[dansmerino]

So the classic Zelda & Co puzzle to open a door by starting a fire on an altar it is entirely possible with ancient technology.

[bee_rider]

Yep! The ancient Greeks had essentially a really basic steam engine. It is not really a device that you can get much useful work out of though. It isn’t 100% known why they made them, people have speculated that they just did it as a novelty or conversation piece.

Actually it seems like a totally plausible idea to put one in a temple and use it to impress people, which is pretty close to the Zelda application (of course in the game, temples are also puzzles).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile