'This welcome contribution to theorizing hybridity offers a thoughtful and sustained reflection on a key dimension of human interaction with the natural and imagined environment, furnishing a fascinating window onto aspects of the ancient Greek experience with the known and unknown. It should also attract interest for comparative studies of hybrids and hybridity in cultural spheres both related to and altogether removed from the ancient Mediterranean world.' Ann C. Gunter, Northwestern University

'In this splendid book which deploys scholarship of truly impressive depth and breadth, Jeremy McInerney demonstrates that the notion of hybridity has just as much to offer to the student of ancient Greece as it does to the analyst of our own radically different culture. The argument overflows with theoretical insights inspired by anthropology, and makes productive use of comparative material from, especially, the Near East, Egypt and Australasia (including Norman Lindsay's sublime The Magic Pudding). But it is Greece that takes the limelight. McInerney investigates a fascinating menagerie of imaginary animal/human boundary-crossers, creatures who are, as he puts it, 'strange, yet at the same time disquietingly familiar'. A must-read for any serious student of the Greek imaginaire.' Richard G. A. Buxton, University of Bristol