Exploring Johannes Kepler's 'Somnium', the first science fiction story

[Hooke]

https://somniumproject.wordpress.com/somnium/

[IsaacL]

An even older science fiction story from ancient Rome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_History

[coldtea → IsaacL]

Rome? It's the Roman times, alright, but it's by Lucian who was an Assyrian / Greek author (the Mark Twain of his day).

(He was born in the area of the so-called "hellenistic kingdoms", where Greek culture had been established for several centuries after Alexander).

[ashark → IsaacL]

Hephaestus has robot servants in The Iliad. And self-driving cars. (kind of)

[jlcx]

A little bit later, there's this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blazing_World