Adrienne Mayor is a classical folklorist whose main interests have been pre-Darwinian interpretations of paleontological remains (in The First Fossil Hunters) and the use of biochemical weapons in the ancient world (in Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs).

The topics covered in The First Fossil Hunters include:

• The use of woolly rhinoceros and other extinct megafauna remains to create relics of giant heroes in Classical times.
• That protoceratops skeletons were the basis for the griffin.

In Greek Fire, all kinds of accounts of the use of animal, bacterial, and chemical weaponry are discussed, including the titular Greek fire. Mayor asserts that the scene of Hercules dipping his arrows in the poisonous blood of the Lernaean Hydra was the first use (mythologically) of chemical weaponry.

Books

• The First Fossil Hunters (2000) — ISBN 0691089779
• Greek Fire (2003) — ISBN 158567348X
• "Fossil Legends of the First Americans" (2005) --ISBN 0691113459

External links

• Adrienne Mayor's homepage
• "Digging in Folklore, Unearthing Science" by Felicia R. Lee, New York Times profile (June 12, 2004)
• Are Dragons Real? from Dragons in Art and on the Web
• "Explaining Giant Bones" by Tim Tokaryk, American Scientist (Nov/Dec 2000)

Folklorists