Winged Talos armed with a stone. Silver didrachm from Phaistos, Crete (ca. 300/280-270 BC), obverse. (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)

In the Cretan tales incorporated into Greek mythology, Tálos (Greek Τάλως; Latin Talus) or Tálon (Greek Τάλων) was a giant man of bronze^[1] who protected Europa in Crete, circling the island's shores three times daily^[2] while guarding it. In the Cretan dialect talôs was the equivalent of the Greek hêlios, the sun: the lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria notes simply, "Talos is the sun." In Crete Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Tallaios,^[3] "Solar Zeus", absorbing the earlier god as an epithet in the familiar sequence.^[4] The god was identified with the Tallaia, a spur of the Ida range in Crete. On the coin from Phaistos (illustration) he is winged; in Greek vase-paintings and Etruscan bronze mirrors he is not. Details about Talos vary widely, with one consistent detail: in Greek imagery outside Crete, Talos is always being vanquished:^[5] he seems to have been an enigmatic figure to the Greeks themselves.^[6] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1700x1700, 2016 KB) Description Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Talos Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1700x1700, 2016 KB) Description Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Talos Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used... ISO 4217 Code GRD User(s) Greece Inflation 3. ... Map of Minoan Crete Phaistos (Greek: Φαιστός, Mycenaean: PA-I-TO), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus was an ancient city on the island of Crete. ... For the famous World War II battle, see: Battle of Crete For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... Gold 20-stater of Eucratides I (175-150 BCE), the largest gold coin ever minted in Antiquity. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... This article is not about the daughter of Tityus and mother of Euphemus (by Poseidon), who was also named Europa. ... For the famous World War II battle, see: Battle of Crete For other uses, see Crete (disambiguation). ... page of Marc. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... An epithet (Greek - επιθετον and Latin - epitheton; literally meaning imposed) is a descriptive word or phrase. ... Map of Minoan Crete Phaistos (Greek: Φαιστός, Mycenaean: PA-I-TO), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus was an ancient city on the island of Crete. ...

Talos is described by Greeks as a gift, either a gift from Hephaestus to Minos, forged with the aid of the Cyclopes in the form of a bull^[7] or a gift from Zeus to Europa.^[8] Or he may have been the son of Kres, the personification of Crete;^[9] In Argonautica Talos threw rocks at any approaching ship. In the Byzantine encyclopia, Sudas Talos is said, when the Sardinians did not wish to release him to Minos, to have heated himself red-hot by jumping into a fire and to have clasped them in his embrace.^[10] Hephaestus, Greek god of forging, riding a Donkey; Greek drinking cup (skyphos) made in the 5th century BC Hephaestus (IPA pronunciation: or ; Greek Hêphaistos) was the Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan; he was the god of technology including, specifically blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy, and... Front face of the MINOS far detector. ... Cyclopes may refer to: Silky Anteater plural of Cyclops is a one-eyed monster in Greek mythology. ... The worship of the Sacred Bull throughout the ancient world is most familiar in the episode of the idol of the Golden Calf made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus). ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Sudas is a king from the Rig Veda. ...

Talos had one vein which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by only one bronze nail. The Argo, containing Jason and the Argonauts, approached Crete after obtaining the Golden Fleece. As guardian of the island, Talos kept the Argo at bay by hurling great boulders at it. According to Apollodorus, Talos was slain either when Medea the sorceress drove him mad with drugs, deceived him that she would make him mortal by removing the nail. In Argonautica, Medea hypnotized him from the Argo, driving him mad with the keres she raised, so that he dislodged the nail, and "the ichor ran out of him like molten lead", exsanguinating and killing him. The story is somewhat reminiscent of the story regarding the heel of Achilles. The Argo, painting by Lorenzo Costa In Greek mythology, the Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcus to retrieve the Golden Fleece. ... Jason (Greek: Ιάσων, Etruscan: Easun) was a hero from Greek mythology. ... The Argo, by Lorenzo Costa In Greek mythology, the Argonauts (Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece. ... Jason returns with the golden Fleece on an Apulian red-figure calyx krater, ca. ... Medea by Evelyn De Morgan. ... In Greek mythology, the Keres (singular: Ker) were female death-spirits and sources of evils. ... In Greek mythology, ichor (Greek ) is the mineral that is the Greek gods blood, sometimes said to have been present in ambrosia or nectar. ... The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre) In Greek mythology, Achilles (also Akhilleus or Achilleus) (Ancient Greek: ) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War...

