Talos

InGreek mythology,Talos,also spelledTalus(/ˈteɪlɒs/;^[1]Greek:Τάλως,Tálōs) orTalon(/ˈteɪlɒn,ən/;Greek:Τάλων,Tálōn), was a man ofbronzewho protectedCretefrompiratesandinvaders.Despite the popular idea that he was a giant, no ancient source states this explicitly.^[2]

Narrative

Different literary sources provide a wide variety of accounts of in relation to Talos' role and genealogy. The most popular variant of the myth of Talos is that found in theArgonauticaofApollonius of Rhodes(fl. first half of 3rd century BCE). In this account, Talos is described as being a descendant of thebronze race(χαλκοῦ γένους) who sprang from ash-trees. He is described as being bronze and also invulnerable with the exception of a vein in his ankle which was protected by only a thin layer of skin.

He was given toEuropabyZeusin order to protect Crete, which he does by running around the island three times.^[3]TheArgonautsencounter him on their return voyage after obtaining theGolden Fleece.As theArgoapproached Crete, Talos kept them at bay by hurling great boulders at the ship.Medeathen declares that only she will be able to defeat Talos, which she does by performing a feat of magic from theArgo.Summoning thekeres(female death-spirits), Medea causes Talos to graze his ankle, leading to theichordraining from his body, and thus killing him. In describing his death Apollonius employs a metaphor comparing Talos to 'monstrous pine tree' (πελωρίη πεύκη,pelōriē peukē) being felled, which could be taken to imply a larger-than-human size.^[4]

The Death of Talos depicted on a column krater (Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Sannio Caudino, Montesarchio)

Pseudo-Apollodoruscollected several traditions regarding the origin, form, and death of Talos. In relation to his origin, two theories are given: either he belonged to theRace of Bronze,or he had been given toMinosby Hephaestus (no reason is given). Another two theories are provided regarding his form: he was either a bull or a bronze man. Pseudo-Apollodorus further states that Talos guarded Crete by running around the island three times daily and that he had a single vein running from his neck to his ankles, which was stopped with a bronze nail at the end.^[5]

Pseudo-Apollodorus also gives three variants regarding his death. The first two are at the hands of Medea: either she drove him mad with drugs, or, promising to making him immortal, she pulled the nail from his ankle, which caused the ichor to flow out. The final variant is that he was killed by the ArgonautPoeas,who shot an arrow into his ankle.^[5]

Artistic sources

Artistic sources linking Talos with the Argonauts significantly predate the account of Apollonius.^[6]On threekratersfrom around 400 BCE, his death at the hands of the Argonauts is depicted. Onered-figure vase,now in theJatta National Archaeological Museum,is thename vaseof the Talos Painter. It shows Talos falling backwards, into the arms of theDioskouroi.In order to distinguish his form from that of the other figures on the vase, Talos is painted in white, with details painted in brown and yellow.^[7]To the left stands Medea, holding a bowl, and looking across at Talos. Behind her is the Argo, with two more seated figures, inscribed asZetes and Calais,whilst a third, unnamed figure, disembarks. To the right, the seated figures ofPoseidonandAmphitritelook on. Below them a woman, identified by some as a representation of Crete, and by others as Europa, is shown fleeing from the scene.^[7]

Another vase, fromCaudium(modernMontesarchio), has been identified as depicting the death of Talos.^[8]^[9]A bearded Talos, slightly larger than the other figures, falls to the right, into the arms of the Dioskouroi.^[7]An unnamed youth kneels to the left, tightly holding an implement of some sort with which he is manipulating a small, circular object — potentially a nail — on Talos's ankle.^[10]A woman stands behind the youth, bending down towards him. One arm is obscured, but in the other she holds a bowl.^[7]Behind her stands another unnamed woman. Suggestions as to her identity include a representation of Crete as a nymph or an attendant of Medea's.^[8]^[11]A small, winged, and bearded figure hovers next to Talos's ankle, gesturing closely to the site with the circular object. This figure is probablyThanatos.^[11]

