All  

Store Banner Mobile

Store Banner Mobile

Primary tabs

MartiniF's picture

Martini Fisher

Martini Fisher comes from a family of history and culture buffs. She graduated from Macquarie University, Australia, with a degree in Ancient History. Although her interest in history is diverse, Martini is especially interested in  mythologies, folklores and ancient funerary practices.

Martini currently travels Asia with the purpose of collecting folklores and tales to simplify and present them for a global audience. Her first series of books, “Wayang: Stories of the Shadow Puppets,” is a look at the ancient stories of Javanese creation myths from a traditional performing arts standpoint. She also spent some time in Bali, Indonesia, compiling a little book of Balinese folk tales which she then released in e-book form titled “The Giant Who Loved the Moon: A Collection of Balinese Folk Tales”.

Spending most of her time in Asia and Australia, Martini started her contributions for another series of books, “Time Maps,” in 2008, continuing the work of Dr. R.K Fisher, who started the project in 1996 until the time of his passing. “Time Maps” retells the world history through a non-European point of view. “Time Maps: History, Prehistory and Biological Evolution” is available online and in bookstores.

Connect with Martini online through:

Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/martinifisher

Blog: www.fishermartini.wordpress.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/martinifisher

Facebook: www.facebook.com/fishermartini

History

Member for
8 years 1 month
Opt-in to Ancient Origins Newsletter (AC): 
No

Posts

A Samurai Preparing for Seppuku
2 July, 2020 - 20:51 MartiniF

The Honorable Death: Samurai and Seppuku in Feudal Japan

While martial suicide is a practice found in a lot of cultures, the act of seppuku , or ritual self-disembowelment, is peculiar to Japan. The earliest known acts of seppuku were the deaths of samurai...
Detail of the Murder of Commodus by Fernand Pelez. (1879). (Public Domain)
23 June, 2020 - 00:51 MartiniF

Mimicking Gods and Gladiators: The Assassination Of Emperor Commodus

Commodus, the son and heir of the distinguished ‘ philosopher emperor’ Marcus Aurelius , was a failure as a Roman emperor. He was appointed co-emperor of Rome and ruled alongside his father when he...
Folding Screen with Design of the Scenes from The Tales of Genji by anonymous painter. Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (Public Domain)
8 June, 2020 - 11:09 MartiniF

The Poetry Behind the Tale of Genji, A Heian Prince of Japan

Written in the early 11th century Japan, Genji Monogatari (源氏物語, T he Tale of Genji ) vividly describes the complex life and relationships of Genji, a handsome courtier, an excellent lover and a...
Orpheus and the Bacchantes by Gregorio Lazzarini (1710) (Public Domain)
27 May, 2020 - 23:42 MartiniF

The Maenads, Mad, Frenzied Priestesses of Dionysus

The Maenads are often written off simply as ‘mad women’ by historians. However, although the name Maenad literally translates as the ‘raving ones’, these women were much more than that. The Maenads...
Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1862) (Public Domain)
2 May, 2020 - 01:30 MartiniF

Aristophanes and Euripides: The Comedy and Tragedy of Fifth Century BC Greek Women

Euripides (circa 480 – 406 BC) was the last of the three great tragedians of Classical Greece - the other two being Aeschylus, the ‘Father of Tragedy’ who, among many others wrote Agamemnon (458 BC)...
The dance of Salome by Robert Fowler (1885) (Public Domain)
1 April, 2020 - 23:37 MartiniF

Dirty Dancing in Ancient Religion and Rituals

Due to its ability to mimic important events, enchant the audience as well as evoking joy and extasy in the audience and performers alike, the art of dance was infused in many religious rituals and...
Everyday Life in Old China 06 (Public Domain)
20 March, 2020 - 16:30 MartiniF

A History of Hairpins and Hairdo’s of Ancient Women in Eastern Asia

Confucian values in ancient China held that since one's hair is a gift from one's parents it is to be treated with utmost respect. This rule applies to men and women alike. Haircuts were therefore...
Samson and Delilah by Domenico Fiazella (1650) Louvre (Public Domain)
28 February, 2020 - 19:58 MartiniF

Hair-Raising Status of Ancient Gods and Men

Human hair has always played an important role in culture and in society. For men and women alike, styling one's hair seems to be an innate human desire to emphasize their beauty and power. Thus,...
Tomb of the augurs. Tarquinia, Italia. (circa 530 BC) (Public Domain)
19 February, 2020 - 16:13 MartiniF

The Augurs of Rome: Birds Predicting The Will Of The Gods

Cycles of nature were at the core of the ancient practice of divination to decipher the will of the gods. Many different methods of divination were practiced in antiquity, such as dream...
Phaèdra by Alexandre Cabanel (1818) Musee Fabre. (Public Domain)
23 January, 2020 - 02:38 MartiniF

Fields of Mourning, Where Grieving Love-Sick Women Retire

Hidden deep within the bowels of the earth and ruled by the god Hades and his wife Persephone, the ancient Greek Underworld was the kingdom of the dead, the sunless, cold and shadowy place where the...
God statue in traditional old oriental Chinese temple in Taiwan (Chinese Translation on lantern : name of the Chinese god of sea, Matsu) (voyata/Adobe Stock)
18 January, 2020 - 00:29 MartiniF

Lei Gong and the Ministry of Thunder and Storms

Thunderstorms were one of the most powerful and frightening natural phenomena encountered by the ancients. However, it paradoxically also brought life-giving rain. The universal experience of thunder...
Depiction of Nyi Blorong ( circa 1879) Tropenmuseum (Public Domain)
4 January, 2020 - 03:40 MartiniF

Nyi Blorong Commander of the Southern Seas and Bringer of Wealth

One afternoon in the 1960s, the people of Magelang in Java, Indonesia, gathered on the edge of the main road which connects Magelang and Yogyakarta and sounded anything they could find which could...
The Tuccia Vestal by Louis Hector Leroux (1874) (Public Domain)
28 December, 2019 - 04:15 MartiniF

The Precarious Fates of Rome’s Vestal Virgins

The fate of Rome depended upon the chastity of the Vestal virgins and their transgressions could lead to live entombment. In the first century BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus , one of the richest and...
Medea by Artemisia Gentileschi (1620)(Public Domain)
13 December, 2019 - 23:34 MartiniF

Medea, Murderous Mother or Defiant Defender of the Oikos?

In his Argonautica , ancient Greek author Apollonius of Rhodes provides a rather romantic introduction of Medea as a young woman desperately in love. Unfortunately, this introduction quickly takes on...
The Fall of Hera: Demoted from Autonomous Goddess to Wife of Zeus
4 December, 2019 - 23:15 MartiniF

The Fall of Hera: Demoted from Autonomous Goddess to Wife of Zeus

Constantly battling with Zeus’ infidelity, Hera the ancient Greek goddess of family and marriage, often took swift and cruel revenge - not on her philandering husband, but on his conquests and the...
Folk-tales of Bengal, illustration by W. Goble (1912) (Public Domain)
14 November, 2019 - 01:20 MartiniF

Deep-Rooted Mythology of Sacred Trees of the World

Numerous myths, ubiquitous to great civilizations spanning the globe, reflect a deep-rooted belief in an intimate connection between a human being and a tree. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite proclaims...

Pages