Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws (eBook)

And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities

Adrienne Mayor (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2022
448 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21119-0 (ISBN)

Infos

A treasury of astonishing mythic marvels-and the surprising truths behind themAdrienne 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.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.7.2022
• Zusatzinfo: 49 b/w illus. 1 map.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Adrienne Mayor • Aeneid • African Elephant • Amazons • Ammianus Marcellinus • Ancient Greek • Ancient Greek Literature • Ancient history • ancient literature • ancient warfare • Anecdote • archaeology • Aristeas • Arthropod • Athens • author • Batrachotoxin • Battle of Artemisium • Battle of Leuctra • Battle of Yarmouk • beak • beefcake • Biological Warfare • Black-footed ferret • Brooch • Caligula • Cannibalism • carpet • Cartography • Castle in the Air (novel) • Cat food • Cavalry • Centaur • Certainty • Chapter 33 (G.I. Bill of Rights) • Chiomara • Classical Mythology • classics • Cleopatra • Cockfight • convulsion • crevasse • Criticism • Cross-Reference • cryptid • Cryptozoology • curator • cuttlefish • desert island • Desert long-eared bat • Dinosaur egg • Disease • dog food • Draco volans • drawing • dung beetle • English Language • Erosion • Essay • fairy • Feathered dinosaur • First Book • Folklore • Franz Kafka • Galápagos tortoise • gallic wars • Gauls • goatherd • Greco-Persian Wars • Greek Mythology • Griffin • Grizzly Bear • Gruel • Gustave Flaubert • Harun al-Rashid • Helladotherium • Herodotus • honey bee • Hyperborea • Illustration • Indian rhinoceros • insect • Insect bites and stings • Insect toxin • Insect wing • Javan rhinoceros • Josiah Ober • Jurassic • Latin Literature • legendary creature • Lesbos • Libation • Library stack • Literature • London Review of Books • Lord Byron • Low Culture • Lurcher • Magazine • Manuscript • Mark Antony • martyr • Memoir • military history • Military threat • Mirage • Miscellany • Museum of the Rockies • Mythology • North Africa • Orangutan • Origin Story • Outlaws of the Marsh (TV series) • paleontology • parachuting • perfume • Persian Art • Perversion • Pheromone • Poetry • popular culture • Popular science • Pottery • printmaking • Protoceratops • Publication • Punics • Pyrrhus of Epirus • Quadrupedalism • quinine • Revised Version • Richard Wagner • rodent • Saint Cuthbert (Dungeons & Dragons) • Saronic Gulf • Satyr • Sauropoda • Scientist • Scythia • Scythians • sea monster • sea serpent • sea turtle • sexualization • shapeshifting • Sigmund Freud • Skeleton Canyon • skepticism • Spider silk • Sports Afield • Storytelling • Susanna (Book of Daniel) • Tattoo • tattoo artist • Teutons • Textbook • Thalestris • The Dragon's Tooth • The Myth of Persecution • The Venerable • tortoiseshell • Torture • Tours • Toxin • trace fossil • Triceratops • unicorn horn • Venomous snake • war elephant • Website • woolly mammoth • Woolly rhinoceros • Writing • Xerxes I • Zooarchaeology
• ISBN-10: 0-691-21119-1 / 0691211191
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-21119-0 / 9780691211190