A. B. Cook
1914
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NOTE |
David Childress claims in Technology of the Gods (2000) that the mythic figure of Talos, a bronze giant who protected Crete, is an android robot. Or, rather, he asked whether it was possible: “The metallic creature appeared, threatening to crush the ship Argo with rocks, if they drew near. A robot?” (p. 92). The year before, Erich von Däniken simply asserted that the bronze man was “the Talos robot” or “the robot Talos” (Odyssey of the Gods, pp. 58, 59, 61, 93). In his monumental study of Zeus (vol. 1, 1914), A. B. Cook examined the Talos myth and explained in great detail its origin. Cook also was the first to propose that the details that ancient astronaut writers read as clues to Talos' robotic origin were actually derived from the "lost wax" bronze casting technique.
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THE SUN AS A BRONZE MAN
I. Talos in Crete
We pass next from the theriomorphic to the anthropomorphic conception of the sun. The transition is best seen in the case of the Cretan Talos. His name, according to Hesychios, denoted 'the Sun'; and he was commonly described as a bronze man. Apollodoros, however, to whom we owe the most detailed account of him, writes: 'He was a man of bronze, but others describe him as a bull.' Talos, therefore, 'the Sun/ being regarded sometimes as a bull, more often as a man, fittingly illustrates the aforesaid transition of ideas.
Talos belonged to the bronze generation, or was given by Hephaistos to Minos, or was made by Hephaistos and given by Zeus to Europe. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles: the vein was closed at its end by a bronze nail thrust through it. Thrice a day this bronze man ran round the island of Crete as its guardian. When the Argonauts wished to put in there, Talos observed them and flung stones at them. But he was slain by the guile of Medeia, who drove him mad, some said, by her potions, while others maintained that she promised to make him immortal and then pulled out his nail so that all the ichor flowed forth from him and he died. A third version said that he was shot in the ankle by Poias and thus came by his death.
Silver coins of Phaistos, struck in the fourth century B.C., exhibit Talos as a youthful winged figure striding towards the left; he hurls one stone with his right hand and holds another ready in his left: the reverse type is that of a charging bull. Third-century bronze coins of the same town show Talos in a similar attitude hurrying to the right: the reverse here has a hound on the scent, probably the golden hound of Crete. The resemblance of the stone-throwing Talos on coins of Phaistos to the stone-throwing Minotaur on coins of Knossos is noticeable: the stones in either case may represent suns, or stars, and such may have been the original significance of the stone-throwing Kyklops of the eastern and western islands, though other interpretations are equally possible and perhaps more probable.
A magnificent kratér with volute-handles, found in the nekropolis of Ruvo and now in the Jatta collection, represents the death of Talos. This vase is of special interest to the mythologist, because it appears to depict a form of the story not otherwise preserved to us. The Argonauts have reached the Cretan coast. Zetes and Kalai's are seen still on board their vessel. But a landing-ladder is put out from her stern across the water, which is suggested by a dolphin. A young hero, shrinking back in alarm from the central scene, springs up the ladder. On shore Kastor and Polydeukes with their horses have already pursued and caught Talos 8 . Polydeukes grasps him, still attempting to run, within the circle of Medeia's magic spells. Medeia herself stands by, fixing her victim with her evil eye, while she holds a basket full of potent herbs and mutters her fatal formula. Talos, overcome despite himself, falls backwards in a swoon. The nymph Krete flees in terror at the death of her watcher. Above her, in the background, appear Poseidon and Amphitrite as patrons of Argonautic prowess.
Talos belonged to the bronze generation, or was given by Hephaistos to Minos, or was made by Hephaistos and given by Zeus to Europe. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles: the vein was closed at its end by a bronze nail thrust through it. Thrice a day this bronze man ran round the island of Crete as its guardian. When the Argonauts wished to put in there, Talos observed them and flung stones at them. But he was slain by the guile of Medeia, who drove him mad, some said, by her potions, while others maintained that she promised to make him immortal and then pulled out his nail so that all the ichor flowed forth from him and he died. A third version said that he was shot in the ankle by Poias and thus came by his death.
Silver coins of Phaistos, struck in the fourth century B.C., exhibit Talos as a youthful winged figure striding towards the left; he hurls one stone with his right hand and holds another ready in his left: the reverse type is that of a charging bull. Third-century bronze coins of the same town show Talos in a similar attitude hurrying to the right: the reverse here has a hound on the scent, probably the golden hound of Crete. The resemblance of the stone-throwing Talos on coins of Phaistos to the stone-throwing Minotaur on coins of Knossos is noticeable: the stones in either case may represent suns, or stars, and such may have been the original significance of the stone-throwing Kyklops of the eastern and western islands, though other interpretations are equally possible and perhaps more probable.
