{"title":"Adrienne Mayor","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the compelling works of \u003cem\u003eAdrienne Mayor\u003c\/em\u003e, a renowned historian and classical folklorist whose writings elegantly blend history, science, and mythology. Her collection is perfect for readers with a curiosity for ancient tales and the natural world’s mysteries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOne of Mayor's captivating books, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eFlying Snakes and Griffin Claws\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, explores the intersection of mythology and palaeontology. Similarly, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe First Fossil Hunters\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e reveals how ancient peoples understood fossils. These works illuminate how myth and legend often have their roots in real-world phenomena.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eFossil Legends of the First Americans\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, Mayor delves into Native American myths to uncover the historical understandings of fossils in pre-modern times. Meanwhile, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Poison King\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e provides a gripping biography of King Mithradates VI, known for his expertise in poisons, offering remarkable insights into ancient warfare and politics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGods and Robots\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e uncovers the ancient origins of robots and AI, discussing how myths preluded modern technological concepts. For those fascinated by the interplay between innovation and warfare, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGreek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e examines ingenious ancient weaponry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExplore the vast world of \u003cem\u003eAdrienne Mayor\u003c\/em\u003e through \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Amazons\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e, where she breathes life into the legendary women warriors of the ancient world. Finally, \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eMythopedia\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e serves as a beautifully illustrated collection of myths from various cultures, showcasing patterns and common themes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAdrienne Mayor’s works provide not just historical facts but a journey into how humans have long attempted to explain and manipulate their surroundings. Whether you're a history enthusiast or a lover of mythological tales, Mayor's books offer a treasure trove of knowledge and entertainment.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"greek-fire-poison-arrows-and-scorpion-bombs-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691211084","title":"Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA gripping and groundbreaking history of how ancient cultures developed and used biological, chemical, and other unconventional weapons of war\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFlamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease: are these terrifying agents of warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. In this riveting history of the origins of unconventional war, Adrienne Mayor shows that cultures around the world have used biological and chemical weapons for thousands of years—and debated the morality of doing so. Drawing extraordinary connections between the mythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts of Herodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war and terrorism, this richly illustrated history catapults readers into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war and mythic treachery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Rich and entertaining.' Mary Carmichael, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'[An] illuminating history of warfare. . . . \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGreek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e also excavates ancient attitudes toward biological and chemical arms that are startlingly relevant today. . . . Mayor is comprehensive about the history, ethics, and science of early biological and chemical weapons. Skillfully combing ancient texts, she describes cultures as varied as the Scythians and the Chinese with their chemical fire lances and poison \"vapors.\" Mayor shows most cultures devised exotic weaponry—and debated their use.' Jay Currie, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Mayor marshals not just myth, but also the writing of ancient authors and evidence from archaeological digs to show that biological and chemical weapons saw action in battles long before the modern era.' John Wilford Noble, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Recounts in lively, sometimes darkly comic detail the diabolical stratagems devised by devious warriors.' Joseph D'Agnese, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDiscover\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'[A] fascinating and engaging book.' Hans van Wees, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAmerican Scientist\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46512970957036,"sku":"9780691211084","price":52.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2097983482434.jpg?v=1748857203"},{"product_id":"the-first-fossil-hunters-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691245607","title":"The First Fossil Hunters","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe fascinating story of how the fossils of dinosaurs, mammoths, and other extinct animals influenced some of the most spectacular creatures of classical mythology\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGriffins, Centaurs, Cyclopes, and Giants—these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in \u003cem\u003eThe First Fossil Hunters\u003c\/em\u003e. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact—in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilised bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLike their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid palaeontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46833629364460,"sku":"9780691245607","price":55.