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The Nahua Myth of the Suns

The Nahua Myth of the Suns THE NAHUA MYTH OF THE SUNS History and Cosmology in Pre-Hispanic Mexican Religions BY WAYNE ELZEY Miami University, U.S.A. One of the most interesting and best documented of all pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican myths is the story of the creation and destruction of a succession of world periods or ages. It is recorded by several of the early missionaries to whom we owe the bulk of our knowledge about the beliefs, practices, customs and institutions of the religions of central Mexico. Andrés de Olmos, Bernardino de Sahagun, Diego Duran, Toribio de Motolinia, Geronimo de Mendieta and other six- teenth century chroniclers describe the sacred lore about the creation and destruction of the world through its several ages or "Suns", as the sources refer to them. Other variants, commentaries and references of varying form (literary, pictorial, monumental), provenance, author- ship and extensiveness further increase our knowledge of this story. In all, more than twenty different variants of the myth of the Suns were recorded in the region of central Mexico within roughly one hundred years of the Conquest. 1 ) 1) For sake of brevity we cite only the editions in the original language, wher- ever possible. Other editions and translations http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Numen Brill

The Nahua Myth of the Suns

Numen , Volume 23 (2): 114 – Jan 1, 1976

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1976 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0029-5973
eISSN
1568-5276
DOI
10.1163/156852776X00021
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE NAHUA MYTH OF THE SUNS History and Cosmology in Pre-Hispanic Mexican Religions BY WAYNE ELZEY Miami University, U.S.A. One of the most interesting and best documented of all pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican myths is the story of the creation and destruction of a succession of world periods or ages. It is recorded by several of the early missionaries to whom we owe the bulk of our knowledge about the beliefs, practices, customs and institutions of the religions of central Mexico. Andrés de Olmos, Bernardino de Sahagun, Diego Duran, Toribio de Motolinia, Geronimo de Mendieta and other six- teenth century chroniclers describe the sacred lore about the creation and destruction of the world through its several ages or "Suns", as the sources refer to them. Other variants, commentaries and references of varying form (literary, pictorial, monumental), provenance, author- ship and extensiveness further increase our knowledge of this story. In all, more than twenty different variants of the myth of the Suns were recorded in the region of central Mexico within roughly one hundred years of the Conquest. 1 ) 1) For sake of brevity we cite only the editions in the original language, wher- ever possible. Other editions and translations

Journal

NumenBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1976

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