Editing Talos (section)

== Other variants ==
===Immolation of victims===

Discussing the origin of the phrase ''sardonios gelos'' (σαρδόνιος γέλως){{snd}}'[[Sardonicism|sardonic laugh]]'{{snd}}both [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]] in his ''Lexicon'', and [[Zenobius]] in his ''Proverbs'' cite [[Simonides of Ceos|Simonides]] (c. 556-468 BCE) for a story which involves Talos.<ref>Simonides 204. in {{cite book | translator-last=Edmonds| translator-first=John |title = Lyrae Graeca | volume= 2 |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press|year=1924 |pages = 404–407}}</ref> Photius's summary of the account by Simonides is that some [[Sardinia|Sardinans]] refused to take Talos to king [[Minos]] of [[Crete]], in response to which Talos grabbed them and jumped into some flames whilst holding them tight, killing them. [[Zenobius|Zenobius's]] summary states that Talos lived in Sardinia before going to Crete, and killed many of the inhabitants without mentioning how or why. Not enough remains to establish whether Simonides associated Talos with the Argonauts.<ref name="Gantz"/> 

Talos is also mentioned in two fragments relating to a lost [[Sophocles|Sophoclean]] drama, ''Daidalos'', the plot of which in unknown.<ref name="sophocles">{{cite book| editor-last=Lloyd-Jones |editor-first=Hugh |title=Sophocles Fragments |publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-674-99532-5 |page=64}}</ref> The fragments indicate that in this source, too, Talos killed his victims by burning them.<ref name="sophocles"/> Outside of Simonides and Sophocles, no other surviving source mentions this method of execution.<ref name="Gantz"/>

===Cretan lineage===
{{anchor|death of Talos krater anchor}}[[File:Vaso di Talos particolare.JPG|thumb|The death of Talos depicted on a Volute [[Krater]] circa 400 BCE ([[Jatta National Archaeological Museum]] in [[Ruvo di Puglia]])]]
In a different tradition, Talos is the son of [[Cres (mythology)|Cres]], the personification of Crete. Hephaestus is his son, and [[Rhadamanthus]] – a mythical king of Crete – his grandson. This tradition is reported by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], who cites the poet [[Cinaethon of Sparta]] as his source.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pausanias |author-link=Pausanias (geographer) |title=[[Description of Greece]] |at=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.53 8. 53.2–5]}}</ref> Pausanias states at another point that Talos was one of the sons of [[Oenopion]], without giving a source.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pausanias |author-link=Pausanias (geographer) |title=[[Description of Greece]] |at=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.4.8 7.4.8]}}</ref> Pausanias gives no details of Talos outside of his genealogy.<ref name="buxton-89"/>

According to [[Athenaeus]], the lyric poet [[Ibycus]] wrote of [[Rhadamanthus]] as the lover of Talos, rather than grandson.<ref>Ibycus Fragment 32 in {{cite book |editor-last=Edmonds |editor-first=J. M.|title=Lyrae Graeca Vol. 2|publisher=Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press|year=1924 |page=101}}</ref> The [[Suda]], a Byzantine encyclopedia from the tenth-century CE, adds to this that Talos and Rhadamanthus introduced homosexuality to Crete.<ref>Suda s.v. Theta 41. [https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/theta/41  Θάμυρις].</ref>  

===Rationalisation===

A [[Euhemerism|euhemeristic]] interpretation of Talos is provided – along with many others – in the [[Minos (dialogue)|''Minos'']], a dialogue which was attributed to [[Plato]] in antiquity, but which is regarded by most scholars today as being written by someone else.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=V. Bardley |title=Plato's "Minos:" the Political and Philosophical Context of the Problem of Natural Right |journal=The Review of Metaphysics |date=September 2006 |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=17–53 |jstor=20130738}}</ref> In this source, Talos is rationalised as a man who guards the laws of Crete by travelling around the villages of the island three times per year at the behest of Minos, in order to show the inhabitants the laws of the city, which were inscribed of tablets of bronze.<ref>{{cite book |title-link=Minos (dialogue) |title=Minos |at=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0180%3Atext%3DMinos%3Asection%3D320c 320c.]}}</ref><ref name="Buxton-90">{{cite book |last=Buxton |first=Richard |date=1998 |editor-last=Atherton |editor-first=Catherine |title=Monsters and Monstrosity in Greek and Roman Culture |publisher=Levante Editori |page=90 |chapter=The Myth of Talos|isbn=887949290X}}</ref>