A magnificent kratér with volute-handles, found in the nekropolis of Ruvo and now in the Jatta collection, represents the death of Talos. This vase is of special interest to the mythologist, because it appears to depict a form of the story not otherwise preserved to us. The Argonauts have reached the Cretan coast. Zetes and Kalai's are seen still on board their vessel. But a landing-ladder is put out from her stern across the water, which is suggested by a dolphin. A young hero, shrinking back in alarm from the central scene, springs up the ladder. On shore Kastor and Polydeukes with their horses have already pursued and caught Talos 8 . Polydeukes grasps him, still attempting to run, within the circle of Medeia's magic spells. Medeia herself stands by, fixing her victim with her evil eye, while she holds a basket full of potent herbs and mutters her fatal formula. Talos, overcome despite himself, falls backwards in a swoon. The nymph Krete flees in terror at the death of her watcher. Above her, in the background, appear Poseidon and Amphitrite as patrons of Argonautic prowess.
II. Talos in Sardinia
Two different versions of the Talos-myth are attributed to Simonides. On the one hand, he is said to have stated that Talos before coming to Crete had dwelt in Sardinia, where he had destroyed many persons, that they grinned when they died, and that this was the origin of the expression a 'sardonic smile.' On the other hand, Simonides is reported to have affirmed that, when the Sardinians tried to cross the sea to Minos, Talos, being wrought of bronze by Hephaistos, sprang into a fire, clasped them to his breast, and slew them gaping. Both versions agree in connecting Talos with the Sardinians.
The matter was sufficiently sensational to appeal to the imagination of the later Greeks, and further information is forthcoming. Demon the antiquarian c. 300 B.C. stated in a work On Proverbs that the Sardinians, being settlers from Carthage, on certain days sacrificed to Kronos not only the handsomest of their captives but also such of their own elders as were above seventy years of age, and that the victims were expected to welcome their fate and even to laugh, tears being regarded as base and cowardly. Timaios the Sicilian historian, a contemporary of Demon, informs us that the Sardinians, when their parents grow old, bring them to the burial-ground, seat them on the edge of pits dug for the purpose, and push them over, every man beating his own father with a stick of cleft wood; further, that the old folk went to their death with cheerfulness and laughter — a fact which occasioned the Greek dictum. Lastly, Kleitarchos, who is probably to be identified with Kleitarchos of Aigina, author of a famous geographical Lexicon (first century A.D. or earlier), has yet another explanation of the proverb to offer. He states that the Phoenicians in general and the Carthaginians in particular worshipped Kronos. If they desired to obtain of him some great favour, they vowed to present him with one of their children. A bronze statue of the god stood with its hands held out over a bronze furnace. In the embrace of this statue the child perished miserably. The flame licked its body, shrivelled its limbs, and distorted its mouth into a ghastly semblance of a smile.
The foregoing accounts show that the Cretan sun-god Talos was by some authorities at least identified with the Phoenician Kronos, a form of the Semitic deity El. The identification was perhaps facilitated by another point of resemblance. Talos was sometimes regarded as a bull; and his likeness to the Minotaur suggests that in process of time he had become bull-headed, a god half theriomorphic, half anthropomorphic. But the Phoenician deity too, according to Rabbinic authors, had a bovine head. Identification was almost inevitable. Indeed, the two gods may have been strictly analogous.
Excavations now in progress beneath the ancient church of Santa Anastasia in southern Sardinia are said to have disclosed a large subterranean temple with a spring locally known as the 'Fount of Pains,' sacred images, and mural decorations. These indicate the worship of an earth goddess, and the prevalence of bull worship, as there is a ponderous statue in basalt of a male divinity with a bull head. Was this the Sardinian Talos?
