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Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities by [Adrienne Mayor]

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Adrienne Mayor

Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities Kindle Edition

by Adrienne Mayor (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A treasury of astonishing mythic marvels—and the surprising truths behind them

Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights—glimmering, long-buried nuggets of truth—embedded in myth, legends, and folklore. Combing through ancient texts and obscure sources, she has spent decades prospecting for intriguing wonders and marvels, historical mysteries, diverting anecdotes, and hidden gems from ancient, medieval, and modern times. Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a treasury of fifty of her most amazing and amusing discoveries.

The book explores such subjects as how mirages inspired legends of cities in the sky; the true identity of winged serpents in ancient Egypt; how ghost ships led to the discovery of the Gulf Stream; and the beauty secrets of ancient Amazons. Other pieces examine Arthur Conan Doyle’s sea serpent and Geronimo’s dragon; Flaubert’s obsession with ancient Carthage; ancient tattooing practices; and the strange relationship between wine goblets and women’s breasts since the times of Helen of Troy and Marie Antoinette. And there’s much, much more.

Showcasing Mayor’s trademark passion not to demythologize myths, but to uncover the fascinating truths buried beneath them, Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a wonder cabinet of delightful curiosities.

Print length

437 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Publication date

July 26, 2022
File size

31196 KB
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From the Publisher

A photograph of two new paperbacks from Adrienne Mayor

A photograph of two new paperback books by Adrienne Mayor about Greek Myths

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Covering much more than just myths and monsters, this book also contains information about ancient science and mirages, and everything from tourism to tattoos. . . . This book has a little something for everyone." ― Library Journal --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Adrienne Mayor’s books include The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology, and The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World (all Princeton). She is a research scholar in classics and the history of science at Stanford University. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Review

“Read this immediately! Whether you are a lover of lore, an armchair academic, or simply a curious soul, you will find inspiration in the pages of Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws. It is an excellent starting place if you’re new to Adrienne Mayor’s work and an excellent compendium if you’re already a fan. Her books have been a must-read for me since she began writing. She is a treasure.”―Melissa Marr, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Hidden Knife

“Adrienne Mayor reminds us in full Technicolor HD why we need to break the academic form to let in the light of brilliant, hypercurious scholars and laypersons from all walks outside it, eventually making terms like ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ irrelevant. Mayor’s gifts are many, but my favorite is that her writing is immediate, three-dimensional, and inviting. Ancient history is not a black-and-white, linear timeline in her work. Her excitement in her subjects fills me with the same riveted fascination, and I feel like I belong to it as much as any scholar.”―Neko Case, musician

“Adrienne Mayor is one of our most brilliantly engaging writers on the ancient world, and Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a delightful cabinet of curiosities. Her inspired detective work reveals the natural-historical and paleontological phenomena that lurk behind the iconic imagery of classical myth, folklore, and history―and much else besides.”―Daniel Ogden, author of The Werewolf in the Ancient World

“Part miscellany and part detective work, this delightful compendium of folklore combines the spirit of Herodotus and the skepticism of the modern historian. Adrienne Mayor bounds through history dispelling myths and harvesting fascinating insights.”―Candida Moss, author of The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom

“Griffins! Dragons! Ghost ships! In her delightful new collection of essays, Adrienne Mayor traces the origin stories of a bevy of irresistible curiosities, from talking mynah birds and musical racing turtles to giants and mermaids. Her impressive scholarship is matched only by her infectious good humor as she plunges into the history behind tattoos and foot fetishes, sifting expertly between mythology and classical sources in pursuit of evidence. A treat to read from cover to cover.”―Nancy Goldstone, author of In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters

“This eclectic and fascinating essay collection is Mayor’s Wunderkammer―the stories from a lifetime of meticulously turning myths into bones.”―Susanna Forrest, author of The Age of the Horse: An Equine Journey through Human History

