The flayed God : the mesoamerican mythological tradition : sacred texts and images from pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America /

This gorgeous book is both a significant scholarly achievement and a superlative popular introduction to an important body of American myth--the legends and figures of the Olmecs, Maya, Aztecs, and others in what is now Mexico and upper Central America. Many, even those who enjoy reading of ancient cultures, find the myths of Mesoamerica difficult to stomach, much less comprehend, what with all those were-jaguars, flayed gods, snake women, and bloody rituals. The Markmans provide a context, both historical and metaphysical, for understanding these difficult myths. Their work wonderfully combines original texts in new translations, magnificent artwork, and clear theoretical analyses. A major presentation of Mesoamerican material for a lay audience. ~--Pat Monaghan

Human sacrifice, symbolic bloodletting, divine kingship and other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican rites and customs can be understood only in the context of the mythological traditions of the Aztec, Maya and Olmec, assert the authors. Their captivating study amplifies key Mesoamerican mythic narratives, hymns and prayers with 100 reproductions (25 in color) of ancient ceramics, stone sculptures, paintings, monuments and masks. Beginning with simple yet profound female figurines, this panoramic survey moves on to the Great Mother Goddess, hero twins, feathered serpents, were-jaguars and the fourfold development of the gods, the cosmos and humans from the unity of the creative principle. The Markmans, who cowrote Masks of the Spirit: Image and Metaphor in Mesoamerica , take readers inside a strange yet exalted universe whose inhabitants--mythic and human--participated in a cyclic drama of death and regeneration. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This marvelous collection of sacred texts and images from pre-Columbian Central American culture is well presented and carefully introduced, providing a wealth of material on goddess images in village cultures and on the urban tradition with its creation and rulership myths. Authors Roberta Markman (comparative literature, California State, Long Beach) and Peter Markman (English, Fullerton) concentrate on the unfolding of these traditions, on their social and historical backgrounds, and on profundity as revealed in literary and visual texts. Essential for academic and museum libraries, recommended for seminary and public libraries. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.