Talos Bronze Automaton Guardian Crete

Talos Bronze Automaton Guardian Crete

In Greek mythology, Talos was a giant bronze automaton, a kind of robot, who guarded the island of Crete by running around its shores and hurling huge boulders at pirate ships and other unwanted visitors. Ancient accounts describe him as a living statue forged by Hephaestus and given to Minos or Europa, with a single vein of ichor sealed at his ankle as his only weakness. Later retellings calculate that if he circled Crete three times a day, he would need to move at around 150 miles per hour, and some modern versions even give him boiling hot breath that could burn hostile ships before they reached the beach. In the end, Talos died when an archer pierced that ankle vein, causing his life fluid to pour out.

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