Persephone, the robot guide, leads visitors in a Greek cave

By COSTAS KANTOURIS
Associated Press

ALISTRATI, Greece (AP) — Persephone is not your ordinary robot. Billed as the world’s first robot used as a tour guide inside a cave, Persephone has been welcoming visitors to the Alistrati cave in northern Greece since mid-July. The multilingual robot covers the first 150 meters (500 feet) of the tour and a human guide takes over for the rest. The robot was named Persephone because, according to one version of the ancient Greek myth, it was in a nearby plain that the god of the underworld, Pluto, abducted Persephone to marry her. The robot can give its tour in 33 languages and can interact with visitors in three languages. It can also answer 33 questions in Greek.