Scientists, educators, and other experts weigh in about the book’s value:
“Like a literary time machine, Vicki’s book plunks readers into the sandals of antiquity’s greatest sages, soldiers, and kings. A captivating read from start to finish.”
---Alan Hirshfeld, astrophysicist and author of Eureka Man: the Life and Legacy of Archimedes and other nonfiction.
“Vicki Leon’s How to Mellify a Corpse is a scintillating compendium of ancient beliefs and practices, from magical thinking to proto-scientific inklings.”
---Adrienne Mayor, research scholar, Classics and History of Science, Stanford University; author of The First Fossil Hunters and Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs
“Suffering from the Evil Eye? Thinking of raising a pet eel? Wondering how Greek city-states kept their calendars? Look no further. With characteristic wit and insight, author Vicki León brings the wonders of the ancient world to light for young and old. From stench wars to funeral rites, León takes us on a fantastic journey to the origins of ideas and ideologies. A fun reference and a rollicking read.”
---Stephanie Lile, museum educator and author of History Lab to Go!
“Vicki Leon has done it again. Not only has she enlarged
our ideas of Uppity Women through the ages but she’s turned a litany of ancient names into lively, warts-and-all portraits of real philosophers, early scientists, and architects. With honey-coated yet acerbic wit, she brings an insightful, accessible focus to bear on the complex teachings of our icons from the deep past.”
---Dr. Jacqueline Waldren
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
& International Gender Studies, University of Oxford
“The titles and subtitles of the book’s entries are factual and often humorous. Leon is good at engineering hilarious incongruity with fractured idioms---“Measurements and money: the whole nine cubits,” for instance. My favorite entries are “Acoustics: the first surround sound” and “Timekeeping: Calendar Wars” because they made me curious about subjects new to me. Reading them made my mind expand, which I think is the book’s highest value. Highly entertaining and intellectually stimulating.”
---Caroline Hatton, Ph.D.
analytical chemist and author of The Night Olympic Team
“While subjected to four years of Latin at school, I frequently visited the ‘cast of thousands’ at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, a sculpture gallery of classical males with unsmiling heads and untouchable goddess figures. Even then, I suspected that inside those formidable figures of the past there must have been human beings, trying to get out.
“My suspicions are confirmed by Vicki Leon’s penetrating account of the Greco-Roman world, about which she knows more than any conventional classical scholar I’ve ever met. Her book ranges from forward-looking science, technology, and philosophy to what strikes us as mind-boggling superstition. All of it, brought to life through a huge cast of real people, from the renowned to the undeservedly obscure, and told with the style, humor, and energy of the best public media reporting. It’s a perfect combination: the ancient world seen through perceptive modern eyes.”
---Stephen Moorbath
Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford
“This conversational book about long-ago guys (and gals) will make you a brainiac and entertain you as well. Its stories about people, places, and processes are organized geographically rather than thematically, with alternating emphasis to keep us engaged. Given my background, I was especially interested in the entries on geography and geology. A delightful read, with many wonderful morsels of insight and trivia. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Vicki’s book delivers a thousand years of fascinating anecdotes.”
---Jerry Clark, college geography teacher & NASA space researcher, retired
“A thought-provoking read. The facts Vicki León incorporates are fun and informative, exactly what Latin teachers (and students) love to share. Furthermore, she plays with words so eloquently and lightly that she draws readers into her interest in the classics. The connections she makes to the ancient world through science are just what keeps students enthused and delving deeper. I’ll be adding elements of her book to my classes as a spice to keep them savoring the classics.”
---Brian Geffre, Latin and English high-school teacher;
& sponsor of Shanley Junior Classical League
The hodometer, a Roman invention, counted mileage by using toothed wheels that pushed pebbles into a box.
Ancient Greeks from Archimedes to Philo used complex pulleys to move large ships and hoist heavy materials via cranes.