179 CHAPTER 9 BETWEEN MYTH AND HISTORY
REAL AUTOMATA AND LIFELIKE
ARTIFICES IN THE ANCIENT WORLDSO FAR WE have considered how the ancient Greeks imagined— through
mythology and artworks— artificially created life, animated statues, be-
ings that were not biologically born but manufactured, fantastic technol-
ogies, and augmented human powers. We saw how people in antiquity
portrayed Daedalus, Medea, Prometheus, and Hephaestus as super-
geniuses, picturing them employing familiar tools and methods but with
miraculous capabilities to construct marvelous things far beyond what
could be achieved by mortals.
Except for the bronze robot Talos and the first humans made by Pro-
metheus, practical details and inner workings of divinely crafted artifices
are missing in the mythic narratives and fragments that have come down
to us. But the wide of range of stories about biotechne reveal that the idea
of making artificial life was conceivable in antiquity, portrayed as stu-
pendous feats of ingenuity and craft. Some divine devices in myth might
have arisen as metaphors for innovations in technology, while others may
have been exaggerations of more modest counterparts in historical times.
Earthly, simple approximations of some of the mythical marvels might
have been practicable with available tools, materials, techniques— and
formidable intelligence— in antiquity. Even so, it is important to resist
the temptation to project modern motivations and assumptions about
technology onto the ancient world. 1 Although many of the ancient myths
and ideas about artificial life certainly call to mind and seem to fore-
shadow later inventions, one cannot project direct lines of influence from
antiquity to modern biomechanics and robots.