Some years ago, while playing “Trivial Pursuit” with friends, we came across a question: Who was the first robot in human history? We missed that question because we didn’t think of Talos! So, our story today is about him.
TALOS was a man of brass made by Hephaestus. He was given to King Minos and his duty was to patrol the island of Crete three times a day. Whenever strangers approached, he made himself red-hot in fire and killed them when they landed. He had only one vein, which ran from the head to the ankles and was closed with a nail. When the Argonauts tried to approach Crete he threw stones at them but Medea, by her magic powers took the nail out of his vein and caused him to bleed to death.
Like all myths, the myth of Talos symbolizes a real event, which is the development of metallurgy in the pre-historic-Minoan years. People then had reached such a high level that they had created in their minds a metal hero who protected them.
Don’t we do the same these days?
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology