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AN-NUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1939 



ized. He ruled the phenomena of the unclouded sky and was opposed 

 by a serpent god of the clouded sky who also manipulated some of 

 the planets as covert enemies of the sun, especially Venus. 



The social situation during the First Empire of the Mayas which 

 ended about A. D. 630 was purely theocratic, with rulers often wear- 

 ing the masks of gods, especially the jaguar mask of the sun god. 

 There was a collapse and a rebuilding, but in later times less religious 

 intensity is manifest. 



It appears that the jaguar sun god became established among the 

 nations of Mexico and Central America and that certain controlling 

 ideas probably passed south along the Andes to Peru and beyond. 



The evidence of the transfer of sun worship to the Toltecs, the 

 Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Totonacs, Aztecs, etc., is clear and detailed. The 

 sun god becomes more and more a protector of those warrior societies 



J^ 



v^y (M3 m (#)(^_fe ^vg^ 



Figure 7. — Sun worship of the Toltecs. Two priests pray for flowers and scatter water 

 and seed. The sun disk raised on an alter has pointed rays such as are characteristic 

 of later Mexican sun symbols. A fresco painting at Teotihuacan of about A. D. 1200. 

 At Chichen Itza contemporary representations show transition to the sun disk with 

 serpent rays. 



called the Jaguars and the Eagles. Human sacrifice was introduced, 

 it seems, by the Toltecs, being connected especially with the rites of 

 apotheosis for eminent war chiefs, which also were rites of rejuvena- 

 tion and fertilization benefiting agriculture. 



The Aztecs had a sun god proper called Tonatiuh and several 

 other divinities with solar aspects. This sun god was not the most 

 powerful deity of their pantheon, yet several of their grestest monu- 

 ments present the conventionalized disk of the sun. The Calendar 

 Stone is one of these, and another the great Stone of Tizoc recording 

 early victories of Aztec arms. The face of the sun in Aztec ideo- 

 graphic writing carries the general meaning of god rather than the 

 specific meaning of sun. 



