1. 233S17 FINAL REVIEW

2. CUMULATIVE MATERIAL

3. Characteristics of Myth
Narrative Oral Traditional Anonymous Multiform Homeostatic Authoritative “True”

4. • anthropogony : • autochthony : • axis mundi : • emergence myth : • etiological myth : • regeneration myth :

5. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : • axis mundi : • emergence myth : • etiological myth : • regeneration myth :

6. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : claim that ancestors emerge from earth • axis mundi : • emergence myth : • etiological myth : • regeneration myth :

7. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : claim that ancestors emerge from earth • axis mundi : world axis; spatial, temporal, ritual center of world • emergence myth : • etiological myth : • regeneration myth :

8. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : claim that ancestors emerge from earth • axis mundi : world axis; spatial, temporal, ritual center of world • emergence myth : claim that ancestors emerge from trees, caves, mountains etc. • etiological myth : • regeneration myth :

9. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : claim that ancestors emerge from earth • axis mundi : world axis; spatial, temporal, ritual center of world • emergence myth : claim that ancestors emerge from trees, caves, mountains etc. • etiological myth : myth that accounts for natural feature or cultural practice • regeneration myth :

10. • anthropogony : myth of human creation • autochthony : claim that ancestors emerge from earth • axis mundi : world axis; spatial, temporal, ritual center of world • emergence myth : claim that ancestors emerge from trees, caves, mountains etc. • etiological myth : myth that accounts for natural feature or cultural practice • regeneration myth : myth that represents life as circular (not linear) process

11. Myth, Legend, Folktale SACRED MYTH LEGEND FOLKTALE WORLD inflexible
somewhat flexible, generally hostile
highly flexible
CAUSALITY
hard determinism
rigid laws, fateful determinism, some room for human choice
chance and luck; in the extreme, fairytale wish-fulfillment
STANCE
absolute resignation
acquiescence and endurance
optimism and opportunism
MORALITY
irrelevant: good = divine will
irrelevant: moral character NOT = quality of experience
relevant: moral character = quality of experience

12. Cosmogonic Types TYPE NATURE DEITY MYTH created world Genesis
evolved world
Enuma Elish

13. Cosmogonic Types TYPE NATURE DEITY MYTH created world inert matter
Genesis
evolved world
dynamic matter
Enuma Elish

14. Cosmogonic Types TYPE NATURE DEITY MYTH created world inert matter
transcendent
Genesis
evolved world
dynamic matter
immanent
Enuma Elish

15. Cosmogonic Pattern 1. Primal Unity 2. 3. Proliferation of Beings 4.
5. Plot (Regret) 6.
7. Resolution
8. Stability

16. Cosmogonic Pattern 1. Primal Unity 2. Separation
3. Proliferation of Beings 4.
5. Plot (Regret) 6.
7. Resolution
8. Stability

17. Cosmogonic Pattern 1. Primal Unity 2. Separation
3. Proliferation of Beings
4. Destabilization
5. Plot (Regret) 6.
7. Resolution
8. Stability

18. Cosmogonic Pattern 1. Primal Unity 2. Separation
3. Proliferation of Beings
4. Destabilization
5. Plot (Regret)
6. Confrontation
7. Resolution
8. Stability

19. Combat Myth VICTOR ENEMY male female youngest offspring oldest parent
anthropomorph
theriomorph
alliance of gods
alliance of monsters
form/structure/organization
raw matter
civilization
nature

20. Hero Pattern BIRTH Mixed Status CHILDHOOD Signs of Election Separation
Education
DEPARTURE
Call
Sidekick
Journey
Exploits
Encounters
RETURN / DEATH
Failure
Reconciliation
Death
MEMORIALIZATION
Myth & Ritual

21. Regeneration Pattern 1. Descent 2. Failure/Limitation 3. Ascent
Repeat 1-3

22. MESOAMERICAN MATERIAL

23. TIME
PERIODS
CULTURES
BCE
FORMATIVE
Olmec
___________
Zapotec
Earliest Mesoamerican high civilization: monumental sculptures, jaguar shamans, ball game, human sacrifice
________________
Early Mesoamerican civilization : astronomical observatories
100 BCE – 900 CE
CLASSIC
Mayan
Teotihuacan
Popol Vuh
City "Where Gods Were Made"; pan-Mesoamerican shrine CE
POSTCLASSIC
Aztec
Leyenda de los Soles
POST-CONQUEST
Cortés and defeat of Motecuhzoma II