The matter was sufficiently sensational to appeal to the imagination of the later Greeks, and further information is forthcoming. Demon the antiquarian c. 300 B.C. stated in a work On Proverbs that the Sardinians, being settlers from Carthage, on certain days sacrificed to Kronos not only the handsomest of their captives but also such of their own elders as were above seventy years of age, and that the victims were expected to welcome their fate and even to laugh, tears being regarded as base and cowardly. Timaios the Sicilian historian, a contemporary of Demon, informs us that the Sardinians, when their parents grow old, bring them to the burial-ground, seat them on the edge of pits dug for the purpose, and push them over, every man beating his own father with a stick of cleft wood; further, that the old folk went to their death with cheerfulness and laughter — a fact which occasioned the Greek dictum. Lastly, Kleitarchos, who is probably to be identified with Kleitarchos of Aigina, author of a famous geographical Lexicon (first century A.D. or earlier), has yet another explanation of the proverb to offer. He states that the Phoenicians in general and the Carthaginians in particular worshipped Kronos. If they desired to obtain of him some great favour, they vowed to present him with one of their children. A bronze statue of the god stood with its hands held out over a bronze furnace. In the embrace of this statue the child perished miserably. The flame licked its body, shrivelled its limbs, and distorted its mouth into a ghastly semblance of a smile.
The foregoing accounts show that the Cretan sun-god Talos was by some authorities at least identified with the Phoenician Kronos, a form of the Semitic deity El. The identification was perhaps facilitated by another point of resemblance. Talos was sometimes regarded as a bull; and his likeness to the Minotaur suggests that in process of time he had become bull-headed, a god half theriomorphic, half anthropomorphic. But the Phoenician deity too, according to Rabbinic authors, had a bovine head. Identification was almost inevitable. Indeed, the two gods may have been strictly analogous.
Excavations now in progress beneath the ancient church of Santa Anastasia in southern Sardinia are said to have disclosed a large subterranean temple with a spring locally known as the 'Fount of Pains,' sacred images, and mural decorations. These indicate the worship of an earth goddess, and the prevalence of bull worship, as there is a ponderous statue in basalt of a male divinity with a bull head. Was this the Sardinian Talos?
III. Talos and the Bronze-founders' Art
It is tempting to explain certain traits in the myth of Talos along rationalistic lines. The single vein running from his neck to his ankles and closed by a bronze nail thrust through it vividly recalls the cire perdue method of hollow-casting in bronze, a process which was invented at a remote period and lasted throughout the whole history of Greek art. A rough model in clay or plaster, carefully coated with wax, was worked over by the sculptor till it satisfied him in every detail. The whole was next covered with a thin slip of finely powdered pottery. This was followed by other layers of increasing thickness and coarseness, which together formed the outer, mould. The shapeless mass was then exposed to a furnace or lowered into a pit with a fire at the bottom. The wax, thus melted, ran out through triangular holes left in the exterior. Bronze rods half an inch square in section had been stuck through the wax into the core and allowed to project like pins in a pin-cushion. These now held the outer and inner moulds apart. Into the intervening space molten bronze was poured through a hole in each foot of the statue, thereby taking the place of the wax driven out by the heat. Ultimately, when the figure had cooled, the outer mould was chipped away, the ends of the bronze rods cut smooth, the core extracted through the soles of the feet, and the whole surface touched up with minute accuracy. In this technical process the hollow from head to heel, pierced with its bronze pins, was — one may suspect — the fact underlying the fiction of Talos’ vein. Perhaps, too, the fiery pit into which the mould was lowered explains Simonides’ statement that Talos sprang into a fire.
IV. Talos at Athens
The Athenian myth of Talos likewise connected him with various advances in the mechanical arts. It was he who invented the compasses and the potter's wheel. And we may note in passing that a contrivance for describing a circle or a machine consisting in a rotatory disk was naturally attributed to one who, as the Sun, was himself at once circular and discoidal. Indeed, if we may trust an obscure passage in Servius, Talos was actually called by some Circinus or 'Compass.' Less obvious is his recorded discovery of the saw. Latin authors state that he copied the back-bone of a fish. But the Greeks declared that he got the idea from the jaw of a snake. Be that as it may, the Athenian Talos stood in some relation to the snake. For Daidalos, his mother's brother, jealous of a younger rival, pushed him over the edge of the Akropolis, and later, when asked whom he was burying, replied 'A snake.' Possibly, too, though this is the merest conjecture, his relation to the snake is responsible for the fact that he was often called Kálos, not Tálos. The change, which is contrary to the known laws of phonetics, must be due to folk-etymology of some sort. Now in northern India a snake is, for superstitious reasons, habitually called a 'string' or a 'rope': for example, if a snake bites you, you should not mention its name, but remark 'A 'rope has touched me'! If, therefore, Talos was in any sense a snake, he might be euphemistically called kálos, a ' rope.'