Talos is also the inventive young pupil of Daedalus at Athens, who copied a fishbone for the first saw; Daedalus killed him in jealousy.^[11] Daedalus and Icarus, by Charles Paul Landon, 1799 (Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon) In Greek mythology, Daedalus (Latin, also Hellenized Latin Daedalos, Greek Daidalos (Δαίδαλος) meaning cunning worker, and Etruscan Taitle) was a most skillful artificer, so skillful that he was said to have invented...

Interpretation

A political interpretation of the myth tells that Talos is the Minoan fleet armed with metallic weapons. When the Greeks from the Argo defeat him, the power of Crete vanishes^{[citation needed]}.

Robert Graves (whose interpretation of Greek mythology is controversial among many scholars) suggests that this myth is based on a misinterpretation of a picture of Athena demonstrating the Lost Wax process for casting bronze, which Daedalus brought to Sardinia. Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, scholar, and novelist. ... Helmeted Athena, of the Velletri type. ... This article is about the manufacturing process. ... Daedalus and Icarus, by Charles Paul Landon, 1799 (Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon) In Greek mythology, Daedalus (Latin, also Hellenized Latin Daedalos, Greek Daidalos (Δαίδαλος) meaning cunning worker, and Etruscan Taitle) was a most skillful artificer, so skillful that he was said to have invented... Sardinia (pronounced ; Italian: ; Sardinian: or Sardinnya) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). ...

Later references

• In Book Five of Edmund Spenser's allegorical poem the Faerie Queene, Talus (now made of iron) appears as the law-enforcement sidekick of Artegal, the Knight of Justice.

• In the novel All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, the author originally chose the surname Talos for the character eventually renamed Willie Stark, a Southern governor. The name was intended to highlight the character's protective and yet parasitic relationship with the poor rural 'hicks' who made up his constituency. On the advice of his editor, Warren changed the surname to sound more stereotypically Anglo-American, but a restored version of the novel edited by literary critic Noel Polk and released in 2001 reverted to the original surname of Talos.

• On the Disney animated series Gargoyles, in the second season episode "The New Olympians", modern day descendants of prominent Greek mythical figures set up sanctuary on a remote island. Among them is Talos, or rather a new version of Talos, depicted as a hulking bronze centurion with glowing red eyes inside a faceless helm. The new Talos obviously has upgrades that the elder Talos would have lacked, as seen in one sequence when he threatens Proteus with some sort of laser cannon built into the top of his arm.

• In Valerio Massimo Manfredi's novel Spartan, Talos is the name given to the crippled Spartan child who was exposed in the Taygetus mountains by his father due to Spartan law decreeing all newborns who were weak or disabled be abandoned in the nearby mountain range. When the baby is found by the elderly Helot shepherd he is named after the mythical bronze giant Talos who was said to have his weakness in his right leg. The child's deformity laid within his right leg and hence he was given the name Talos. In addition the name would remind the young boy of his disability in future in order to further compel him to strengthen himself.

• The 1963 film, Jason and the Argonauts, features a detailed stop motion animation sequence of Talos as a bronze giant in battle with the Argonauts. In the film, it is Jason who succeeds in defeating him by prizing the nail from his heel.

• The Bendix RIM-8 Talos was a long-range naval surface-to-air missile, and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships.

• In the Book of the Long Sun novels written by Gene Wolfe, a talos is a simple-minded chemical automaton made from bronze utilising tracks for movement. They were part of the ship's complement of chemical crew that were used to protect areas of the asteroid that the colonists (cargo) inhabited. Some of them were reprogrammed for personal use and protection by the inhabitants and the gods of Mainframe. A more intelligent creation, "Doctor" Talos, is a supporting character in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

• The UN commercial embargo against General Raoul Cedras of Haiti was named Operation TALOS.

