Jeremy McInerney is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Folds of Parnassos (1999), The Cattle of the Sun (2010) and Greece in the Ancient World (2018) and the editor of A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean (2014).

• Preface; Acknowledgements; List of figures; 1. Introduction: encountering the sphinx; 2. 'Welcome to Athens'. Theories of hybridity; 3. Hybrids around the corrupting sea; 4. Hybrids, contact zones and margins; 5. Heads or tails: Gorgons, satyrs and other composites; 6. Centaurs and other horses; 7. Snakes and the perils of autochthony; 8. Hermaphrodites and other bodies; 9. Adynata, ethnography and paradox; 10. Conclusions; Bibliography.

'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