[adrian_b]

Another reference to this kind of abilities of Hephaestus is in the famous passage from the Iliad when Hephaestus forges a new armor for Achilles.

In doing this work, Hephaestus is aided by some amphipoloi created by him (Greek amphipoloi = Latin ancillae, which means female servants), which were made of metal and which were sentient and followed exactly the commands of Hephaestus.

AFAIK, this Iliad fragment is the earliest description of robots that is known.