Did humanoid robots exist in the ancient Greece?
Are the accounts of them purely fictional?
Can they be the distant echoes of some events
that took place at the dawn of modern humankind?
We will not jump to conclusions.
we take a closer look at the ancient mythology
from the point of view of historical retrospective.
Legend has it that Hephaestus, the ancient
Greek god of fire, metalworking and handicrafts,
“forged” two dozen copper tripods, which
could move about the place “on the golden
wheels” as if they were self-propelled (or
automatic?).
The devices are said to have been used for
rendering services to gods who visited Hephaestus.
Could they be some kind of a remote-controlled
robot or automatic means of transporting?
Hephaestus had a limp, and therefore he also
“forged” two maids who were made of gold.
Those maids were “strong, sensible and could
express themselves in words.”
They supported Hephaestus by the hand while
accompanying him during outings, waited on
him, and amused him with their singing.
They “were in possession of every piece
of knowledge taught by the immortal gods,”
according to Homer’s Iliad.
Another Greek myth says about the “copper
giant” named Thalos, which was also made
by Hephaestus.
Zeus ordained that the giant should defend
the island of Crete.
Thalos had an all-metal body topped with a
horned head.
There was a single artery running from top
to toe of his body.
The artery was plugged with a “copper nail.”
The copper giant patrolled the island, and
kept the enemy ships at bay by throwing rocks
at them.
He was also a mouthpiece of Minos, a king
of Crete.
Thalos began throwing “red flame” around
him after the enemy invaded Crete.
Thalos managed to send the enemies running.
However, the sorceress Medea outsmarted the
giant with the help of “false visions.”
Then she took the plug out of the artery,
and the giant’s black oily blood came rushing
onto the ground.
As a result, Thalos’s strength thinned out.
Crete became extremely vulnerable to enemy
attacks.
In terms of technology, the following analogies
fall into place if we see the story of Thalos
through the eyes of a twenty-first-century
man: the “black oily blood” may be fuel
or lube oil in a hydraulic system; the “false
visions” may refer to a guided radar jamming
designed to interfere with the robot’s program;
and a “horned head” may allude to radar
antennas.
It is interesting that we can find a similar
description of a robot in the story of Chi
Yu, the fabulous creature of ancient China.
It had four eyes, six arms (manipulators?),
some tridents in place of ears.
To a certain extent, those three-pronged tools
resemble Thalos’s radar antennas.
Chi Yu was capable of moving along the broken
terrain.
It could also take off the ground for a brief
period of time.
The creature “fed” on rocks, sand, and
even iron.
The locals buried the head of the creature
in a cave after Chi Yu “passed away.”
For a long while the locals would come to
the cave and worship the head.
A cloud of steam glowing red would rise from
the grave from time to time.
The reference to that cloud is the most interesting
“technical detail.”
Supposedly, Chi Yu “fed on rocks, sand,
and even iron” for transforming the above
materials into atomic energy, thus the uncontrolled
emissions may have been interpreted by the
observers as the cloud mentioned above.
The story about a “dragon” of Huang Ti,
the legendary first emperor of China, stands
out in the legends of ancient China.
The legend says that the “dragon” had
a pair of wings, and its body shone the color
of metal.
It is quite odd that the flights of the “dragon”
depended on weather conditions.
One day the Huang Ti climbed “aboard”
the creature yet the latter failed to take
off due to hurricane – a really strange
circumstance since the fabulous dragons were
the protectors of rain and wind.
The above “anomaly” can be understood
once we assume that the “dragon” stands
for a prototype of some flying machine.
According to the legend, the “dragon”
could hold up to 70 passengers who boarded
it by climbing on its “whiskers.”
The “dragon” may as well refer to a helicopter
equipped with a movable gangway.
Now let us get back to Greek mythology.
The dragon featured in the legend of the Golden
Fleece set in Colchis is of particular interest.
The dragon stood guard over the Golden Fleece
in a grove belonging to Ares, the ancient
Greek king of war.
The “monster” had an armored body covered
with copper scales, and its sinister eyes
shone brightly.
There were three rows of teeth in its mouth,
and a golden comb heaving on top of its head.
Again, we can offer a number of modern technical
terms to suit the above attributes of the
legendary dragon: “the shining eyes” may
refer to searchlights or headlights; “the
three rows of teeth” may refer to a system
of gear wheels, and “the golden comb”
may stand for a locater or antenna.
The dragon as a whole may be a description
of some “technological miracle” rendered
by a man of the Bronze Age.
We can use a number of references to back
the above interpretation of the account.
First, it took a sort of “hypnotic action”
for putting the “dragon” to sleep.
Bearing in mind the other case when Medea
successfully turns the copper giant Thalos
into a useless waste of space by casting some
rays into his “horned head,” the act of
hypnosis may have to do with a guided jamming
session.
The dragon was subdued by the magic powers
of “hypnosis”, which made it “shut its
mouth, close its fiery eyes, and stretch itself
out under the tree, on which the Golden Fleece
hung.”
In other words, Medea did the same trick one
more time by emitting confusing impulses designed
to disrupt the vital functions of the monster.
The Greek mythology even has the account of
an air battle featuring the Harpies (Harpy
is a ravenous, filthy monster having a woman’s
head and a bird’s body) and Boreads (Boread
is a winged son of Boreas, personification
of the northern wind in Greek mythology).
The account specifically mentions a horrid
smell of the Harpies.
It perhaps refers to the general attitude
of the ancient people toward the smell of
fuel.
It is quite understood since the ancients
were more accustomed to smelling the fresh
breeze.
Quite a few people of today’s age of technology
still find the smell of motor gasoline or
aviation gasoline repulsive.
The myth of the Argonauts contains a description
of big Stymphalian birds, a flock of predacious
birds of Arcadia.
They had large and shining copper wings, which
threw pointed feathers (a variety of arrows
or bullets?) at the Argonauts.
The latter managed to shoot down one of the
birds.
Then the birds circled over Jason’s ship,
and faded away on the horizon.
The maneuver seems to resemble that of a group
of war planes performed out on patrol or following
an attack on a ground target.
According to the myth of the search for the
Golden Fleece, during one of his labors Jason
was told to plow the field “dedicated to
Ares” using a couple of “oxen having copper-plated
legs and mouths that breathe out fire.”
And two roaring oxen appeared and charged
the hero vehemently, or so the story goes.
The oxen began spouting fire.
However, Jason managed put them under restraint
and did as he told.
What hides beneath the description of those
strange oxen?
The copper-legged oxen that spout fire look
very much like some mechanisms capable of
moving about independently.
Taking into account the reference to the use
of creatures in agriculture, not to mention
the presence of copper “parts” and “great
flames thrown out their mouths”, we might
as well arrive at certain points of similarity
between the legendary oxen and present-day
tractors.
