The first robot ever described in Greek mythology (around 700 B.C.E.) was Talos, a giant android automaton that was constructed entirely of bronze. Ancient vase painters of the fifth century B.C.E. depicted Talos’s bronze body in the same way — using a yellowish-white color and indicating seams and rivets — that they used to portray the bronze chest armor of hoplite soldiers..

Thank you for sharing this article! A truly well researched and narrated exploration of the intersection of myth-making and our desire for perpetual enhancement through various technologies.

Plato relates that Prometheus was “desperate to find some means of survival for the human race,” so he appropriated the technology of fire from the gods to bestow on puny mortals. With the gift of fire, men and women could make tools and figure out ways to compensate for their pitiful physical shortcomings.