Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Maya Sun Glyphs

This is a glyph from a Mayan Calender. The sun is represented as different glyphs, but this one is pretty prevalent. A human face with a flower that more than likely blooms in the sun. In fact in some cultures it is a flower that represents in the sun.

When I look at ancient art or languages I often ask myself...Why is this representation the best way to express the most passive sun? A man instead of a creature, a flower in front of the face of the human.

It has no ray's around it, but this is "sun" to the Mayans.
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3 comments:

  1. Liz in VirginiaOctober 23, 2009 at 8:25 PM

    I really love the idea behind your blog -- very thought-provoking!

    This representation of the sun god confuses me -- I get the flower part, but would his face have been recognizable as the "sun-god" to anyone who saw this image?

    Thanks for visiting my blog! Come on back!!

    Liz @ twenty-firstcenturyhousewife.blogspot.com

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  2. KimberlyOctober 24, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    They had many representations of the sun, and this one is the most peaceful. I like that it had a more humane type of image...just as we go out on a sunny day and enjoy the flowers, they did too.

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  3. LaurieOctober 30, 2009 at 9:22 AM

    Hi Kimberly! Thank-you for commenting on my nascent blog. I've guessed I would have such an ah-ha moment when the first person I didn't already know, commented on my blog. Guess what? I did! You're it!!! Oh and you are the very, very first person to say a single word about Joseph Campbell. Yay for making connections with people!

    I've just read through a number of your posts on this blog, and I will check out your other blogs as well. I love the IDEA of this blog! Very interesting. It would be cool to do a moon blog too ...

    I'm commenting on this post in particular because two things strike me: 1) the process of figuring out that glyph meant the SUN must have been fascinating! 2) the idea of a "passive" sun is something I've never thought about before ... cool.

    Don't know if you caught this PBS Nova episode, "Cracking the Maya Code"? If you haven't seen it already, I'm guess you would really like it:

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/program.html

    Thanks again Kimberly!! I look forward to following you ...

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