Feb 03, · SOURCE: “Culture and History in Things Fall Apart,” in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, Vol. 11, No. 1, , pp. 25– [In the following essay, Meyers discusses Achebe's presentation The Achaemenid Persian empire was the largest that the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia. Its formation began in B.C., when King Astyages of Media, who dominated much of Iran and eastern Anatolia (Turkey), was defeated by his southern neighbor Cyrus II (“the Oct 06, · The Western Roman Empire had clearly fallen by the s. Italy was controlled by Justinian, many of its cities were ruined and much of its infrastructure was severely damaged
Coatlicue – Smarthistory
over here. Coatlicuec. Coatlicue, c. Standing over ten feet tall, the statue towers over onlookers as she leans toward them. With her arms bent and pulled up against her sides as if to strike, she is truly an imposing sight. In fact, snakes form her entire skirt, as well as her belt and even her head. Her upper torso is exposed, and we can just make out her breasts and rolls in her abdomen.
The rolls indicate she is a mother. A sizable necklace formed of hands and hearts largely obscures her breasts. Two enormous snakes curl upwards from her neck to face one another.
Their bifurcated, or split, tongues curl downwards, and the resulting effect is that the snake heads and tongues appear to be a single, the fall of the roman empire essay, forward-facing serpent the fall of the roman empire essay. Snakes coming out of body parts, as we see here, was an Aztec convention for squirting blood.
Coatlicue has in fact been decapitated, and her snaky head represents the blood squirting from her severed neck. Her arms are also formed of snake heads, suggesting she was dismembered there as well. Snakes facing one another detailCoatlicue, c. You might read elsewhere that Coatlicue was decapitated by her daughter or beheaded when her son was born from her severed neck the idea has been adopted in part to explain this monumental sculpture.
However, the myth from the fall of the roman empire essay this story derives does not actually state that Coatlicue suffered this fate. For this reason, it the fall of the roman empire essay useful to review the myth—one of the most important for the Aztecs.
This myth was recorded in the later sixteenth century after the Spanish Conquest of The main source from which we learn about it is the General History of the Things of New Spainalso called The Florentine Codex written —77 and compiled by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, indigenous authors and artists, and indigenous informants, the fall of the roman empire essay.
One day Coatlicue, an earth goddess, was sweeping atop Coatepec or Snake Mountainwhen a feather fell into her apron. At that moment, she immaculately conceived a son, whose name was Huitzilopochtli a sun and warrior god.
She rallied her brothers, the Centzonhuitz-nahua, to storm Snake Mountain and kill their mother. One of the brothers decided to warn Coatlicue. Upon hearing of this impending murder, Coatlicue became understandably afraid. But Huitzilopochtli comforted her, telling her not to worry. At the moment Coyolxauhqui approached her mother, Huitzilopochtli was born, fully grown and armed.
As she fell, her body broke apart until it came to rest at the bottom of Snake Mountain. But what became of Coatlicue, the mother to the victorious Huitzilopochtli and the defeated Coyolxauhqui? The Aztecs believed that there were four earlier suns or eras prior to the one in which we currently live. The myth notes that several female deities perhaps Coatlicue among themsacrificed themselves to put the sun in motion, effectively allowing time itself to continue. They were responsible for preserving the cosmos by offering their own lives.
Snakes and torso detailCoatlicue, c. It functions as a reminder of her name—Snakes-Her-Skirt—as well as symbolizing her as a deity and reminding the viewer of her past deeds.
This might also explain why—in place of her head—we have two snakes rising from her severed neck. They represent streaming blood, which was a precious liquid connoting fertility. With her willing sacrifice, Coatlicue enabled life to continue. Some details on the sculpture support this newer and enticing interpretation. Archaeologists have also found the remains of several other monumental sculptures of female deities similar to Coatlicue, but each display different skirts.
One of these sculptures see photo at top of the page stands near to Coatlicue in the Anthropology Museum, but hearts adorn her skirt instead of snakes. Coatlicue de Cozcatlán, c. Despite her fame in one of the most important Aztec myths concerning their patron god, Coatlicue did not have numerous stories recorded about her during the sixteenth century that we know of at least. Few surviving Aztec objects display her.
However, another stone sculpture in the National Museum of Anthropology—on a much smaller scale—shows Coatlicue with her head intact. We can identify her by her snaky skirt.
Her face is partly skeletonized and de-fleshed. Her nose is missing, revealing the cavity. Yet she still has flesh on her lips, which are open to reveal bared teeth, the fall of the roman empire essay. Even with her head, this version of Coatlicue still seems intimidating to us today. But was she perceived as terrifying by the Aztecs or is this only a twenty-first century impression of her?
Prior to the Spanish Conquest, Coatlicue related to other female earth deities, such as Toci Our Grandmother. Several sixteenth-century Spanish Colonial sources mention that Coatlicue belonged to a class of deities known as tzitzimime deities related to the starswho were considered terrifying and dangerous.
The Aztecs believed this was an ominous time when bad things could happen. In Spanish Colonial chronicles, the tzitzimime are depicted with skeletonized faces and monster claws—similar to what we see in Coatlicue sculptures discussed here.
These sources also call the tzitzimime demons or devils. For all their ferociousness, however, the tzitzimime also had positive associations. Ironically, this group of deities were patrons of midwives, or women responsible for helping mothers with their babies. People also invoked them for medical help and they had associations with fertility. For these reasons, they had a more ambivalent role than as simply good or bad deities, and so they were both respected and feared.
After the Spanish Conquest, the monumental Coatlicue sculpture was buried because it was considered an inappropriate pagan idol by Spanish Christian invaders. After languishing in obscurity for more than years, it was rediscovered in Antonio León y Gama, a curious historian, astronomer, and intellectual living in Mexico City at the time, drew illustrations of the sculpture and offered his interpretation of who it displayed he claimed it was Teoyaomiqui. Not long after it was found, however, Coatlicue was reburied—she was considered too frightening and pagan.
Eventually, she was uncovered again in the twentieth century, becoming one the fall of the roman empire essay the crowning objects of the National Anthropology Museum and a famous representative of Aztec artistic achievements in stone sculpture. Famsi on Aztec monumental sculpture. Elizabeth M.
Brumfiel and Gary M. Feinman, eds. Davíd Carrasco and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, eds. For myths in the Florentine Codex, see Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J.
Anderson, eds. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spainthe fall of the roman empire essay, 12 vols. More Smarthistory images…. Sign up for our newsletter! Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content, the fall of the roman empire essay. Illustration of the Battle of Coatepec from Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain The Florentine Codex—77, volume 1, page Cite this page as: Dr.
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Fall of the Roman Empire in 6 Minutes
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The Achaemenid Persian empire was the largest that the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia. Its formation began in B.C., when King Astyages of Media, who dominated much of Iran and eastern Anatolia (Turkey), was defeated by his southern neighbor Cyrus II (“the Oct 06, · The Western Roman Empire had clearly fallen by the s. Italy was controlled by Justinian, many of its cities were ruined and much of its infrastructure was severely damaged Contribute an essay – Help make art history relevant and engaging; Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way Rothermel, De Soto Raising the Cross on the Banks of the Mississippi Remington's The Fall of the Cowboy Aestheticism and the Gilded Age Browse this content
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