Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

, Talos — also spelled Talus (; el, Τάλως, ''Tálōs'') or Talon (; el, Τάλων, ''Tálōn'') — was a giant

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

to protect

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europe * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Clif ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

from pirates and invaders. He circled the island's shores three times daily.

Narrative

Talos is usually said to have been made by Hephaestus at the request of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...

, to protect

from people who would want to kidnap her. (According to B.A. Sparkes (1996), "The most detailed treatment in literature is to be found in the ''

Argonautica The ''Argonautica'' ( el, Ἀργοναυτικά , translit=Argonautika) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''Argonautica'' tells the myth of the voyage of Jas ...

'' rd century BC... however, we have detailed images of the episode, 150 years earlier, dated to around 400 BC." ) According to (pseudo-)Apollodorus, however, there were three theories regarding Talos: # Talos may have been a survivor from the Age of Bronze, a descendant of the brazen race () that sprang from '' meliae'' "ash-tree nymphs" according to ''

'' (The conception that

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

's men of the Age of Bronze were actually made of bronze is extended to men of the age of gold by

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed supersti ...

for humorous effect). # Talos was a brass ''robot'' measuring 30m high, who was forged by the god Hephaestus and was given to

Minos In Greek mythology, Minos (; grc-gre, Μίνως, ) was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten ...

to protect the island of

against the invaders. The island was 260 km long and Talos had to cover this distance 3 times a day. # Talos was a brass ''bull'' who was forged by the god Hephaestus and was given to

The pseudo-Platonic dialogue ''Minos'' rationalized the myth, thrice yearly showing at each village in turn the laws of Minos inscribed on brass tablets. Talos had one vein, which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by only one bronze nail. The '' Argo'', transporting Jason and the

Argonauts The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo ...

, approached Crete after obtaining the Golden Fleece. As guardian of the island, Talos kept the ''Argo'' at bay by hurling great boulders at it. According to (pseudo-)Apollodorus, Talos was slain when

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jaso ...

the sorceress either drove him mad with drugs, or deceived him into believing that she would make him immortal by removing the nail. In ''Argonautica'', Medea hypnotized him from the ''Argo'', driving him mad with the '' keres'' (female death-spirits) that she raised, so that he dislodged the nail, and "the ichor ran out of him like molten lead", exsanguinating and killing him. Translator P. Green, notes that the ''Argonautica''s Talos story is somewhat reminiscent of the story of Achilles' heel.

Variations and interpretations

In the Cretan dialect, ''talôs'' was the equivalent of the Greek ''hêlios'', the Sun: The lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria notes simply "Talos is the Sun".^:126 In Crete, Zeus was worshipped as ''Zeus Tallaios'', "Solar Zeus", absorbing the earlier god as an epithet in the familiar sequence. ''"Zeus Tallaios"'' is discussed in Cook (1964). The god was identified with the ''Tallaia'', a spur of the Ida range in Crete. On a coin from Phaistos he is winged; in Greek vase-paintings and Etruscan bronze mirrors he is not. The ideas of Talos vary widely, with one consistent detail: in Greek imagery outside Crete, Talos is always being vanquished. He seems to have been an enigmatic figure to the Greeks themselves. Talos is described by Greeks in two versions: * In one version, Talos is a gift from Hephaestus to

, forged with the aid of the Cyclopes in the form of a bull. this is the source of the later impression that Talos was an

. * In the other version, Talos is a gift from Zeus to Europa. Or he may have been the son of '' Kres'', the personification of Crete; in ''Argonautica'', Talos threw rocks at any approaching ship to protect his island. In the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

encyclopedia called the ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souida ...

'' (10th century), it is said that according to the Simonides of Keos when the

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

ns did not wish to release Talos to Minos, he heated himself – by jumping into a fire – and clasped them in his embrace. A.B. Cook (1914) first suggested that the single vein closed by a nail or plug referred to the lost-wax method of casting.

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celt ...

— whose interpretation of Greek mythology is controversial among many scholars — suggests that this myth is based on a misinterpretation of an image of

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

demonstrating the lost-wax process of casting steel, which

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdi ...

would have brought to

. In the film '' Jason and the Argonauts'' from 1963, Talos dies in a dramatic way that makes the public wonder if he is a programmed robot or maybe more.Frontisi-Ducroux, Françoise. “Dédale Et Talos. Mythologie Et Histoire Des Techniques.” Revue Historique, vol. 243, no. 2 (494), 1970, pp. 281–296 Alexandre Marcinkowski et Jérôme Wilgaux, « Automates et créatures artificielles d’Héphaïstos : entre science et fiction », Techniques & Culture n ligne 43-44 , 2004

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Talos in the Greek Mythology Link
*Mayor, Adrienne
"The Robot and the Witch: Talos and Medea"
chapter 1 of ''Gods and Robots : Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018. {{Authority control Automata in Greek Mythology Characters in the Argonautica Greek giants Legendary creatures in popular culture Solar gods Cretan characters in Greek mythology Helios

Narrative

Variations and interpretations

See also

Footnotes

References

External links