The Automatons

Hephaestus Created mechanical Beasts In Many Shapes and Sizes

Being the Greek God of metalsmithing, artisans and craftsmanship had it’s advantages… one of which being the ability to magically craft pretty basic metals into incredibly intricate clockwork creations that seemingly came close to a skynet level sentience. Such was the case with Hera and Zeus’ son Hephaestus.

Now I’m not going to go into too much detail of his life… If you’re looking for that aspect maybe give Homer’s the “Iliad” a try. for our purposes I’m simply going to give you a few of his famed automotons and let you imagine the rest. So Anyone who’s seen the old Harryhausen “Clash of the Titans” or “Jason and the Argonauts” should be familiar with our first two

• Bubo was the clockwork clone of Athena’s owl mean to accompany Perseus on his quest. Mostly he just flew around, whirred and clicked oh and saved perseus’ ass from a Kraken!
• Talos was a giant bronze warrior. He patrolled and protected the island of Crete from invaders and pirates and was something silly like 50ft tall…
• The Caucasian Eagle was a terrifying giant taloned metallic eagle tasked with the daily removal of Prometheus’ liver (it regenerated cause you know he’s a god)
• The Keledones were beautiful clockwork sirens crafted of gold that sang and enchanting lil sea song at the second temple of Delphi
• The Kourai Khryseai were also beautiful clockwork women but this time they tended to Hephaestus and his palace
• The Gold and silver dogs were as you may have guessed metallic dogs that guarded the palace of Alkinous.

There are considerably more, including giant flame spitting bulls, giant flame spitting horses, wheeled tripod waiters (to my knowledge those were flameless), maze dwelling metal minotaurs and even a Pinochio-esue metal boys to wander about his studio…

You get the point mostly draw something, then make it a greek robot! That’s about it! Remember we’ve got two weeks so submissions for the Automatons will be due by midnight on the 12th! Have fun with it!

First place? I mean is there any question at all? Death bringing Automaton havoc wreaking and comical nudity?!? I say no! Our second place entry comes from some new blood and we know how I like to encourage the new, plus its got those mighty world crushing hands and I’m always a sucker for big hands, and third place man it’s just sad and dreamy or as my wife would say: it’s like the Jordan Catalano of drawings! That’s it! A fun batch and don’t forget you can always add to the pile of automatons post contest now!

• The Automatons Entry # 1 The ol’ steampunk a llama and shove it in a chicken mask routine… But in this case it works!
• The Automatons Entry # 2 There’s something so endlessly creepy about clock eyes! But then I see those adorably tiny bronze owl horntenna and I feel better about the world again! Also I like to think that big slidey switch on his chest is how you swap channels to the atari!
• The Automatons Entry # 3 “Hephaestus would be nothing without his fire spitting PC!” – Haha it’s the classical Greek ornamentation on the desk and the toga on the ‘puter that really got me…
• The Automatons Entry # 4 “This cycloptic Bronze Behemoth wields two gigantic spiky balls of steel and billows caustic clouds of smoke and steam. Beware this one eyed wrecking machine.” – Yet he still looks so pleasantly warm to sit next to on a calm but chilly day!
• The Automatons Entry # 5 “o father, where art mine androgynous appendages?” – Ooh good magical aether! And appendages or not I bet there’s a wookie ideally not so far far away who would gladly strap you to his back!
• The Automatons Entry # 6 “The secret to hephaestus’ magical machines revealed!” – Yes! you wouldn’t want any clothing getting between pilot and machine, it destroys the intimacy and I bet its hot as a forge in there!
• The Automatons Entry # 7 Haha a screaming-in-horror-roller-skating-droid! And if you are a fan of Lovecraftian fiction like myself, I’m pretty sure those teeth are exactly what they always mean by “impossible architecture”!
• The Automatons Entry # 8 Damn! I was pretty sure we already had a picture for the cover of the book of seanist beasts… of course this could also just be a pic from “Astro-Boy’s worst halloween party ever” which i kinda love too.