Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius was a Greek poet and scholar of Ptolemaic Alexandria. A papyrus list of librarians places him as head of the Library of Alexandria, after Zenodotus and before Eratosthenes, probably around 260 to 247 BCE. Ancient biographies say his epic was poorly received at its first reading in Alexandria, that he withdrew to Rhodes where it found success, and that this is why he is called 'of Rhodes'.

His Argonautica, in four books, tells the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece. It mixes Homeric language with a new interest in feeling, and its portrait of Medea's love for Jason was influential.

In Book 4 the Argo reaches Crete and is attacked by Talos, a bronze giant who hurls rocks at ships. Apollonius says Talos was of the race of bronze men and invulnerable except for a blood-red vein near his ankle. Medea brings him down with the evil eye and spells, he grazes his ankle, the ichor runs out and he falls. Modern historians of technology cite the passage as an early imagined automaton.