Sapiens Characters

In an ancient Sumerian myth, a ruler named Gilgamesh traverses the globe in pursuit of a way to cheat death, before concluding that death is a human being’s destiny. Harari discusses the myth of Gilgamesh to express his worries about contemporary scientific efforts to prolong human life.

Cyrus the Great was an ancient ruler of the Persian empire (established 500 BCE). He attempted to unite the Mesopotamian region into one empire.

Quin Shi Huangdi founded an ancient Chinese empire in 250 BCE.

Pharaoh Akhenaten converted his Egyptian empire from polytheism to monotheism around 1350 BCE when he declared that one of Ancient Egypt’s minor gods (Aten) was the supreme deity. Harari cites Pharaoh Akhenaten to illustrate how monotheism grew out of polytheism.

Aten was a minor god in Ancient Egyptian folklore. Pharaoh Akhenaten declared Aten the supreme deity around 1350 BCE, effectively converting the Egyptian empire from polytheism to monotheism.

Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God in Christian theology.

Siddhartha Gautama was a legendary prince living in 500 BCE who founded Buddhism. He became the first Buddha, or enlightened being.

Karl Marx was a political theorist who invented Communism, along with his collaborator Friedrichs Engels.

Friedrichs Engels was a political theorist who invented Communism, along with his collaborator Karl Marx.

Emperor Constantine converted the Roman Empire from polytheism to Christianity, marking the rise of Christianity in Europe.

Isaac Newton was a scientist who discovered gravity and created the laws of motion, which has dominated humanity’s understanding of the physical world ever since he outlined his view in The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, published in 1687.

Robert Wallace and Alexander Webster were Scottish clergymen who created a life insurance fund for widows in 1744. Harari highlights the way they used statistics to develop their business model.

King Edward I and his wife, Queen Eleanor, ruled England in the 1200s. Despite their wealth, stature, and resources, most of their children died. Harari discusses King Edward I and Queen Eleanor to highlight the high rate of child mortality in medieval times.

Captain James Cook sailed to Tahiti on a scientific mission for Britain in the 1700s. On it, he claimed Australia, New Zealand, and several Pacific islands for Britain. Harari discusses Cook to show that the rise of science and European imperialism were closely intertwined.

Admiral Zheng He was a Chinese admiral who explored far reaches of the Indian Ocean in the 1400s. Despite his exploration of numerous new nations, he didn’t seek to colonize them for China, unlike later European expeditions helmed by Christopher Columbus and Captain James Cook.

Hernàn Cortés colonized Aztec Mexico in the 1500s by taking Emperor Montezuma hostage upon his arrival.

Montezuma was the emperor of the Aztec Emperor until it was colonized by the Spanish following Hernàn Cortés’s expedition to Mexico in the 1500s.

Francisco Pizarro colonized the Incan empire for Spain in the 1500s.

William Jones was a British imperialist scholar working in India during British rule. He founded the field of linguistics by studying ancient Sanskrit texts.

Marie le Pen is a French politician. Harari thinks Marie le Pen uses social science to justify her anti-immigration political platform.

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist who wrote the Wealth of Nations in 1776. The book articulated early capitalist ideas that productivity, profit, and wealth generation are good for a nation’s collective well-being.

Harry Harlow was an American psychologist who conducted experiments in the 1950s on monkeys’ attachment to their mothers. Harari discusses Harlow to show that animals in captivity suffer deep, pathological trauma from being separated from their mothers.

Eduardo Kac is a Brazilian artist who paid a scientific lab to genetically engineer a fluorescent rabbit for him, which they made by implanting jellyfish DNA into a rabbit embryo. Harari discusses Kac to highlight advances in bioengineering, which Harari worries about.

Henry Rawlinson was a British officer who traveled to Persia to help train the Persian army in the 1900s. During his time there, he discovered ancient scripts and conducted research on the Babylonian, Elamite, and Old Persian empires.