietro Marchese. The architect of the project was Virginia Rossello.

The statue stands on a pedestal with 14 pieces, together they form the puzzle of the Stomachion (or Ostomachion) studied by Archimedes.

Bronze statue of a robed man overlooking a waterfront promenade and buildings
Bronze statue on a waterfront plaza surrounded by historic buildings

The statue’s base has 13 symbols and text ”Eureka” attached to it, representing various inventions associated with Archimedes. I leave it to the reader to interpret to which inventions of Archimedes the images relate to.

Bronze statue feet on a base marked “EUREKA”
Blue circle and square outline painted on a concrete floor
Black outline of a cylindrical object painted on a sunlit concrete sidewalk
Sunlit concrete steps with large human shadows and a painted π symbol
Concrete walkway with a dark curved line and intersecting straight line
Black line and upward-pointing triangle painted on a concrete surface
Concrete floor marked with a circular target and two stones near its center, planetary system.
Black geometric sunburst design painted on a tan tiled floor
Metal rod and patterned rectangular object casting shadows on a concrete surface
Black geometric soccer ball outline painted on a concrete surface
Black spiral design painted on a tan tiled floor
Black outline of a drafting compass beside an L-shaped ruler on concrete

Unfortunately, this is a bit inaccurate, but as you can guess, it is related to a physical phenomenon.

Hand-drawn square intersected by a wavy horizontal line
Two outlined interlocking gear symbols painted on a concrete walkway

Archimedes holds a concave mirror in his right hand and a compass in his left hand.

I was a little surprised that the Sand Reckoner article doesn’t refer to the artwork on the pedestal, or maybe I just didn’t realize how the artwork refers to large numbers.

The symbols on the pedestal according to the info table: Law of Buoyancy / Principle of Archimedes (Floating Bodies), Archimedes’ Screw (Coclea), Archimedes’ Spiral, Archimedes’ Planetarium, Squaring the Circle, Burning Mirror, Quadrature of the Parabola, The Lever, Pi (‭‬), Truncated Icosahedron, Toothed Wheels, Mathematical Instruments (Compass and Straightedge) and  Sphere and Cylinder.

sources

Ostomachion in the Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostomachion

Monument of Archimedes
https://aretusapedia.it/scheda/monumento-ad-archimede/

Archimedes in the Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes

Vastaa

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