A third, fragmentary vase fromSpinashows the same scene, with a very similar composition to the Motesarchio vase. Talos whose head and feet have not been preserved, is depicted in white, and is falling backwards into the arms of two men, most probably the Dioskouroi.^[7]To his left a crouching female figure, mostly lost but labelled by an inscription as Medea, holds a blade in one hand and a box resting on her knee in the other.^[7]To the right of Talos's lower leg is a small, winged, male figure, stretching his arms as if gesturing to Talos's ankle.^[9]An unnamed female figure stands further to the right, but the head and torso are not preserved. The small figure and the unnamed female figure have sometimes been interpreted asErosandAphroditebut the winged figure is more probably Thanatos and the identification of Aphrodite is unlikely.^[7]^[9]

Talos also appears on three coins from Phaistos dated to theClassicaland earlyHellenisticperiods. He is depicted as a naked winged figure in the act of throwing a stone; on one coin there is a hound between his legs.^[7]The wings have been interpreted by Richard Buxton as a visual representation of the speed which Talos would have to possess in order to rapidly circuit the island of Crete.^[12]

Other variants

Immolation of victims

Discussing the origin of the phrasesardonios gelos(σαρδόνιος γέλως) – 'sardonic laugh' – bothPhotiusin hisLexicon,andZenobiusin hisProverbsciteSimonides(c. 556-468 BCE) for a story which involves Talos.^[13]Photius's summary of the account by Simonides is that someSardinansrefused to take Talos to kingMinosofCrete,in response to which Talos grabbed them and jumped into some flames whilst holding them tight, killing them.Zenobius'ssummary states that Talos lived in Sardinia before going to Crete, and killed many of the inhabitants without mentioning how or why. Not enough remains to establish whether Simonides associated Talos with the Argonauts.^[2]

Talos is also mentioned in two fragments relating to a lostSophocleandrama,Daidalos,the plot of which in unknown.^[14]The fragments indicate that in this source, too, Talos killed his victims by burning them.^[14]Outside of Simonides and Sophocles, no other surviving source mentions this method of execution.^[2]

Cretan lineage

The death of Talos depicted on a VoluteKratercirca 400 BCE (Jatta National Archaeological MuseuminRuvo di Puglia)

In a different tradition, Talos is the son ofCres,the personification of Crete. Hephaestus is his son, andRhadamanthus– a mythical king of Crete – his grandson. This tradition is reported byPausanias,who cites the poetCinaethon of Spartaas his source.^[15]Pausanias states at another point that Talos was one of the sons ofOenopion,without giving a source.^[16]Pausanias gives no details of Talos outside of his genealogy.^[4]

According toAthenaeus,the lyric poetIbycuswrote ofRhadamanthusas the lover of Talos, rather than grandson.^[17]TheSuda,a Byzantine encyclopedia from the tenth-century CE, adds to this that Talos and Rhadamanthus introduced homosexuality to Crete.^[18]

Rationalisation

Aeuhemeristicinterpretation of Talos is provided – along with many others – in theMinos,a dialogue which was attributed toPlatoin antiquity, but which is regarded by most scholars today as being written by someone else.^[19]In this source, Talos is rationalised as a man who guards the laws of Crete by travelling around the villages of the island three times per year at the behest of Minos, in order to show the inhabitants the laws of the city, which were inscribed of tablets of bronze.^[20]^[10]