“To read Adrienne Mayor’s richly researched pageant of fantastical creatures, warrior queens, and curious travelers is to be reminded that the past is stranger than we imagine and to discover that the line between myth and history is more porous than we had previously believed.”―Ryan Ruby, author of Zero and the One: A Novel

“For decades, Adrienne Mayor’s brilliant writing has occupied an important intersection of mythology, classical folklore, and ancient history of science. For readers keen to explore the curiosities, mysteries, and oddities of the ancient world, Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a powerful, personal collection of essays on these themes―a must-read.”―Lydia Pyne, author of Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us about Real Stuff

“Like fondant and filling, ancient mysteries and modern knowledge come together in fifty delectable stories from veteran classicist Adrienne Mayor. Dip into Herodotus on biological warfare and tour antiquity through its ample array of women warriors. Ponder the shape-shifting fancies of long ago as marvelous creatures like flying snakes turn out to be, perhaps, bats. This is a delicious treat of a book.”―Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09NCPQSM9
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (July 26, 2022)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 26, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 31196 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 437 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #393,684 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #156 in Ancient Greek History (Kindle Store)
- #264 in Folklore & Mythology
- #407 in Ancient Greek History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

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Adrienne Mayor

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Adrienne Mayor @amayor is a research scholar in Classics and the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program at Stanford. Her work is often featured on NPR and BBC, Discovery and History TV channels, and other popular media, including the New York Times and National Geographic, and her books are translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Turkish, Italian, Russian, and Greek. In college during the Vietnam War, she received special permission to take ROTC courses in the history of war; 20 years later she began writing articles for "MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History." Mayor is especially interested in the history of science (the history of human curiosity) and she investigates natural knowledge embedded in classcial Greek and Roman literature and other "pre-scientific" myths and oral traditions.

"The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World" (2014) is the result of Mayor's long interest in the realities behind myths, legends, and ancient historical accounts of women warriors. "The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithridates" is the first full biography in half a century of one of Rome's deadliest enemies and the world's first experimental toxicologist. "The Poison King" was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award, nonfiction and won top honors in Biography in the Independent Book Publishers Awards, 2010.

Mayor's two books on pre-Darwinian fossil traditions in classical antiquity and in Native America ("The First Fossil Hunters" and "Fossil Legends of the First Americans") opened new windows in the emerging field of Geomythology. "First Fossil Hunters" is featured in the popular History Channel show "Ancient Monster Hunters," about Mayor's discovery of the links between ancient observations of dinosaur fossils and the gold-guarding Griffin of mythology. "First Fossil Hunters" and "Fossil Legends of the First Americans" also inspired the BBC documentary "Dinosaurs, Monsters, and Myths" and the popular traveling exhibit "Mythic Creatures" (launched at the American Museum of Natural History, 2007-17).

Her book "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs," about the origins and early use of biological weapons, uncovered the surprisingly ancient roots of biochemical warfare. This book was featured in National Geographic, New York Times, and the History Channel's "Ancient Greek WMDs" --and it has become a favorite resource for diabolical, unconventional weaponry among ancient war-gamers.

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Top reviews from the United States

