Real-world's folklore and myth's Golems.

[Clistenes]

I only know this because of Fate/Grand Order but Gabirol (aka Avicebron) was also working on his masterpiece golem, the Golem Keter Malkuth. I have no idea if it's actually a thing but he did write the Keter Malkuth poem and it's supposedly the lowest form of a Sephiroth so it has lots of spiritual connotation for the following reason:

"This golem is not meant to be invincible. Rather, it must be designed so that it can die through any kind of means. The golem I'm creating possesses life. Therefore, it will die. My golem is not a craft to simply move clay dolls. My golem is the creation of life… in other words, a copy of the original human, Adam."

Basically... an artificial man. The perfect golem.

I suspect that was made up for the game... The only golem created by Gabirol I have found mention of is the wooden female golem...

[Brother Oni]

Speaking of artificial humans, do homunculi count as golems of a sort?

[Clistenes]

Speaking of artificial humans, do homunculi count as golems of a sort?

Yep, but the homunculi from myth and folklore were just tiny people locked inside of jars, unable to do much. The imp-like flying homunculi who serve as eyes and ears from their masters come from "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" 1973 movie, I think...

[Bohandas]

I found another golem-like creature, the Tupilaq...

Am I the only person who thinks that sounds like it should mean an FAQ about Tupac?

[Wraith]

Yep, but the homunculi from myth and folklore were just tiny people locked inside of jars, unable to do much. The imp-like flying homunuculi who serve as eyes and ears from their masters come from "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" 1973 movie, I think...

There's more than one type of homunculi. The "little person in a jar" idea came from the 16th century alchemist Paracelsus who recommended mixing semen and other eldritch ingredients and incubating them inside a horse's womb to produce "a small human", but there were others.
19th century witchcraft suggested that the same thing could be achieved by harvesting a specially prepared mandrake root at a specific time of the year, producing a living being that was known as a mandragora.

[Clistenes]

There's more than one type of homunculi. The "little person in a jar" idea came from the 16th century alchemist Paracelsus who recommended mixing semen and other eldritch ingredients and incubating them inside a horse's womb to produce "a small human", but there were others.
19th century witchcraft suggested that the same thing could be achieved by harvesting a specially prepared mandrake root at a specific time of the year, producing a living being that was known as a mandragora.

Actually, the little man in a jar concept is way older than Paracelsus... He took the idea from Islamic Takwin alchemy.

I would consider the Mandragora as different from the Homunculus. Besides their different origins, the Mandragora seems a good luck idol of sorts, while the Homunculi were either mere curiosities or maybe mediums to be use as divination tools...

There are other beings closer to the D&D Homunculus, like some sorts of Spanish Imp Familiar servants that are created from magically altered chicken eggs, infused with the blood of the magician and incubated in a pile of manure or with your own body heat... the Imp Familiar would live in a pin case and eat quicksilver and iron dust... This being, however, was demonic in nature, unlike the alchemic homunculi...