(11) CAMILLA TOWNSEND:

THE AZTEC MYTHS: A GUIDE TO THE ANCIENT STORIES & LEGENDS (2024)

I still default to the usual superficial knowledge of Aztec mythology characteristic of its lurid image in popular culture – that is to say, the closest mythology comes to a horror film or the Cthulhu Mythos, both of itself and of its ritual practice of human sacrifice.

However, it is hard to resist seeing Aztec mythology as horror film mythology or to not get lost amongst its deities with their tongue-twisting Scrabble-winning names.

That’s where this book comes in – “the essential guide to the world of Aztec mythology, based on Nahuatl-language sources”.

“Camilla Townsend returns to the original tales, told at the fireside by generations of Indigenous Nahuatl-speakers. Through their voices we learn the contested histories of the Mexica and their neighbours in the Valley of Mexico – the foundations of great cities, the making and breaking of political alliances, the meddling of sometimes bloodthirsty gods…the divine principle of Ipalnemoani connected humans with all of nature and spiritual beliefs were woven through the fabric of Aztec life, from the sacred ministrations of the ticitl, midwives whose rituals saw women through childbirth, to the inevitable passage to Mictlan, ‘our place of disappearing together’ – the land of the dead.”

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)