This nuanced account explores Maya mythology through the lens of art, text, and culture. It offers an important reexamination of the mid-16th-century Popol Vuh, long considered an authoritative text, which is better understood as one among many crucial sources for the interpretation of ancient Maya art and myth. Using materials gathered across Mesoamerica, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos bridges the gap between written texts and artistic representations, identifying key mythical subjects and uncovering their variations in narratives and visual depictions. Central characters-including a secluded young goddess, a malevolent grandmother, a dead father, and the young gods who became the sun and the moon-are identified in pottery, sculpture, mural painting, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Highlighting such previously overlooked topics as sexuality and generational struggles, this beautifully illustrated book paves the way for a new understanding of Maya myths and their lavish expression in ancient art.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Translations and Orthography -- Introduction -- 1 Image and Text -- 2 Pictorial and Textual Sources -- 3 Mesoamerican Cosmogony -- 4 The Maiden -- 5 The Grandmother -- 6 The Sun's Opponents -- 7 The Sun -- 8 The Perfect Youth -- 9 The Father -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Illustration Credits -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z

Presents an introduction to Mayan civilization, discussing its history, politics, art, religion, literature, philosophy, military, gods, and heroes.

This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths to elucidate the ancient Maya past while using multiple lines of evidence to shed light on the text. Combining interpretations of the myths with analyses of archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and literary resources, the work demonstrates how Popol Vuh mythologies contribute to the analysis and interpretation of the ancient Maya past. The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins’ deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica. The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics. Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube

Inspired by the achievements of the ancient Greeks, the Romans made their city the center of an empire unsurpassed in size and influence for more than a thousand years. Its rich legacy shaped the medieval world and continues to amaze us today. Life, Myth, and Art in Ancient Rome celebrates the many achievements of Roman culture and delves into its fascinating dark side. Romans erected structures so well-built and engineered that they still stand millennia later, yet these same buildings also showcased blood sports as public entertainment. The Romans instituted just government, impartial legal and political institutions, and concepts of citizenship, yet its population included slaves as well as patricians and plebeians, and was often riven by intrigue, superstition, and savagery. This volume is a richly illustrated introduction to a fascinating, at times paradoxical, civilization and its art and architecture, ranging from magnificent temples and aqueducts, to exquisite mosaics and jewelry. Placing the art in its cultural context, the author covers themes that have long inspired the Western imagination, including the rise and fall of emperors, the life and death of the gladiator, the belief in omens and prophecy, and, ultimately, the establishment of Christianity.

This introduction to Maya art is based on study of one of the most important collections in the United States, assembled by Robert Woods Bliss between 1935 and 1962. The catalogue, written by leading Maya scholars, contains detailed analyses of specific works of art along with thematic essays situating them within the context of Maya culture.