24 Adrienne Mayor Quotes for You to Enjoy

Adrienne Mayor

American Historian

Born: 1946

Always Great Men People Time Women

Related authors: Carter G. Woodson Daniel J. Boorstin David McCullough Henry Adams James Truslow Adams Robert Fogel Tara Westover Will Durant

I just had a hunch that there might be kernels of truth or reality - scientific or historical reality - in stories about nature that are perpetuated in oral myths. That's how I got interested in it. Adrienne Mayor

Truth Nature Reality Hunch About Had Myths Scientific Got How Historical Oral Just Stories Interested Might

The nomads' egalitarian lifestyle astonished the Greeks, who kept their own women indoors weaving and minding children. The exotic Scythian lifestyle fueled the Greek imagination and led to an outpouring of myths about fierce Amazons, 'the equals of men.' Adrienne Mayor

Women Men Own Imagination Minding Astonished Weaving About Outpouring Lifestyle Myths Indoors Equals Led Exotic Greek Greeks Egalitarian Children Fierce Fueled Who Kept

From about 700 B.C. to A.D. 500, the vast territory of Scythia, stretching from the Black Sea to China, was home to diverse but culturally related nomads. Known as Scythians to Greeks, Saka to the Persians, and Xiongnu to the Chinese, the steppe tribes were masters of horses and archery. Adrienne Mayor

Home Black Stretching Related Tribes Archery About Diverse Vast Horses Known Masters Territory Were Greeks China Chinese Sea

Just as a fossil is 'petrified time,' so is an ancient artifact or text. Adrienne Mayor

Time Ancient Text Just Fossil Petrified

We know their names: Hippolyta, Antiope, Thessalia. But they were long thought to be just travelers' tales or products of the Greek storytelling imagination. A lot of scholars still argue that. But archaeology has now proven without a doubt that there really were women fitting the description that the Greeks gave us of Amazons and warrior women. Adrienne Mayor

Women Thought Long Doubt Warrior Imagination Gave Archaeology Argue Scholars Names Tales Know Without Still Proven Were Lot Fitting Greek Greeks Just Storytelling Us Really Products Description Travelers Now

The 'Iliad' covered only two months of the great ten-year war with Troy. At least six other epic poems preceded or continued the events in the 'Iliad', but they survive only as fragments. Adrienne Mayor

War Great Events Other Fragments Months Poems Only Troy Least Continue Covered Survive Six Epic Iliad Two

The Romans had chosen Pergamon to be the capital of their new province. But by 88 B.C., most of western Asia was allied with King Mithradates, who had taken over the royal palace in Pergamon for his own headquarters. Adrienne Mayor

King Own Allied Had Taken Over New Headquarters Most His Province Western Romans Asia Capital Who Chosen Palace Royal

Pergamon, a prosperous city in western Anatolia, was fabled to have been founded by Hercules' son. Like many Hellenistic cities populated by Greeks who intermarried with indigenous people, Pergamon after Alexander the Great's death (323 B.C.) had evolved a hybrid of democracy and Persian-influenced monarchy. Adrienne Mayor

Death Great Democracy Son People Alexander Cities Evolved City Indigenous Indigenous People Hybrid Had Like Prosperous Been Western Greeks After Who Many Monarchy Founded Hercules

Historical records show that Abenakis and other Natives encountered European explorers and traders in Canada looking for sources of ivory to compete with the Russian trade in Siberian fossil mammoth ivory - these traders routinely asked about ivory 'horns' and teeth. Adrienne Mayor

The strong bond of sisterhood was a famous trait in classical art and literature about Amazons. But it was modern people who interpreted that as a sexual preference for women. That started in the 20th century. The Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva declared that Amazons were symbolic of lesbianism in antiquity. Adrienne Mayor

Art Women People Strong Poet Sexual Classical About Russian Were Antiquity Sisterhood Trait Modern Famous Literature Preference Century Who Interpreted Bond Started Symbolic

I've always been interested in oral traditions and mythological stories and legends from antiquity that have to do with nature, attempts to explain mysterious or puzzling, or very striking phenomena from nature. Things that people observed or heard about in nature. Adrienne Mayor

The cultural center of Asia Minor, Pergamon boasted a vast library of 200,000 scrolls, a spectacular 10,000-seat theater, and a monumental Great Altar decorated with sculptures of the Olympian gods defeating the Giants. People came from all around the Mediterranean seeking cures at the famous Temple of Asclepius, god of medicine. Adrienne Mayor

God Great Library People Medicine Mediterranean Monumental Giants Minor All-Around Temple Seeking Vast Altar Around Came Cultural Cures Gods Famous Center Theater Asia Decorated Sculptures Spectacular Defeating Olympian

Archaeologists have been digging up thousands of graves of people called Scythians by the Greeks. They turn out to be people whose women fought, hunted, rode horses, used bows and arrows, just like the men. Adrienne Mayor

Male buerkitshi are certainly more common than females today, although eagle hunting has always been open to interested girls. Archaeology suggests that eagle huntresses were probably more common in ancient times. Adrienne Mayor

I think the key to the whole appeal of Amazons is the egalitarian society. There was once a time and place where equality was taken for granted - it was logical and necessary - and I think most people can get the message that if it happened once, it could happen again. Adrienne Mayor

Time People Equality Key Logical Think Society Once Could Taken Taken For Granted Most Message Get Egalitarian Where Happen Happened Place Again Granted Appeal Whole Necessary

Unlike settled, patriarchal societies such as classical Greece and Rome, where women stayed home to weave and mind children, the lives of nomadic steppe tribes centered on horses and archery. Adrienne Mayor

Anyone who's watched 'The Hunger Games', or female archers, knows that that is an absolutely physiologically ridiculous idea. Adrienne Mayor

Hunger Hunger Games Absolutely Idea Knows Female Anyone Games Ridiculous Watched

If Queen Amezan and Queen Penthesilea could somehow meet in real life, they would recognize each other as sister Amazons. Two tales, two storytellers, two sites far apart in time and place, and yet one common tradition of women who made love and war. Adrienne Mayor

Life Love War Time Women Queen Made Real Life Sister Other Meet Recognize Would Somehow Could Tales Real Tradition Sites Common Place Apart Storytellers Far Who Each Two

The Greeks first identified the Amazons ethnographically, as a nation of men and women distinguished by something outstanding in their gender relations. Later, any ambivalence or anxiety that knowledge of this alternative gender-neutral culture evoked among Greeks was played out in their mythic narratives about martial women. Adrienne Mayor

Knowledge Culture Women Anxiety Men Men And Women Gender First Nation Relations Later Distinguished Out Martial About Something Mythic Outstanding Identified Alternative Narratives Ambivalence Greeks Any Among Played

The Ephesians took great pride in their temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Amazons had worshipped here, and the fabulously rich King Croesus built the original temple. Adrienne Mayor

Great World Pride King Rich Took Seven Worshipped Ancient Temple Great Pride Had Built Wonders Original Here

In April 2001, I visited Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. The heaps of mastodon and other large skeletons that used to loom out of the brackish backwaters along the Ohio River here are long gone, though the occasional big bone sometimes comes to light. Adrienne Mayor

Sometimes Light Long Big Gone Bone Other State April Though Visited Out Lick Long Gone Park River Along Loom Occasional Ohio Skeletons Used Large Here Kentucky

Adrienne Mayor Quotes

No more Adrienne Mayor quotes