"In the celebrated epic poem, the Iliad, about noble heroes fighting honorable battles, both sides actually used arrows dipped in snake venom,' said Adrienne Mayor, author of 'Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World' (published this month by Overlook Press). "
"This dense but highly informative volume narrates the long pretechnological history of the use of poisons and fire in warfare. Mayor, who has published in Military History Quarterly, begins with the first legend of poisoned arrows: Hercules and his quiver of missiles tipped with the hydra's venom (probably snake venom). He and his wife also figure in an early use of an externally applied poison-the "poisoned" garments that killed them both with an inextinguishable flame may have been impregnated with saltpeter. Using their powers of observation and a sound if rule-of-thumb grasp of cause and effect, our not-so-primitive ancestors went on to set fires, throw fires and project fires (Greek fire reached its apex when flung from a ship-mounted flame thrower)."
"'Can we know the future? Mostly not, it seems. And often it takes us entirely by surprise. But we do regularly make two quite contradictory assumptions about it: that it is unknowable, and that once it's here we saw it coming.'
"Inspired by the ancient masterpiece The Aeneid, by Roman poet Virgil, modern-day author Penelope Lively has penned a poignant retelling of the arduous journeys of Trojan warrior Aeneas. Doubtful young readers will be amazed at how readable and downright gripping these old tales really are, from the devastating ruse the Greeks wreak on the city of Troy, to the tempestuous seas the escaping Trojans cross and recross, to the violent battles they fight, all in the name of finding their true homeland."