"Maya Myths in Art & Writing"

Previous participation and previous knowledge not required.

Have you ever been curious about what the ancient Maya believed, or what stories they told to explain the world around them? Thanks to ethnographic work and recent epigraphic decipherments of the Maya script, we are able to understand more clearly what the Maya believed about their world. Scenes represented on ceramic vessels or on stone monuments come to life as we read words spoken by gods and animals alike. Although the content of these stories has changed over time, many connections still exist between ancient Maya beliefs and those of the modern Maya living today. In this reading group, we will study the myths of the ancient Maya and how these myths were represented in art during the Classic period. Using Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariego’s as our guide, we will analyze the myths passed down through time and preserved in ancient artifacts. Participant…