Adrienne Mayor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Adrienne Mayor
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Adrienne Mayor in 2019
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| Born | April 22, 1946 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Employer | Stanford University |
Adrienne Mayor (born April 22, 1946) is a historian and a classical folklorist. She studies ancient science and how people in the past understood the natural world.
Mayor looks at "folk science", which is how ancient cultures explained things before modern science existed. She explores how these old ideas became myths and popular stories. For example, she studies how people found fossils (ancient bones) and what they thought these bones were. This work has helped create a new field called geomythology, which connects geology and myths. Her book, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, & the Scorpion Bombs, showed that ancient people used early forms of chemical and biological weapons.
About Adrienne Mayor
From 1980 to 1996, Adrienne Mayor worked as a copy editor and printmaker. A copy editor checks and corrects written text. A printmaker creates art using printing techniques.
Since 2006, Mayor has been a research scholar at Stanford University. She works in the Classics Department, which studies ancient Greek and Roman cultures. She also works in the History and Philosophy of Science Program.
Mayor has written many books and articles. She writes about interesting topics like:
- The history of automatons (early robots or self-moving machines)
- Amazons (mythical female warriors)
- Unconventional warfare (unusual fighting methods)
- Toxic honey (honey that can be poisonous)
- Tattoos in ancient times
- Legends about smallpox and other diseases
- Stories linked to fossil discoveries
- Place names that come from fossil legends
Her work has appeared in many magazines and journals. These include History Today and Archaeology. Her books, The First Fossil Hunters and Fossil Legends of the First Americans, were praised for showing how science can explain myths.
Her books have been translated into many languages. They have also been featured in documentaries. You might have seen her work on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, or the BBC. She has given talks at famous places like the American Museum of Natural History. She has also been interviewed on radio shows like NPR.
Her book, The Poison King, was about Mithradates VI Eupator. He was a powerful ancient king. This book was a finalist for a big award, the National Book Award, in 2009.
From 2011 to 2017, Mayor wrote regularly for a science history website called Wonders and Marvels.
In 2018 and 2019, she was a special fellow at Stanford. She researched how people have always wanted to create artificial life. This includes today's artificial intelligence (AI) and the animated statues found in ancient myths. Her research led to her latest book, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology.
Books by Adrienne Mayor
- The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2000; revised 2011) — ISBN: 0-691-08977-9
- Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (2003; revised 2022) — ISBN: 1-58567-348-X
- Fossil Legends of the First Americans (2005) — ISBN: 0-691-11345-9
- The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (2009) ISBN: 978-0-691-12683-8
- The Griffin and the Dinosaur: How Adrienne Mayor Discovered a Fascinating Link between Myth and Science, with Marc Aronson (2014) ISBN: 978-1-4263-1108-6
- Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (2018) — ISBN: 978-0-691-18351-0
- Flying Snakes & Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities (2022)
