brazen head

A mysterious artifact found on the desks of some of history's most illustrious thinkers, philosophers, inventors--in their study-rooms, or guarding their laboratories. Its origins are unknown. The first head was said to be built by Daedalus, himself inspired by models from an advanced civilization in Crete almost a thousand years before the the age of Homer--long lost to history. Of those that remained, most perished after the fall of Rome, destroyed by Muslim invaders who mistook them as idols of false gods. Many have since sought to reconstruct them, though few have succeeded. Those believed to have possessed one include: Virgil, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Boethius, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, da Vinci, Leibniz, Linnaeus, Goethe. Similar models are said to have survived in non-western lands. But, like their existence, the uses of these heads largely remain secret. Some believe them to be divinatory tools--as, it is said, "nowhere is fate inscribed more clearly than on the maps of a face." Still others believe them to be magical devices capable of transmitting messages, across time, to other heads.