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2443213482434.jpg?v=1758470051"},{"product_id":"flying-snakes-and-griffin-claws-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691211183","title":"Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology and popular knowledge, finding 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFlying Snakes and Griffin Claws\u003c\/i\u003e is a treasury of fifty of her most amazing and amusing discoveries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShowcasing Mayor's trademark passion not to demythologise myths, but to uncover the fascinating truths buried beneath them, \u003ci\u003eFlying Snakes and Griffin Claws\u003c\/i\u003e is a wonder cabinet of delightful curiosities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46849132200172,"sku":"9780691211183","price":53.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2098973482434.jpg?v=1759020594"},{"product_id":"gods-and-robots-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691183510","title":"Gods and Robots","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life—and even invented real automated machines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500 years ago, long before medieval automata, and centuries before technology made self-moving devices possible, Greek mythology was exploring ideas about creating artificial life—and grappling with still-unresolved ethical concerns about \u003cem\u003ebiotechne\u003c\/em\u003e, \"life through craft.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements—and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs early as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues, and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in Indian legend, Buddha's precious relics were defended by robot warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIndeed, many sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life, \u003cem\u003eGods and Robots\u003c\/em\u003e reveals how some of today's most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were foreshadowed in ancient myth—and how science has always been driven by imagination. This is mythology for the age of AI.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46849186857196,"sku":"9780691183510","price":84.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1822243482434.jpg?v=1759026538"},{"product_id":"gods-and-robots-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691202266","title":"Gods and Robots","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life - and even invented real automated machines.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500 years ago, Greek mythology was exploring ideas about creating artificial life - and grappling with still-unresolved ethical concerns about \u003cem\u003ebiotechne\u003c\/em\u003e, 'life through craft.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements - and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines. Revealing how science has always been driven by imagination, and how some of today's most advanced tech innovations were foreshadowed in ancient myth, \u003cem\u003eGods and Robots\u003c\/em\u003e is a gripping new story of mythology for the age of AI.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Mayor entertainingly re-examines the various versions of these myths that survive in written and visual form and speculates about their origins.\" \u003cem\u003e- The Economist\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Absorbing... Mayor is an accessible and engaging writer.\" - Peter Thonemann, \u003cem\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46849187086572,"sku":"9780691202266","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2009803482434.jpg?v=1759026574"},{"product_id":"the-amazons-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691170275","title":"The Amazons","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAmazons\u003c\/em\u003e—fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world—were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valour in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians revelled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut just who were these bold barbarian archers on horseback who gloried in fighting, hunting, and sexual freedom? Were Amazons real? In this deeply researched, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated book, National Book Award finalist Adrienne Mayor presents the Amazons as they have never been seen before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history across the ancient world, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Wall of China. Mayor tells how amazing new archaeological discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons prove that women warriors were not merely figments of the Greek imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCombining classical myth and art, nomad traditions, and scientific archaeology, she reveals intimate, surprising details and original insights about the lives and legends of the women known as Amazons. Provocatively arguing that a timeless search for a balance between the sexes explains the allure of the Amazons, Mayor reminds us that there were as many Amazon love stories as there were war stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Greeks were not the only people enchanted by Amazons—Mayor shows that warlike women of nomadic cultures inspired exciting tales in ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia, and China. Driven by a detective's curiosity, Mayor unearths long-buried evidence and sifts fact from fiction to show how flesh-and-blood women of the Eurasian steppes were mythologised as Amazons, the equals of men.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is likely to become a classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46849987805420,"sku":"9780691170275","price":69.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1689893482434.jpg?v=1759072248"},{"product_id":"fossil-legends-of-the-first-americans-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691245614","title":"Fossil Legends of the First Americans","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe burnt-red badlands of Montana's Hell Creek are a vast graveyard of the Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived 68 million years ago. Those hills were, much later, also home to the Sioux, the Crows, and the Blackfeet, the first people to encounter the dinosaur fossils exposed by the elements. What did Native Americans make of these stone skeletons, and how did they explain the teeth and claws of gargantuan animals no one had seen alive? Did they speculate about their deaths? Did they collect fossils?