24. Mesoamerican Themes • astronomical observation
• pyramidal architecture
• shamanistic animal cults
• oppositional structures
• ball game
• blood-letting and human sacrifice
• agricultural symbolism (maize)
• regeneration

25. Emergence Myths Chicomoztoc : Mesoamerican Cave of Origins
Tree of Origin : example of axis mundi

26. Aztec Cosmogony: Leyenda de los Soles
Primal Duality
Ometeotl : God of Duality
Creation of 4 Tezcatlipocas
Xipe Totec, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli OR Mictlantecuhtli (Death)
Creation of Suns 1-4
each destroyed by excess of own power
Creation of 5th world
cooperation between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl
sacrifice of caiman (Cipactli)
blood-letting by gods to feed earth
Descent into Mictlan
Quetzalcoatl and spirit-double nahualli retrieve bones
Mountain of Sustenance
contains maize
Quetzalcoatl fails to retrieve it
Nanahuatzin (Lame God) splits mountain with lightning
servants of Tlaloc (Rain God) steal maize
human beings made from ground maize + divine blood at Tamoanchan
Creation of pulque
Quetzalcoatl elopes with Mayahuel to Tamoanchan
star-demons (tzitzimime) murder Mayahuel
maguey grows from corpse; sap used to make pulque
Creation of 5th Sun
Tecuciztecatl (Rich God) and Nanahuatzin (Poor God) compete at Teotihuacan
Nanahuatzin sacrifices himself to become Sun; Tecuciztecatl  Moon
Quetzalcoatl sacrifices other gods and himself to feed and move Sun and Moon

27. Mayan Cosmogony: Popol Vuh
STAGES
DETAILS
Plumed Serpent + Heart of Sky
earth created by power of word
animals
animals assigned habitats and habits (failure)
humans 1
mud creature (failure)
humans 2
wood people (failure)
humans 3
maize people

28. Quetzalcoatl (Plumed Serpent)
• quetzal serpent • rain and wind (Quetzalcoatl + Ehecatl [Wind God]) • daytime (Day Sun) • creator and culture-bringer (bones, maize, maguey) • nahualli dog (Xolotl) • as Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl, priest of Tula, corrupted by Titlacauan(-Tezcatlipoca) with pulque • Topiltzin disappears; Motecuhzoma suspects Cortés may be return of god

29. Tezcatlipoca (Smoking Mirror)
• original (Black) created god • cooperates with Quetzalcoatl to create world • associations: night (Night Sun), earth, death, jaguar (nahualli), obsidian (divination), smoke, mirrors (divination), magic, drunkenness, sexual debauchery (lameness, fire, lightning), war, kingship • Tezcatlipoca (as Titlacauan) corrupts Quetzalcoatl-Topiltzin with pulque, causing fall of city of Tula

30. Huitzilopochtli and Aztec Migration
• Migration as “external motivation”: fated, destined, divinely supported. • Migration charts genealogical, physical, topographical ancestry. • Migration establishes itinerary of significant places, sacralizing space. • Migration establishes political history of relations, legitimizing wars and alliances. • Route of migration provides map for ritual reenactment.

31. Huitzilopochtli and Aztec Migration
• Aztecs leave Aztlan led by bodiless Huitzilopochtli • Coatlicue (Snake Skirt Woman) impregnated by feather • Huitzilopochtli born and attacked by 400 step-brothers and Coyolxauhqui (She Whose Face is Adorned with Bells) • death of Coyolxauhqui ~ defeat of moon by sun • sculptured slab of dismembered Coyolxauhqui at Templo Mayor • Aztecs foundTenochtitlan (1345) where eagle perches in cactus

