Maya nobility performed bloodletting sacrifices to strengthen a 'dying' sun god during solar eclipses (www.livescience.com)
from throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to archaeology@mander.xyz on 05 Apr 2024 15:35
https://lemmy.nz/post/8900097

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lvxferre@mander.xyz on 05 Apr 2024 18:25 next collapse

That view of the celestial body dying during an eclipse was surprisingly common among the ancients. For example, among the Guaraní there’s the lore that eclipses are caused by the Charía, a giant blue jaguar in the sky:

  • Lunar eclipse - Charía kills Moon while fishing, as shown by the reddish colour around the lunar eclipse (it’s Moon’s blood). The eclipse ends when Sun resurrects his younger brother from the bones.
  • Solar eclipse - Charía kills Sun’s son, and Sun himself fights Charía. They knock each other down, but Sun stands up again while Charía falsely believes to have won the fight.
ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world on 05 Apr 2024 17:58 collapse

That was my plan for the eclipse but it’s supposed to be cloudy where I am so we’ll see. I might just sacrifice a goat or something instead.