Latin authors narrate that, when Daidalos flung his nephew to the ground, the youth was in mid air changed by Athena into a partridge. In fact, they commonly call him Perdix, or 'Partridge,' not Talos. The name was applied to him by the Greeks as early as the fifth century B.C.; for it occurs in a play of Sophokles. According to a version preserved by the Greek lexicographers, Perdix was the mother of Talos or Kalos, who, when he was killed, hanged herself and was honoured at Athens with a sanctuary beside the Akropolis. Since the grave of Talos or Kalos was on the way from the theatre to the Akropolis, it is likely that the sanctuary and the grave were close together. The myth of Talos transformed by Athena into a partridge was probably popular in Periclean Athens. For a curious historical echo of 'it has been detected by L. Mercklin. During the erection of the Propylaia on the Akropolis the best of the workmen missed his footing and fell. When Perikles was discouraged by this accident, Athena appeared to him in a dream and prescribed a remedy, by means of which Perikles speedily cured the man. He commemorated the event by erecting on the Akropolis a bronze statue of Hygieia Athena, or 'Health' Athena, by the side of an already existing altar. So much we learn from Plutarch. Pliny completes the story, though with material differences throughout. A favourite slave of Perikles — he says — was building a temple on the Akropolis, when he fell from the top of the pediment. Athena showed herself to Perikles in a dream and prescribed the herb perdicium, the 'partridge-plant,' which in honour of herself was thenceforward known as parthenium, the 'Virgin's-plant.' Pliny adds that the portrait of this same slave was cast in bronze and served for the famous statue of the splanchnóptes or 'entrail-roaster.' Whatever the details of the occurrence may have been, it seems clear that the prescription of the 'partridge-plant ' was due to a reminiscence of Talos' transformation into a partridge.
But why this connection between Talos and a partridge? On bird-metamorphoses in general I have elsewhere said my say. Here it must suffice to observe that the partridge in particular was notorious for its generative propensities. Hence it was regarded as sacred to Aphrodite. And the same reason will account for its association with Talos, who, as being the Sun, was essentially a fertilising power.
A remarkable variant of the Perdix story is preserved by the Latin mythographers. Perdix, the inventor of the saw, fell in love with his own mother Polykaste and pined away because of her. Fenestella, who wrote his Annals in the reign of Tiberius, commented on this myth: According to him, Perdix was a hunter, who tired of the chase, especially as he observed that his young comrades Aktaion, Adonis, and Hippolytos all came to a bad end. He therefore abandoned his life as a hunter and devoted himself to agriculture. Hence he was said to have loved his mother, i.e. Mother Earth, and to have pined away, i.e. to have worn himself thin over her. Her name Polykaste might be spelled Polykarpe and rendered the ' Very Fruitful One.' As for the saw, that denoted the harsh tongue with which he abused his former occupation. Fenestella's rationalism is of course absurd. Nevertheless his account appears to contain elements that are far older than the rise of rationalism. Perdix, who loved Polykaste, variously identified with Mother Earth or the Mother of the gods or Diana — Perdix, who is expressly compared with Aktaion, Adonis, and Hippolytos, an ill-fated trio — Perdix, who dreaded the dangers of a woodland life, is a figure ominously like the human favourite or partner of more than one ancient goddess. His love for Polykaste was, as Claudian says, inspired by herself. And there is perhaps a special significance in the fact that her lover bore the name of a bird, of that bird which was ' the plaything of the daughter of Zeus and Leto.'
Latin authors narrate that, when Daidalos flung his nephew to the ground, the youth was in mid air changed by Athena into a partridge. In fact, they commonly call him Perdix, or 'Partridge,' not Talos. The name was applied to him by the Greeks as early as the fifth century B.C.; for it occurs in a play of Sophokles. According to a version preserved by the Greek lexicographers, Perdix was the mother of Talos or Kalos, who, when he was killed, hanged herself and was honoured at Athens with a sanctuary beside the Akropolis. Since the grave of Talos or Kalos was on the way from the theatre to the Akropolis, it is likely that the sanctuary and the grave were close together. The myth of Talos transformed by Athena into a partridge was probably popular in Periclean Athens. For a curious historical echo of 'it has been detected by L. Mercklin. During the erection of the Propylaia on the Akropolis the best of the workmen missed his footing and fell. When Perikles was discouraged by this accident, Athena appeared to him in a dream and prescribed a remedy, by means of which Perikles speedily cured the man. He commemorated the event by erecting on the Akropolis a bronze statue of Hygieia Athena, or 'Health' Athena, by the side of an already existing altar. So much we learn from Plutarch. Pliny completes the story, though with material differences throughout. A favourite slave of Perikles — he says — was building a temple on the Akropolis, when he fell from the top of the pediment. Athena showed herself to Perikles in a dream and prescribed the herb perdicium, the 'partridge-plant,' which in honour of herself was thenceforward known as parthenium, the 'Virgin's-plant.' Pliny adds that the portrait of this same slave was cast in bronze and served for the famous statue of the splanchnóptes or 'entrail-roaster.' Whatever the details of the occurrence may have been, it seems clear that the prescription of the 'partridge-plant ' was due to a reminiscence of Talos' transformation into a partridge.
