Mythology and Ritual
Recent Maya mythology is mainly concerned with Sun's childhood and the conflicts leading up to his actual solar transformation. Although specific imagery is used for the path of the sun (for example, the sun being carried through the underworld on the shoulders of its lord), there are hardly any histories concerning the mature sun deity, save for the southern Lacandons. According to them, Kinich Ahau - the elder brother of the upper god - will put an end to this world by descending from the sky and have his jaguars devour mankind. Little is also known about specific solar rituals, although it is noteworthy that Kinich Ahau regularly occurs in the Dresden Codex, which is largely concerned with ritual matters.
Read more about this topic: Kinich Ahau
Famous quotes containing the words mythology and/or ritual:
“One memorable addition to the old mythology is due to this era,—the Christian fable. With what pains, and tears, and blood these centuries have woven this and added it to the mythology of mankind! The new Prometheus. With what miraculous consent, and patience, and persistency has this mythus been stamped on the memory of the race! It would seem as if it were in the progress of our mythology to dethrone Jehovah, and crown Christ in his stead.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Cinema is the culmination of the obsessive, mechanistic male drive in western culture. The movie projector is an Apollonian straightshooter, demonstrating the link between aggression and art. Every pictorial framing is a ritual limitation, a barred precinct.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)