32. Sacrificial Themes compensation/justice shed blood of Cipactli
debt-payment
blood sacrificed by gods for humans
nourishment
blood feeds earth, Sun, Moon
order
blood sacrifice prevents destruction by tzitzimime (star demons)
regeneration
blood feeds dead, irrigates earth, ensures growth
Social functions of sacrifice
• group identity and cohesion
• ritualized entertainment: sacrifice as theatre
• participation in maintenance of universe
• state terrorism

33. Festival of Flayed Men
• 20-day festival celebrated before spring planting season • festival in honor of Xipe Totec • captives in xochiyaoyotl (flower war) dressed as ixiptla (god-impersonators) • ixiptla treated like gods, sacrificed, hearts put in cuauhxicalli (bowl), skulls in tzompantli (skull-rack) • skin of ixiptla flayed and worn by Eagle Warriors, flesh cooked and eaten • skins shed on last day of festival, buried in fields to promote fertility

34. Eagle Warrior Cihuatateo

35. Eagle Warrior Cihuatateo
• participates in xochiyaoyotl • mock combat with ixiptla • distributes meat of victims • wears flayed pelt of victims • after death, lifts sun into sky

36. Eagle Warrior Cihuatateo
• participates in xochiyaoyotl • souls of women dead in childbirth • mock combat with ixiptla • causes mental illness, theft of children • distributes meat of victims • drags sun down from sky each night • wears flayed pelt of victims • after death, lifts sun into sky

37. Xipe Totec (Our Lord the Flayed One)
outer/inner dry/ green, wet husk/maize seed/flower skin/heart human/god dead/living death/regeneration

38. Summary of Popol Vuh 1
Cosmogony; creation of animals and first two (mud, wood) humans. 2
Descent into Xibalba of Hun Hunahpu (1 Hunter) and Vucub Hunahpu (7 Hunter); their defeat.
Hun Hunahpu impregnates Xquic. 3
Birth of Hero Twins Hunahpu (Hunter) and Xbalanque (Jaguar Deer).
Hero Twins defeat Vucub Caquix, the False Sun.
Descent of Twins into Xibalba; their victory. 4
Creation of maize people.

39. First Generation Hun Hunahpu (1 Hunter) & Vucub Hunahpu (7 Hunter)
•Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu descend into Xibalba to play ball. •Hun and Vucub fail in Xibalba: cannot keep cigars lit •Head of Hun Hunahpu put in calabash tree. •Head impregnates Xquic (Little Blood). •Xquic ascends to Upperworld, twins in her womb.

40. Second Generation Hunahpu (Hunter) & Xbalanque (Jaguar Deer)
•Twins descend into Xibalba to play ball. •On the way, Twins defeat Vucub Caquix , the False Sun. •Twins succeed in Xibalba: use fireflies to keep cigars lit •Twins overcome trials in House of Knives, Cold House, Jaguar House, Fire House •Hunahpu decapitated in Bat House; head replaced by gourd. •Xibalbans use head of Hunahpu in ball game. •Twins substitute gourd for head, and win game. •Twins sacrifice themselves in fire. •Twins reappear as entertainers, perform resurrection shows. •Twins trick Lords of Xibalba into participating; they are sacrificed. •Twins rescue Hun Hunahpu, who becomes God of Maize. •Twins rise from Xibalba to become Sun and Moon.

41. Substitutions in Popol Vuh
head of Hunahpu  skull  gourd  ball  head  Sun

42. Ball Game
• ball game mimics passage of Sun through underworld • ball game ensures that Sun survives passage through underworld • identification of Sun with human being : ball game helps turn linear trajectory of human life into cyclical pattern, as in astronomy and agriculture

43. Hero Narratives MESOAMERICA CELTIC IRELAND MESOPOTAMIA
Hero Twins/Quetzalcoatl divine
Cú Chulainn avatar of Lugh
Gilgamesh 2/3 divine
defeat of Xibalbans
defeat by Lugaid mac con Roi
defeat by death
Hero Myth + Regeneration Myth
Hero Myth + transmigration
separate Hero and Regeneration Myths
defeat through trickery (folktale)
geis
beheading competition
linear terminality of life (legend)
embrace of death as complement to life
life/death cyclic
resistance to death