Introduction

The interest in creating automatic humanoids first appeared at the time of Homer (8th century B.C.).
According to the legend, Hephaestus, the god of craftsmen, built golden automatic maids (who were strong and had the ability to act and speak), and the ingenious Daedalus built the automata Ariadne and Aphrodite. However, the most famous humanoid in Greek mythology was the bronze giant Talos. He was a vigilant guardian of Crete, running along the coastline of the island, who kept enemy ships away by throwing huge rocks towards them (Apollonius of Rhodes). Talos burned the invaders with his breath and blazing body. The “blood of immortals” (ichor) ran in a single vein from his neck to his ankle, where a bronze pin was used to seal it. Philon of Byzantium (3rd century B.C.), in his treatise “Pneumatica”, describes in detail his robot-maid, which is the most significant of the Hellenistic period robots.