Three Times a Day

Greek tradition gives Talos a single job and has him do it forever: three circuits of Crete every day, watching the water for ships that should not be there. Apollonius has Zeus set him over the island as a guard for Europa; Apollodorus says Hephaestus made him and gave him to Minos. The coins of Phaistos show him winged and mid-throw, once with a hound between his legs, which is how a Cretan city chose to advertise itself. Not a monster in the sources so much as a border — a coastline with a temper, patrolling on schedule.