Adrienne Mayor is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

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Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of "folk science

Folk science

Folk science describes ways of understanding and predicting the natural and social world, without the use of rigorous methodologies . One could label all understanding of nature predating the Greeks as "folk science"....

": how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these interpretations form the basis of many ancient myths, folklore and popular beliefs. Her work in pre-scientific fossil discoveries and traditional interpretations of paleontological

Paleontology

Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...

 remains has opened up a new field within the emerging discipline of Geomythology

Geomythology

Geomythology is the study of alleged references to geological events in mythology. The term was coined in 1968 by Dorothy Vitaliano, a geologist at Indiana University....

 and classical folklore. Mayor's book on the origins of biological and chemical warfare revealed the ancient roots of poison weaponry and tactics. Since 2006, Mayor has been a research scholar in the Classics Department and the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

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Mayor has published articles on Amazons, unconventional warfare, toxic honey, tattoos in antiquity, smallpox blankets in history and legend, assassination by poisoned garments in Mughal India, fossil-related placenames, and other topics in scholarly journals and popular magazines, including the Journal of American Folklore, Archaeology, "Natural History," and MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History." Her books have been translated into 8 languages and have been featured in documentaries on the History and Discovery TV Channels. She has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Smithsonian, Chicago Institute of Art, Getty Museum, among other venues, and has been interviewed on NPR, BBC, and Coast to Coast AM. Her biography of Mithradates VI Eupator, The Poison King, was a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award 2009.

The First Fossil Hunters (2000, reissued with new Introduction 2011)

Mayor's first book investigated discoveries and interpretations of dinosaur and other large vertebrate fossils in classical antiquity, and presented her now-widely accepted theory that ancient observations of the fossilized remains of dinosaurs and other extinct species influenced belief some mythic creatures, such as the griffin

Griffin

The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...

 and the Monster of Troy

Cetus (mythology)

In ancient Greek, the word ketos - Latinized as cetus - denotes a large fish, a whale, a shark, or a sea monster. The sea monsters slain by Perseus and Heracles were each referred to as a cetus by ancient sources. The term cetacean originates from cetus. In Greek art, cetea were depicted as...

. This book is the basis for the popular History Channel show "Ancient Monster Hunters."

Other highlights include:

• Greek and Roman discoveries of the huge fossils of woolly rhinoceros
  Woolly Rhinoceros
  The woolly rhinoceros is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived the last glacial period. The genus name Coelodonta means "cavity tooth"...
  
   and other extinct megafauna
  Megafauna
  In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are "giant", "very large" or "large" animals. The most common thresholds used are or...
  
   remains were interpreted as relics of mythic giants, larger-than-life heroes, and monsters in classical times.

• In Central Asia, exquisitely preserved Protoceratops
  Protoceratops
  Protoceratops is a genus of sheep-sized herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur, from the Upper Cretaceous Period of what is now Mongolia. It was a member of the Protoceratopsidae, a group of early horned dinosaurs...
  
   dinosaur skeletons, discovered by ancient Scythian nomads searching for gold, influenced the ancient image and folklore about the fabulous gold-guarding griffin
  Griffin
  The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
  
  .

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs (2003, revised edition with new Introduction 2009)

Mayor's second book uncovers the earliest examples of biochemical weapon

Chemical warfare

Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...

s in the ancient world, to demonstrate that the concept and practice of biochemical warfare occurred much earlier than was previously thought. She presents ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, African, and Indian historical accounts of the practice of biochemical warfare, using animal, bacterial, poison, and chemical weaponry, including the titular Greek fire

Greek fire

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning while floating on water....

. This book has become a favorite of ancient war gamers and was featured in the History Channel show "Ancient Greek WMDs."

Other highlights include:

• The ancient Greek myth of Hercules
  Hercules
  Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
  
   dipping his arrows in the poisonous venom of the Lernaean Hydra
  Lernaean Hydra
  In Greek mythology, the Lernaean Hydra was an ancient nameless serpent-like chthonic water beast, with reptilian traits, that possessed many heads — the poets mention more heads than the vase-painters could paint, and for each head cut off it grew two more — and poisonous breath so virulent even...
  
   reveals the deep antiquity of the concept of weaponizing toxic natural forces.

• Unintended consequence
  Unintended consequence
  In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
  
  s and ethical dilemmas have surrounded the use of biochemical weapons since antiquity

Fossil Legends of the First Americans (2005)

Mayor's third book gathers Native American accounts of discoveries of dinosaur and other fossils and oral traditions about their meaning, from pre-Columbian times to the present. It has been featured in History Channel MonsterQuest videos. Highlights include:

• Inca and Aztec ideas about mammoth, giant sloth, and other large fossils

• Traditions from numerous Native American cultures, including Iroquois, Lenape, Sioux, Blackfeet, Pawnee, Navajo, Apache, Zuni, Crow, Cheyenne, and many others, about a wide range of fossils, from stone shells and petrified wood to the skeletons of giant bears, mammoths, dinosaurs, and marine and flying reptiles.

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (2009)

Mayor's fourth book details the story of the life of Mithradates, leader of the ancient Black Sea kingdom of Pontus, who, in the 1st century B.C., did everything he could to overthrow the Roman Empire. Highlights include:

• The historic massacre of 150,000 Roman and Italian residents of Anatolia and [the] Aegean islands

• Mithradates' experiments in potions and poisons and his universal antidote

Books

• The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton University Press 2000) — ISBN 0-691-08977-9
• Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (Overlook 2003) — ISBN 1-58567-348-X
• Fossil Legends of the First Americans (Princeton University Press 2005) — ISBN 0-691-11345-9
• The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press 2009) — [ISBN 978-0-691-12683-8]

External links

• Adrienne Mayor's homepage
• "Digging in Folklore, Unearthing Science" by Felicia R. Lee, New York Times profile (June 12, 2004)
• "Explaining Giant Bones" by Tim Tokaryk, American Scientist (Nov/Dec 2000)