Talos Talos In Greek mythology, Talos, also spelled Talus (; , "Talōs") or Talon (; , "Talōn"), was a giant automaton made of bronze to protect Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders. He circled the island's shores three times daily. Talos's bronze nature suggested to the author of "Bibliothēkē" that he may have been a survivor from the Age of Bronze, a descendant of the brazen race that sprang from "meliae" "ash-tree nymphs" according to "Argonautica" 4. The conception that Hesiod's men of the Age of Bronze were actually made of bronze is extended to men of the age of
The Man Who Laughs or "the Laughing Man", over a period of fifteen months while he was living in the Channel Islands, having been exiled from his native France because of the controversial political content of his previous novels. Hugo's working title for this book was "On the King's Command", but a friend suggested "The Man Who Moans Loudly". In late 17th-century England, a homeless boy named Gwynplaine rescues an infant girl during a snowstorm, her mother having frozen to death whilst feeding her. They meet an itinerant carnival vendor who calls himself Ursus, and his pet wolf, Homo. Gwynplaine's mouth has been mutilated