• Talos (as Talus) is in the Monster in My Pocket series. He bears a strong resemblance to the likeness in Jason and the Argonauts.

• In the computer game Dark Quest IX, level 14, Danger in Hades, Talos is a huge monster who the player must defeat with Infernal Fire Bolts and Inferno Blasters to pass to the next level, Trouble in Dis.

• In the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000 the Talos is an automaton in the form of a scorpion. It is used as a torture device by the Dark Eldar.

• In Dragon Quest VIII, Talos is the name of a monster that can be captured and placed on a monster team. He looks like the traditional Dragon Quest stone statue, a clear reference to this mythical figure.

• Talos is a "triple iron golem" serving the archdevil Dispater in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Talos is also the name of an evil god of thunder and destruction in the game's Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

• In the Elder Scrolls series, The first emperor of the Cyrodiilic Empire, Tiber Septim, was at one point named Talos. He also used an automaton by the name of Numidium. He would later become one of the Nine Divines.

• Talos is a boss monster in Shining Force II, mistakenly named "Taros", a good example of Engrish. On the combat screen, Talos appears as two legs and a sword moving up and down, because it's too tall to all show.

• The story of Talos may also have inspired the origin of the Japanese anime robot Mazinger Z.

• In Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance Talos appears right at the beginning where Juste has to outrun him until he gets to the castle bridge then later in the game appears as a Boss. The only way he can be hurt is to attack his heel.

• Talos of the Wilderness Sea is a comic by Gil Kane and Jan Strnad.

• In the videogame Spartan: Total Warrior Talos is an automaton sent by the Roman army to destroy the walls of Sparta. The player must defeat him through use of catapults.

• In the MMORPG City of Heroes, Talos was a giant superhero looking something like a minotaur who perished fighting huge monster, which tore cracks in the earth and created an island. A great statue of the hero was erected near there, and the island was named 'Talos Island' in his honor.

• In the children's action/adventure television show, Class of the Titans, the main villain reawakens Talos, casting a protection spell over his ankle bolt to keep it from being removed. Three of the seven heroes come up with a plan and manage to knock Talos into the island volcano.

• In Stargate Atlantis, One of the Asurans is named Talus; a name that is suiting, since Humanoid Replicators, including the Asurans, are Automatons themselves, like the Talos of Greek Mythology.

• The final episodes of the Japanese tokusatsu series Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger featured a gigantic robotic knight called Dora Talos as its central villain.

• In the Justice League episode Paradise Lost, Wonder Woman battles a giant bronze automaton which is guarding an ancient relic. She defeats it by smashing its leg and punching its head off.

• Age of Unreason,the science fiction series by J. Gregory Keyes, features mechanical servants referred to as talos.

