Tuesday, December 13, 2005

The story of an ancient Maya king

...revealed. The little image is beautiful. I can't imagine what it would be like to stand before it or to have taken part in the excavation.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny to come across this, Brenda, on the day that I am reading and thinking about blood sacrifices. I was just reading about the Indian goddess Kali and her thirst for blood. Apparently there are still covert human sacrifices in parts of India to this goddess. A Time magazine story tells of a guy who "sacrificed" his neighbour's 9 yr-old son. I thought, so how is that a sacrifice? How does he suffer personally for that act?

But what an image of this deity piercing his own penis as it spurts blood. Now that's a sacrifice.
FG

Brenda Schmidt said...

Interesting about Kali. I had no idea that still occurs.

There's something about the image of that deity on the mural. The posture. The wide stance. I wonder what the viewers of the time thought and felt as they stood before it? It seems to put forth an unwavering faith in the act. Perhaps it was meant to call out individual fortitude. I dunno. I'd love to see it in person or at least read a more complete interpretation.