Audiobook The Mythology of All Races, Vol. 11: Latin-American

The work by Hartley Burr Alexander investigates the rich fabric of mythology across ancient Latin America, encompassing the Antilles, Mexico, Yucatan, Central America, and the Andean regions. The author meticulously details the diverse religious systems, beginning with the animistic zemiism of the Antilles, where islanders worshipped intermediaries between humanity and invisible, eternal powers. The narrative progresses into the complex pantheon of Mexico, detailing the elaborate Aztec cosmology governed by the St. Andrew's cross, numbers, and the dualistic forces of day, night, life, and death.

Major deities such as Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc emerge as cosmic and political actors whose cults demanded rigorous sacrifices to sustain the solar and agricultural cycles. The text further unfolds the astronomical and mathematical brilliance of the Mayan civilization in Yucatan, examining their monumental inscriptions, the complex vigesimal calendar, and the cyclic cataclysms that periodically ended the ages of the world. Throughout the regions, native traditions reveal a deep preoccupation with the passage of time, the creation of mankind from bones and maize, and the return of culture heroes who taught the arts of civilization. The narrative contrasts the fierce warrior religion of the Aztec highlands with the aesthetic and intellectual achievements of the southern lowlands, while acknowledging the syncretism that allowed ancient indigenous beliefs to persist beneath the veneer of subsequent historical dominations and Christian conquest.