Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. The Borderlands of Myth, History, and Science 1
Animals: Fabulous, Real, and Extinct
1 The Flying Snakes of Arabia 13
2 Sea Monsters and Mer-People of the Mediterranean 26
3 The Golden Fleece 37
4 Griffin Claws and a Unicorn Horn 41
5 Dolphin Tales 50
6 The Musical Racing Turtles of Greece 59
7 A Little Bird with Poison Poop 68
8 The Roman Army's Vulture Mascots: The First Banded Birds 75
9 Pet Birds through the Ages 78
10 Your New Puppy in Ancient Times 88
11 Weasels in Classical Myth and History 92
12 Living the Modern Ferret Lifestyle 101
13 Colossal Fossils of Greece 112
14 Hunting Griffins: An Imaginary Letter to a Paleontologist 117
15 Siegfried and the Dragon 140
16 Tracking the Lucky Rhino in China 143
17 Fake Fossils 147
18 Cuvier and the Mammoth Foot 154
19 Geronimo's Dragon 162
20 Enslaved Africans Were First to Identify Mammoth Fossils in America 166
Formidable Women
21 Beauty Secrets of the Ancient Amazons: Cabbage, Cannabis, and Frankincense 173
22 Arab Warrior Queens 180
23 Chiomara, Courageous Celtic Woman 183
24 Camilla: Why Is There an Amazon in the Aeneid? 187
25 Plato and the Amazons 194
26 The Brave Women of Argos 198
27 Cleopatra and Antony Go Fishing 201
28 The Poetess and the Queen of Amazons 204
29 Proving the Existence of Amazons in 1685 209
30 Wine Goblets and Women's Breasts 213
Curious History and Science
31 Ghost Ships 225
32 Mirages at Sea 236
33 Winds in Ancient Myth and History 250
34 Death by Bronze "Frisbee" 261
35 Could Aristotle Guess Your Personality from Your Face? 264
36 The First Anti-Vaxxers 267
37 Poison Honey 272
38 Who Was the First Foot Fetishist? 282
39 "Giants" in Ancient Warfare 286
40 Sweating Truth in Ancient Carthage: A New Appreciation of Flaubert's Punic Fever Dream 306
Travelers, Tattoos, and Tyrants
41 Tourists in Classical Antiquity 323
42 Grand Tourists in Greece, from Lord Byron to Sigmund Freud 337
43 Who Were the First Recreational Mountain Climbers? 349
44 Ancient Tattoos 354
45 Tattoos in Ancient China 363
46 Caligula: Let Them Hate, So Long as They Fear 369
47 A Mountain of a Man: Maximinus Thrax 375
48 King Midas: Gold and Bull's Blood 378
49 Home in a Body Bag: Classical Parallels for a Persian Gulf Urban Legend 382
50 Perfumes of Power: The Scent of Leaders 386
Notes 391
Credits 395
Index 397