References

^"Talos".Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
^^a ^b ^cGantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources.The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 365.ISBN 0-8018-4410-X.
^Argonautica4.1638-1644
^^a ^bBuxton, Richard (1998). "The Myth of Talos". In Atherton, Catherine (ed.).Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture.Levante Editori. p. 89.ISBN 887949290X.
^^a ^bpseudo-Apollodorus.Bibliothēkē $Βιβλιοθήκη$ [Library].1.9.26.
^Sparkes, Brian(1996).The Red and the Black: Studies in Greek pottery.Routledge. p. 124.ISBN 0-415-12661-4.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hPapadopoulos, John (1994). "Talos I".Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC).Vol. 7: Oidipous - Theseus. Artemis & Winkler Verlag. pp.834–837.
^^a ^bLesky, A.(1973). "Eine Neue Talos-Vase".Archäologisher Anzeiger.88:115–119.
^^a ^b ^cRobertson, M.(1977). "The death of Talos".Journal of Hellenic Studies.97:158–160.doi:10.2307/631029.JSTOR 631029.S2CID 162062500.
^^a ^bBuxton, Richard (1998). "The Myth of Talos". In Atherton, Catherine (ed.).Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture.Levante Editori. p. 90.ISBN 887949290X.
^^a ^bRobertson, M.(1977). "The death of Talos".Journal of Hellenic Studies.97:159.doi:10.2307/631029.JSTOR 631029.S2CID 162062500.
^Buxton, Richard (1998). "The Myth of Talos". In Atherton, Catherine (ed.).Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture.Levante Editori. p. 91.ISBN 887949290X.
^Simonides 204. inLyrae Graeca.Vol. 2. Translated by Edmonds, John. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. 1924. pp.404–407.
^^a ^bLloyd-Jones, Hugh, ed. (2003).Sophocles Fragments.Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 64.ISBN 0-674-99532-5.
^Pausanias.Description of Greece.8. 53.2–5.
^Pausanias.Description of Greece.7.4.8.
^Ibycus Fragment 32 inEdmonds, J. M., ed. (1924).Lyrae Graeca Vol. 2.Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 101.
^Suda s.v. Theta 41.Θάμυρις.
^Lewis, V. Bardley (September 2006). "Plato's" Minos: "the Political and Philosophical Context of the Problem of Natural Right".The Review of Metaphysics.60(1):17–53.JSTOR 20130738.
^Minos.320c.

[1] "Talos".Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.

[Gantz-2] Gantz, Timothy (1993).Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources.The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 365.ISBN 0-8018-4410-X.

[3] Argonautica4.1638-1644

[buxton-89-4] Buxton, Richard (1998). "The Myth of Talos". In Atherton, Catherine (ed.).Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture.Levante Editori. p. 89.ISBN 887949290X.

[Ps.Apollodorus-5] seudo-Apollodorus.Bibliothēkē $Βιβλιοθήκη$ [Library].1.9.26.

[Sparks=1996-RedBlk-6] Sparkes, Brian(1996).The Red and the Black: Studies in Greek pottery.Routledge. p. 124.ISBN 0-415-12661-4.

[LIMC-7] ^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^hPapadopoulos, John (1994). "Talos I".Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC).Vol. 7: Oidipous - Theseus. Artemis & Winkler Verlag. pp.834–837.

[Lesky-8] Lesky, A.(1973). "Eine Neue Talos-Vase".Archäologisher Anzeiger.88:115–119.

[Robertson-9] Robertson, M.(1977). "The death of Talos".Journal of Hellenic Studies.97:158–160.doi:10.2307/631029.JSTOR 631029.S2CID 162062500.

[Buxton-90-10] Buxton, Richard (1998). "The Myth of Talos". In Atherton, Catherine (ed.).Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture.Levante Editori. p. 90.ISBN 887949290X.

[Robertson-90-11] Robertson, M.(1977). "The death of Talos".Journal of Hellenic Studies.97:159.doi:10.2307/631029.JSTOR 631029.S2CID 162062500.

[12] Buxton, Richard (1998). "The Myth of Talos". In Atherton, Catherine (ed.).Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture.Levante Editori. p. 91.ISBN 887949290X.

[13] Simonides 204. inLyrae Graeca.Vol. 2. Translated by Edmonds, John. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. 1924. pp.404–407.

[sophocles-14] Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, ed. (2003).Sophocles Fragments.Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 64.ISBN 0-674-99532-5.

[15] Pausanias.Description of Greece.8. 53.2–5.

[16] Pausanias.Description of Greece.7.4.8.

[17] Ibycus Fragment 32 inEdmonds, J. M., ed. (1924).Lyrae Graeca Vol. 2.Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press. p. 101.

[18] Suda s.v. Theta 41.Θάμυρις.

[19] Lewis, V. Bardley (September 2006). "Plato's" Minos: "the Political and Philosophical Context of the Problem of Natural Right".The Review of Metaphysics.60(1):17–53.JSTOR 20130738.

[20] Minos.320c.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]