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière The Faerie Queene is a poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590 (the first half) with the more or less complete version being published in 1596. ... This article is about the book. ... Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of The New Criticism. ... Valerio Massimo Manfredi (born 1943) is an Italian scholar of archaeology, journalist, TV host, mainly famous as historical novelist. ... Helots were Peloponnesian Greeks who were enslaved under Spartan rule. ... Jason and the Argonauts (1963) is a fictional fantasy adventure movie based upon the characters Jason and the Argonauts of Greek mythology, regarded by many critics as one of the best fantasy films ever made. ... Stop motion is an animation technique which makes things that are static appear to be moving. ... A RIM-8G missile. ... The Book of the Long Sun is a tetralogy by Gene Wolfe, consisting of Nightside the Long Sun, Lake of the Long Sun, Calde of the Long Sun, and Exodus from the Long Sun. ... Gene Wolfe (born May 7, 1931) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. ... An automaton (plural: automata) is a self-operating machine. ... Gene Wolfe (born May 7, 1931) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. ... The first two books of The Book of the New Sun, 2000 omnibus printing. ... Raoul Cédras (born 1949) ruled Haiti from 1991 to 1994 after a coup which ousted elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. ... Monster in My Pocket was a toy line developed by Morrison Entertainment Group, headed by Joe Morrison and John Weems, and released by Matchbox in 1990 consisting of small, soft plastic monsters from religion and mythology, literary fantasy, and unexplained phenomena. ... Dark Quest is a series of video games based on elements of Greek mythology. ... This article is about the tabletop miniature wargame and the fictional universe in which it is set. ... An automaton (plural: automata) is a self-operating machine. ... A squad of Dark Eldar Warriors In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Dark Eldar are a Kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Captured is the past tense of capture. ... 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Talos Talos (IPA: ) is the Faerûnian deity of storms and destruction in Ed Greenwoods Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. ... It has been suggested that Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting be merged into this article or section. ... A campaign setting is a fictional fantasy world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame. ... The Elder Scrolls is a computer role-playing game series developed by Bethesda Softworks. ... A Septim coin. ... The Numidium is a fictional construct from the game Morrowind. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Shining Force II is a 1994 tactical role-playing game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console, and a sequel to the original Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention game. ... An example of Engrish on clothing. ... “Fights” redirects here. ... 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Notes

In the season 5 episode of Babylon 5, "Sleeping in Light," which co-incidentally is the "final" episode of the series, originally intended to be the Season 4 finalie(series finalie before Season 5 was picked up), the Earthforce Destroyer "Talos" is seen at stationkeeping outside the Babylon 5 station when Ranger One, former Earth Aliance President John Sheridan visits the station on his "Sunday Drive," before his rendevous with Lorien and the First Ones at Corianas Six, the location of the final battle of the Shadow War. It is important to note that the talos bone is the large bone in the ankle that is not only the endpoint of the human leg, the begining of the foot, but also the bolster, the foundation upon which the weight of a human being rests. The worship of the Sacred Bull throughout the ancient world is most familiar in the episode of the idol of the Golden Calf made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus). ... The Bibliotheke was renowned as the chief work of Greek historian and scholar. ... The Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Classical mythology. ... In Greek mythology, the Meliae were nymphs of the manna-ash tree. ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... Lucian of Samosata (c. ... One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, Karl (Carl, Károly) Kerényi (January 19, 1897 - April 14, 1973) was born in Hungary but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1943. ... Martin P[ersson] Nilsson (Stoby, Kristianstad 12 July 1874 — Lund 7 April 1967) was a Swedish philologist, a mythographer who specialised in Greek mythology and a historian of religion. ... Cronus (Ancient Greek Κρόνος, Krónos), also called Cronos or Kronos, was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky. ... Arthur Bernard Cook (1868-1952) was a British classical scholar, known for work in archaeology and the history of religions. ... The Bibliotheke was renowned as the chief work of Greek historian and scholar. ... The Argonautica (Greek: ) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. ... Medea by Evelyn De Morgan. ... Castor (or Kastor) and Polydeuces (sometimes called Pollux), were in Greek mythology the twin sons of Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. ... An automaton (plural: automata) is a self-operating machine. ... Eustathius(or Eumathius) surnamed Macrembolites (living near the long bazaar), the last of the Greek romance writers, flourished in the second half of the 12th century AD. His title Protonobilissimus shows him to have been a person of distinction, and if he is also correctly described in the manuscripts, as... Cinaethon of Sparta or Kinaithon of Lakedaimon is a legendary early Greek poet to whom different sources ascribe the lost epics Oedipodea, Little Iliad and Telegony. ... Hephaestus, Greek god of forging, riding a Donkey; Greek drinking cup (skyphos) made in the 5th century BC Hephaestus (IPA pronunciation: or ; Greek Hêphaistos) was the Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan; he was the god of technology including, specifically blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy, and... Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Moloch or Molech or Molekh representing Hebrew מלך mlk is either the name of a god or the name of a particular kind of sacrifice associated historically with Phoenician and related cultures in north Africa and the Levant. ...

External links

• Talos in the Greek Mythology Link