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My dissertation investigates how an Aztec religious antiquity was defined and codified in colonial Mexico by focusing on the transformation of Aztec figures of power (Nahuatl: teteoh) into “pagan gods.” Through a wide range of texts, images and pictorial manuscripts produced in colonial Mexico as well as in Santo Domingo, Spain, Italy and the Low Countries, I argue that the dominant interpretation of the Aztec gods that arose in the sixteenth century was an instance of the “reception of reception”: the result of the creative deployment, by central Mexican native elites, of the interpretative strategies of the Conquerors. I eschew traditional ethnohistorical approaches by arguing that the figures that came to be known as the Aztec gods were in fact sixteenth- and seventeenth-century constructions that emerged from the convergence of three phenomena in Post-Conquest Mesoamerica: fifteenth-century Castilian historical culture, early modern antiquarian and humanist intellectual practices, and “native exegesis”—native interpretation and re-creation of tradition, often influenced by rivalries between central-Mexican indigenous elites. I contend that native and mestizo elites held a far greater degree of intellectual agency in creating an image of their own past than what is conveyed by their common characterization as “informants.” Under the epistemic conditions that obtained within a budding colonial society, central-Mexican elites managed to selectively present some of their ancient teteoh under a new light, as deified rulers, founders of political lineages, inventors of important arts and trades, or even as forerunners of an autochthonous monotheism. The Aztec pantheon emerged from an interplay between European and Native forms of exegesis, thus foreclosing clean-cut distinctions between “production” and “reception,” or between “social facts” and “interpretations.” At the same time, the pantheon codified an image of New Spain’s pagan past: a reflection of Classical Antiquity that manifested Mexico-Tenochtitlan’s political hegemony over and against other local traditions. A construction of unparalleled efficacy, the Aztec pantheon still shapes our understanding of Mesoamerican civilizations up to the present day.

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In this work, you get drawn into a different and distant world than the one we are usedto. You get to know what shamanism is, in a basic and understandable way, easy to lookupon for a newcomer to this gigantic subject. The world of raging spirits and meddlingshamans with the belief of three worlds where spirits roam will be compared toreligions that we might know better, with big focus on the Aesir Faith. Oden and otherwell-known characters from this belief are in a historical way looked upon and relatedto beliefs, storys and findings.The archaic belief of the humans are intriguing and exciting, and I hope you find outthat yourself, when you dig in to this essay

The main part of the thesis is a commentary on Silius Italicus Book 1, concentrating on the poet's attempts to blend history into epic. Close scrutiny of his language reveals his awareness of the problems involved in writing historical epic, as he varies his diction and conventions at different stages of the book. The commentary also examines his manipulation of the historical tradition. Excursus 1, The Structure, examines Silius' solution of the largescale problem of shaping his historical raw material into a poem that conformed to the conventions of proportion and harmony. It is suggested that he did not seek unity through a hero or by thematic means, but by superimposing a coherent pattern on to the events of the war. Excursus 2, The Gods, investigates Silius' decision to retain the traditional epic divine apparatus. It is argued that such a decision is intelligible and not to be summarily dismissed as misguided. Any "failure" of the divine apparatus in Silius is a matter of practice, not of theory.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, 1915. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished