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Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws
- And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities
- Narrated by: Nancy Crane, Adrienne Mayor
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
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Publisher's summary
Adrienne Mayor and Nancy Crane narrate this treasury of astonishing mythic marvels
Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find 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 antiquity, medieval, and modern times. Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a treasury of fifty of her most amazing and amusing discoveries.
The 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.
Showcasing Mayor’s trademark passion not to demythologize myths, but to uncover the fascinating truths buried beneath them, Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws is a wonder cabinet of delightful curiosities.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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“If it were up to me, I’d replace the whole internet and two-thirds of telephony with Adrienne Mayor books.” - Ian Dreiblatt, Literary Hub
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On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz makes an unsettling discovery. A history buff since early childhood, expensively educated at university - a history major, no less! - he's reached middle age with a third-grader's grasp of early America. In fact, he's mislaid more than a century of American history, the period separating Columbus' landing in 1492 from the arrival of English colonists at Jamestown in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between?
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Just Not For Me
- By Sara on 10-25-15
By: Tony Horwitz
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Mirage
- Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
- By: Nina Burleigh
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Little more than 200 years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. Its history and peoples were the subject of much myth and speculation: and no region aroused greater interest than Egypt.
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A lesson in history
- By —- on 01-05-10
By: Nina Burleigh
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Why Homer Matters
- By: Adam Nicolson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Adam Nicolson sees the Iliad and the Odyssey as the foundation myths of Greek - and our - consciousness, collapsing the passage of 4,000 years and making the distant past of the Mediterranean world as immediate to us as the events of our own time.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 05-04-15
By: Adam Nicolson
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The Colour of Magic
- Discworld, Book 1
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place that might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules. But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.
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TERRIBLE Narration!
- By Kayla I on 07-08-22
By: Terry Pratchett
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Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
- By: Bettany Hughes
- Narrated by: Bettany Hughes
- Length: 24 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City", but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city but a global story.
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A daunting undertaking pulled off superlatively
- By SGS on 12-24-17
By: Bettany Hughes
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The Age of the Vikings
- By: Anders Winroth
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by medieval and modern myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and developed a vast trading network. They traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships, not only to raid, but also to explore. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets, and even the infamous berserkers were far from invincible.
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Interesting history. Narrator could be better
- By Castle51 on 07-09-15
By: Anders Winroth
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When They Severed Earth from Sky
- How the Human Mind Shapes Myth
- By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Paul T. Barber
- Narrated by: Beth Richmond
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? Why are mirrors believed to carry bad luck? How could anyone think that mortals like Perseus, Beowulf, and St. George actually fought dragons, since dragons don't exist? Strange though they sound, however, these "myths" did not begin as fiction.
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The Volcano Book
- By Stanley on 02-05-11
By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber, and others
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Conquistadors
- By: Michael Wood
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Following in the footsteps of the greatest Spanish adventurers, Michael Wood retraces the path of the conquistadors from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Machu Picchu. As he travels the same routes as Hernán Cortés, Francisco, and Gonzalo Pizarro, Wood describes the dramatic events that accompanied the epic sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.
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Horrific anti-European bias
- By Anonymous User on 08-30-20
By: Michael Wood
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Classical Mythology
- Captivating Stories of Greek and Roman Gods, Heroes, and Mythological Creatures
- By: Matt Clayton
- Narrated by: Dryw McArthur
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Explore captivating stories of Greek and Roman gods, goddesses, and monsters in this ultimate guide to classical mythology.
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great reference
- By danush on 07-09-18
By: Matt Clayton
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Egyptian Mythology
- Captivating Stories of the Gods, Goddesses, Monsters and Mortals
- By: Matt Clayton
- Narrated by: JD Kelly
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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This book on Egyptian mythology is part of the best-selling series, Norse Mythology - Egyptian Mythology - Greek Mythology. In this ultimate guide on Egyptian mythology, you will discover captivating stories of the gods, goddesses, monsters, and mortals.
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No lo vale
- By fer on 02-09-23
By: Matt Clayton
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The First Americans: Prehistory – 1600, A History of US, Book 1
- By: Joy Hakim
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Thousands of years, way before Christopher Columbus set sail, wandering tribes of hunters made their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They didn't know it, but they had discovered a New World. The First Americans is a fascinating re-creation of pre-Columbian Native American life, and it's an adventure of a lifetime!
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For Kids
- By Matthew on 01-26-05
By: Joy Hakim
What listeners say about Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ian K O'Malley
- 08-15-22
fun collection
I am a big fan of all her work... and this just adds to her scholarship in my eyes... I highly recommend...
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- Austin Sailsbury
- 12-07-22
A Cabinet of Curiosity
This is a fun, quirky miscellany of information, mythology, and folklore based in the classic world. I will certainly look forward to reading / listening to more of Ms. Mayor’s thoughtful and delightful work.
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