Khalkotauroi
The fire-breathing bronze bulls of King Aeëtes that Jason was required to yoke as a condition for winning the Golden Fleece.
The Myth of Khalkotauroi
The Khalkotauroi were a pair of bronze bulls forged by Hephaestus and given to Aeëtes, king of Colchis. They breathed fire from their nostrils and had bronze hooves. Aeëtes set Jason the task of yoking these automatons and ploughing the Field of Ares with them, then sowing the field with dragon teeth. Jason could not have survived the bulls' fire without the protective salve Medea gave him, brewed from the blood-red crocus that sprang from the blood of Prometheus on the Caucasus mountains. Anointed with the salve, Jason was invulnerable to fire and iron for a single day. He yoked the bulls, ploughed the field, and sowed the teeth, from which armed warriors — spartoi — sprang up. Following Medea's advice, Jason threw a stone among them, causing the warriors to attack each other until none survived. The feat proved Jason worthy, though Aeëtes still refused the Fleece.
Parents
Hephaestus (creator)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Khalkotauroi are among the earliest robots in literature — bronze automatons built by Hephaestus, the divine engineer. Along with Talos the bronze giant and the golden maidens who served in Hephaestus's workshop, they form a tradition of artificial beings in Greek myth that directly inspired Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R., which invented the word "robot." Greek mythology had robots 2,700 years before we named them.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Colchian Bulls
🐉 creatureautomata,fire
Fire-breathing bronze bulls belonging to Aeëtes, king of Colchis, which Jason was required to yoke as the first task in his quest for the Golden Fleece.
Talos
🐉 creatureBronze automaton guardian of Crete
Talos was a giant man made of bronze who guarded Crete by running around the island three times daily, hurling boulders at approaching ships.
Talos
🐉 creatureBronze giant automaton of Crete
A giant bronze automaton built by Hephaestus to guard the island of Crete. Talos circled the island three times daily, hurling boulders at approaching ships.
Spartoi
🐉 creaturewarriors
Armed warriors who sprang fully grown from dragon's teeth sown in the earth, ancestors of Theban nobility
Cretan Bull
🐉 creaturelabour, Crete
The magnificent bull sent by Poseidon to Minos that became the father of the Minotaur, later captured by Heracles as his seventh labour.
Ophiotaurus
🐉 creaturehybrid creatures
A creature half bull and half serpent whose entrails, if burned, could grant power to overthrow the gods
Keledones
🐉 creatureautomata
Golden singing maidens crafted by Hephaestus whose voices could entrance any listener
Gryphon
🐉 creaturebeasts
Eagle-headed lion guardians of Scythian gold who waged eternal war against the one-eyed Arimaspi
Telkhines
🐉 creaturedaimones
Ancient sorcerer-smiths of Rhodes who forged Poseidon's trident and were destroyed for their malice
Minotaur's Labyrinth
🐉 creatureBull-headed man of the Labyrinth
The Minotaur was a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, born from Pasiphaë's unnatural union with the Cretan Bull, imprisoned in the Labyrinth.
Pegasus
🐉 creatureFlight, heroism
Winged divine horse born from the blood of Medusa who carried Bellerophon against the Chimaera
Cadmus
🗡 heroFounder of Thebes who brought the alphabet to Greece
The Phoenician prince who founded Thebes, sowed dragon's teeth to raise an army, and gave Greece the gift of writing.