The Nahua Myth of the Suns
History and Cosmology in Pre-Hispanic Mexican Religions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9206582 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wayne Elzey (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1976 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 114 |
| Publication date | 1976-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Numen (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0029-5973 • E-ISSN: 1568-5276 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3269663 |
| OpenAlex | W1978922650 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
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. Andres (de Olmos, Bernardino de Sahagfin, Diego Durin, Toribio de Motolinia, Ger6nimo de Mendieta and other sixteenth 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, authorship 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 )
Astronomy · Astrophysics · Cosmology · History of religions · Mythology · Physics · Sociology · Suns in alchemy · Anthropology · Classics · History · Latin American history and culture · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Citations per year | 0.06 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1991 - 2018 (28) |
| Highly cited | No |