To this class of lifelike but intellectually inert household helpers we might ascribe other automata in the classical tradition. In Book 7 of the Odyssey, Odysseus finds himself the guest of a fabulously wealthy king whose palace includes such conveniences as gold and silver watchdogs, ever alert, never aging.

In Book 5 of the Iliad we hear that the gates of Olympus swivel on their hinges of their own accord, automatai, to let gods in their chariots in or out, thus anticipating by nearly thirty centuries the automatic garage door. These are not the only animate household objects to appear in the Homeric epics. So they might wheel down on their own to the gods’ assemblyĪnd then return to his house anon: an amazing sight to see. To stand along the walls of his well-built manse,Īffixing golden wheels to the bottom of each one In Book 18 of the Iliad, Achilles’ mother, the nymph Thetis, wants to order a new suit of armor for her son, and so she pays a visit to the Olympian atelier of the blacksmith-god Hephaestus, whom she finds hard at work on a series of automata:

We have been dreaming of robots since Homer. Alicia Vikander as the robot Ava in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina 1.

Movie the book of daniel