The Faerie Queen

Spencer, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Book 5 (1596).

Part of a long poem in the archaic manner of an allegorical medieval romance (i.e., archaic in Spencer's time). See for Talus, companion and servant to Artegal (variant spelling: Arthegall), the champion of Justice. Talus is an unsleeping, untiring "iron man," armed with a flail, used against villains (cantos 2, 6); he's a technological and moral upgrading, so to speak, of the Talus of Greek mythology, a brass man, the product of the god Hephaestos (Roman: Vulcan). See as a precursor to a faithful robot; cf. and contrast the clay-based Golem of Jewish legend. (RDE, 04/10/06)