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeginning in the East, with its Ice Age monsters, and ending in the West, where dinosaurs lived and died, this richly illustrated and elegantly written book examines the discoveries of enormous bones and uses of fossils for medicine, hunting magic, and spells. Well before Columbus, Native Americans observed the mysterious petrified remains of extinct creatures and sought to understand their transformation to stone. In perceptive creation stories, they visualised the remains of extinct mammoths, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine creatures as Monster Bears, Giant Lizards, Thunder Birds, and Water Monsters. Their insights, some so sophisticated that they anticipate modern scientific theories, were passed down in oral histories over many centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on historical sources, archaeology, traditional accounts, and extensive personal interviews, Adrienne Mayor takes us from Aztec and Inca fossil tales to the traditions of the Iroquois, Navajos, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Pawnees. \u003cem\u003eFossil Legends of the First Americans\u003c\/em\u003e represents a major step forward in our understanding of how humans made sense of fossils before evolutionary theory developed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46854536200428,"sku":"9780691245614","price":55.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691245614.jpg?v=1759245975"},{"product_id":"mythopedia-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691247861","title":"Mythopedia","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom acclaimed folklorist and historian Adrienne Mayor, an enchanting collection of the ancient myths that emerged out of the wonders and disasters of the natural world.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMythopedia\u003c\/em\u003e is a fun, fact-filled A-Z treasury of myths inspired by natural events. Bringing together fifty legends from antiquity to the present, this delightfully entertaining book takes you around the world to explore sunken kingdoms and lost cities, accursed mountains and treacherous terrains, and lethal lakes and singing sand dunes, explaining the historical background and latest science underlying each tale.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs soon as humans invented language, they told stories to explain mysterious things they observed around them on land, in the seas, and in the skies. Even though these tales are expressed in poetic or supernatural language, they contain surprisingly accurate insights and even eyewitness descriptions of catastrophic events millennia ago. Drawing on her unique insights as a pioneer in the exciting new field of geomythology, Adrienne Mayor describes how cultural memories of tsunamis, volcanic disasters, and other massive geological events can reach back thousands of years as the stories were preserved, elaborated, told, and retold across generations. She shows how geomythology is expanding our understanding of our planet's history over eons, revealing the human desire to explain nature and weave imaginative stories intertwined with keen observation, rational speculation, and memory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith captivating drawings by Michele Angel, \u003cem\u003eMythopedia\u003c\/em\u003e is a compendium of many marvels, from the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and his army of bridge-building primates to the terrifying sand demon Shensha shen of China, the gnawing glaciers of Austria, and the vengeful fish-headed snake god Nyami Nyami of Africa's Zambezi River.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46998538551532,"sku":"9780691247861","price":50.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2465753482434.jpg?v=1763219422"},{"product_id":"the-poison-king-by-adrienne-mayor-9780691150260","title":"The Poison King","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMachiavelli praised his military genius. European royalty sought out his secret elixir against poison. His life inspired Mozart's first opera, while for centuries poets and playwrights recited bloody, romantic tales of his victories, defeats, intrigues, concubines, and mysterious death.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut until now, no modern historian has recounted the full story of Mithradates, the ruthless king and visionary rebel who challenged the power of Rome in the first century BC. In this richly illustrated book—the first biography of Mithradates in fifty years—Adrienne Mayor combines a storyteller's gifts with the most recent archaeological and scientific discoveries to tell the tale of Mithradates as it has never been told before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Poison King\u003c\/em\u003e describes a life brimming with spectacle and excitement. Claiming Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia as ancestors, Mithradates inherited a wealthy Black Sea kingdom at age fourteen after his mother poisoned his father. He fled into exile and returned in triumph to become a ruler of superb intelligence and fierce ambition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHailed as a saviour by his followers and feared as a second Hannibal by his enemies, he envisioned a grand Eastern empire to rival Rome. After massacring eighty thousand Roman citizens in 88 BC, he seized Greece and modern-day Turkey. Fighting some of the most spectacular battles in ancient history, he dragged Rome into a long round of wars and threatened to invade Italy itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHis uncanny ability to elude capture and surge back after devastating losses unnerved the Romans, while his mastery of poisons allowed him to foil assassination attempts and eliminate rivals. \u003cem\u003eThe Poison King\u003c\/em\u003e is a gripping account of one of Rome's most relentless but least understood foes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000806818028,"sku":"9780691150260","price":69.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1489743482434.jpg?v=1763306381"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/adrienne-mayor.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}