But why this connection between Talos and a partridge? On bird-metamorphoses in general I have elsewhere said my say. Here it must suffice to observe that the partridge in particular was notorious for its generative propensities. Hence it was regarded as sacred to Aphrodite. And the same reason will account for its association with Talos, who, as being the Sun, was essentially a fertilising power.
A remarkable variant of the Perdix story is preserved by the Latin mythographers. Perdix, the inventor of the saw, fell in love with his own mother Polykaste and pined away because of her. Fenestella, who wrote his Annals in the reign of Tiberius, commented on this myth: According to him, Perdix was a hunter, who tired of the chase, especially as he observed that his young comrades Aktaion, Adonis, and Hippolytos all came to a bad end. He therefore abandoned his life as a hunter and devoted himself to agriculture. Hence he was said to have loved his mother, i.e. Mother Earth, and to have pined away, i.e. to have worn himself thin over her. Her name Polykaste might be spelled Polykarpe and rendered the ' Very Fruitful One.' As for the saw, that denoted the harsh tongue with which he abused his former occupation. Fenestella's rationalism is of course absurd. Nevertheless his account appears to contain elements that are far older than the rise of rationalism. Perdix, who loved Polykaste, variously identified with Mother Earth or the Mother of the gods or Diana — Perdix, who is expressly compared with Aktaion, Adonis, and Hippolytos, an ill-fated trio — Perdix, who dreaded the dangers of a woodland life, is a figure ominously like the human favourite or partner of more than one ancient goddess. His love for Polykaste was, as Claudian says, inspired by herself. And there is perhaps a special significance in the fact that her lover bore the name of a bird, of that bird which was ' the plaything of the daughter of Zeus and Leto.'
V. Talos Identified with Zeus
Talos the 'Sun' was in Crete identified with Zeus. A Hesychian gloss explains the epithet Talaios to mean 'Zeus in Crete.' And that this gloss is trustworthy appears from more than one Cretan inscription. The inhabitants of Dreros in eastern Crete swore by a series of deities including Zeus Tallaios and Helios to oppose the inhabitants of Lyttos. At Olous too, a town close to Dreros, there was a sanctuary of Zeus Tallaios, where a decree inviting Knossos to arbitrate between Lato and Olous was set up, as was also a decree in honour of a certain physician from the island of Kasos, who had helped the Olontians in time of plague. Coins of Olous, struck in the latter part of the fourth century B.C., have as their obverse type a head of Britomartis with fillet, bay-wreath, necklace and quiver, and as their reverse Zeus enthroned with an eagle on his right hand, a sceptre in his left. Perhaps the same deity was worshipped on Mount Ide; for a versified inscription, found near Retimo at the foot of the mountain, records a dedication to Hermes 'established on the Tallaian heights,' and we know that the mountain as a whole was famous for its cult of Zeus.
As in Crete, so in Lakonia, Talos the sun-god came to be identified with Zeus. Mount Taletón, the culminating peak of Mount Taygeton, was sacred to the Sun, and amongst the sacrifices there offered to him were horses. It would appear, therefore, that the Laconians too had a sun-god akin to Talos. But Zeus, whose worship spread by degrees over most of the mountain-tops of Greece, naturally usurped the position of this ancient deity. A Spartan inscription links together Zeus Taletitas with Auxesia and Damoia. These were goddesses of fertility, and Zeus Taletitas was presumably coupled with them as being himself a fertilising force.
As in Crete, so in Lakonia, Talos the sun-god came to be identified with Zeus. Mount Taletón, the culminating peak of Mount Taygeton, was sacred to the Sun, and amongst the sacrifices there offered to him were horses. It would appear, therefore, that the Laconians too had a sun-god akin to Talos. But Zeus, whose worship spread by degrees over most of the mountain-tops of Greece, naturally usurped the position of this ancient deity. A Spartan inscription links together Zeus Taletitas with Auxesia and Damoia. These were goddesses of fertility, and Zeus Taletitas was presumably coupled with them as being himself a fertilising force.
