Talos

Also known as: the man of bronze · Family: Crete · Role: bronze warder of Crete · First appears: Book IV 13

Life events

Zeus gives Talos to Europa as Crete’s warder.(Book IV 13 · 📍 Crete)
- With: Zeus Europa
- “and the son of Cronos gave him to Europa to be the warder of Crete”
Medea defeats Talos, who collapses after his ankle is pierced.(Book IV 13 · 📍 Crete)
- With: Medea
- “So Talos, for all his frame of bronze, yielded the victory to the might of Medea the sorceress. And as he was heaving massy rocks to stay them from reaching the haven, he grazed his ankle on a pointed crag; and the ichor gushed forth like melted lead; and not long thereafter did he stand towering on the jutting cliff. But even as some huge pine, high up on the mountains, which woodmen have left half hewn through by their sharp axes when they returned from the forest—at first it shivers in the wind by night, then at last snaps at the stump and crashes down; so Talos for a while stood on his tireless feet, swaying to and fro, when at last, all strengthless, fell with a mighty thud.”

employer: Zeus (The son of Cronos is Zeus; he assigns Talos the task of guarding Crete.) “And the son of Cronos gave him to Europa to be the warder of Crete and to stride round the island thrice a day with his feet of bronze.”
enemies with Medea “And with songs did she propitiate and invoke the Death-spirits, devourers of life, the swift hounds of Hades, who, hovering through all the air, swoop down on the living. Kneeling in supplication, thrice she called on them with songs, and thrice with prayers; and, shaping her soul to mischief, with her hostile glance she bewitched the eyes of Talos, the man of bronze; and her teeth gnashed bitter wrath against him, and she sent forth baneful phantoms in the frenzy of her rage.”
employer: Europa “And the son of Cronos gave him to Europa to be the warder of Crete and to stride round the island thrice a day with his feet of bronze.”

Extracted from the original text of The Argonautica. Made with Rho MD.