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Matt Bille

A fascinating chronicle of the human experience

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

Mayor is one of a kind. I’m an avocational historian with some skill at research and connecting far-flung dots. I mention that only to lend credence to my evaluation of Mayor as, not merely a professional at this complex of professions, but someone one on another plane of existence. As in her previous books (my favorite is Fossil Legends of the First Americans), Mayor connects stories, artifacts, and cultures in ways that might never occur to anyone else. We tend to study individual cultures and empires in school, and Mayor delights in showing how human culture has always been an interactive web shot through with tiny cross-filaments created by trade and the intersection of ideas and cultures.
The 50 essays contained here skip through eras, civilizations, and continents, bringing us tales of sea monsters, paleocryptozoology, ancient ghost ships, Amazon queens, possible fossil origins for mythical creatures like griffins, and the Golden Fleece. If she can’t always connect an oddity to a possible origin, or a story to a storyteller, she never fails to arouse the reader’s curiosity.
For example, countless storytellers have described their opponents as giants. It seems that, while the differences between tribes of men were certainly exaggerated, the way men tended to get larger as forces from the south and east worked their way towards Scandinavia did lend themselves to a certain mythologizing, and kings certainly gathered very tall men for royal guards. She explores countless other questions. Were the Carthaginians taught to be sworn enemies of Rome from the day they could walk? (There seems to be a propaganda element in there.) How did Baron Georges Cuvier come to examine what he said was a fresh mammoth’s foot? (The mystery is unsolved.)
One of my favorite chapters is on the Greek response to being incorporated into the Roman expire. Such nations often lead a gray, low-profile existence, but the Greeks were entrepreneurs. Knowing the Roman fascination with Greek history, culture, and legend, they became rich off Roman tourists. They sold replicas (or fakes) of great art, reenacted plays, and plastered the country (really) with “Heracles slept here” signs while guidebook authors and large intercity cart rental agencies made small fortunes. Commercialization is not a new concept.
Mayor’s writing moves along at the right pace, never bogging down and always hinting of “Wait ‘till you see what’s next!” In this cabinet of curiosities lies something for everyone, whether their interest is the origin of tattoos or the first foot fetishists. This is the latest in a series of marvelous books, and I hope many more are in the offing.

One person found this helpful

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M. K. Solomon

Classical knowledge delivered with a large scoop of fun

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 31, 2022

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I am a fan of Adrienne Mayor. I think I may have read all of her books, most of them anyway. She may have a book out there I haven't been able to get my hands on. "Greek fire, Poison arrows ..." is the first book of hers I read, and I loved it. I had not realized that classical history and background could be delivered with such style and fun.
Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a little different in that it's more personal, bringing together topics and papers from different times in Mayor's personal history. Topics vary from the flying snakes of the title, the Golden fleece, musical racing turtles of Greece, and other fascinating topics. This, like all her books, is wonderful and I highly recommend it.

3 people found this helpful

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MGO

entertaining and informative

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 24, 2022

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A collection of essays of subjects that have attracted the authors curiosity. Most of them around Greek history/mythology.
Worth reading.

2 people found this helpful

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Jehoshephat

in a word: tedious

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 27, 2022

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Every chapter I read follows the same scenario: a brief, and rather superficial, description of a "monster" or "legend" from the Classical era, followed by a sober rationalized identification of what the creature "probably" was or "might have been". No consideration for the extraordinary variety and energy of the human imagination, or consideration of WHY such legends were developed, WHY people seem to have wanted or needed such stories. No THINKING. It's all quite pedestrian. Perhaps instead of trying to read this as a book-length investigation of historical "curiosities," this is a serial collection of "oddities" (another word from the subtitle) to be kept on one's nightstand for occasional diversion before turning the light off.

3 people found this helpful

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LadyDi

Tenaciously researched, wonderfully written.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 31, 2022

Not just an enjoyable read, but a ticket back to the time when you first discovered mythology and were captivated by it. Somehow, even with all of her years of research and depth of expertise, Adrienne Mayor is still able to charm and teach through her writing in a way that is both learned and accessible. Some of these stories were entirely unfamiliar to me, but even those that I knew were made wondrous again.
I was given a copy of this book as a gift and have since passed it on to a friend serving abroad. Today I have bought another copy knowing that I will enjoy reading it again and sharing it with friends & family.

2 people found this helpful

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E. Shreeve

Delightful set of essays that combine myth, ancient history, and natural phenomena

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 8, 2022

I'm loving this book! As a fan of Adrienne Mayor, it's great to rediscover some favorites and visit new topics, too. The essays are varied in location, time period, and subject--yet all convey a unique mix of archaeology, ancient history myth, and science. Mayor brings us to each situation and time period, always expressing a profound curiosity about how humans make sense of the world. A collection to be savored!

2 people found this helpful

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al g dem

Very enjoyable reading!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 7, 2022

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Excellent book to read and as reference. Lots of info and very well written.

One person found this helpful

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