The myth of Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, tells of a lonely man who sculpted his ideal woman, Galatea, from ivory, and promptly fell in love with her after the goddess Aphrodite brought her to life. Another legend has Hephaestus being commanded by Zeus to create the first woman, Pandora, out of clay.
In Book 18 of the Iliad, Hephaestus the god of all mechanical arts, was assisted by two moving female statues made from gold – 'living young damsels, filled with minds and wisdoms'. From 600 BC onward, legends of talking bronze and clay statues coming to life have been a regular occurrence in the works of classical authors such as Homer, Plato, Pindar, Tacitus, and Pliny.The woman forged out of gold in Finnish myth The Kalevala ( prehistoric folklore).See also: Robots in literature 19th century and earlier
