At last she spoke, 'I know this giant.

I heard of him in the East.
Hephaistos the Fire King made him in his forge in AEtna beneath the earth, and called him Talus, and gave him to Minos for a servant, to guard the coast of Crete.

Thrice a day he walks round the island, and never stops to sleep; and if strangers land he leaps into his furnace, which flames there among the hills; and when he is red-hot he rushes on them, and burns them in his brazen hands.' Then all the heroes cried, 'What shall we do, wise Medeia?
We must have water, or we die of thirst.

Flesh and blood we can face fairly; but who can face this red-hot brass ?' 'I can face red-hot brass, if the tale I hear be true.

For they say that he has but one vein in all his body, filled with liquid fire; and that this vein is closed with a nail: but I know not where that nail is placed.