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A review by kevin_shepherd
The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times by Adrienne Mayor
3.0
In her introduction to the newer edition, Adrienne Mayor mentions that this book is now used as a text for post-grad and graduate studies. I can easily imagine The First Fossil Hunters as required reading for a university course on ancient Greek or Roman (or perhaps even Norse) theology. With an abundance of helpful illustrations, Mayor interweaves classical mythology with paleontology, speculating that writers and philosophers like Apollonius of Rhodes and Titus Lucretius and Empedocles were influenced by the found fossil remains of dinosaurs and extinct megafauna.
A GRAIN OF SALT
Because of the scarcity of documentation, much of ancient human history is necessarily speculative. What physical evidence there is for Mayor’s theory (e.g. the Hesione vase, circa 550 BCE) is open to interpretation. Still, Professor Mayor makes a compelling case. I invite you to read this for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
_____________________________
*I had a hard time engaging with this material, mostly because my base knowledge of archaic narratives is severely lacking. Apollonius and Lucretius and Empedocles are now well represented in my browser history as I (ashamedly) had no goddamn idea who they were.
A GRAIN OF SALT
Because of the scarcity of documentation, much of ancient human history is necessarily speculative. What physical evidence there is for Mayor’s theory (e.g. the Hesione vase, circa 550 BCE) is open to interpretation. Still, Professor Mayor makes a compelling case. I invite you to read this for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
_____________________________
*I had a hard time engaging with this material, mostly because my base knowledge of archaic narratives is severely lacking. Apollonius and Lucretius and Empedocles are now well represented in my browser history as I (ashamedly) had no goddamn idea who they were.