An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya

As a kid, I used to love paging through the dictionary, stopping here and there to read the definition of an interesting word. You can do the same with this book, but it's a lot easier to find words you don't know. The depth of detail, and the occasional mysteries that turn up, are fascinating. You can't help but learn about ancient cultures of Mexico through reading this wonderful dictionary. Here's an illustration of what I mean, from the definition of calendar (which was only 260 days long!) concerning Venus: "In both Mexican and Maya records, Venus was recorded to appear for 236 days as the morning star, then to disappear for 90 days during Superior Conjunction, reappear as the evening star for 250 days, then briefly vanish into Inferior Conjunction before reappearing as the morning star. For reasons impossible to reconstruct, these calculations ignore the pattern of Venus that can be observed by the naked eye: roughly equal periods of 263 days for both morning and evening star, divided by disappearances of 50 and 8 days." WHY would such a people, who were very observant of the sky, describe the cycle of Venus so at odds with what anyone can see? This book is full of this type of information.

I am a lover of the Meso-american archaeology and have some books about it. This book is a new great addition to the ones I have, it has so much and great information about these cultures. I am not an expert but there are few books so complete about this topic. If you are interested in these wonderful and long lost civilizations, I definitively recommend it for your!

I have and love this book. It can be read straight through or used as an encyclopedia for specific terms. Easy to read with lots of references for additional reading. Great addition to a collection.

I enjoyed looking through this "dictionary," but I hope it is revised with separate sections on the Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs (the alphabetical format could be retained). As a "dictionary," it also should have been much longer (four or five hundred pages instead of two hundred). Nevertheless, the general reader interested in Mesoamerica will enjoy this book. I have a large collection of books on Mesoamerica, and I found several illustrations that I have not seen before. There is a fascinating picture of a jaguar skeleton with a jade ball in its mouth (Aztec). The illustration of a Maya dancer is also fascinating. "In a state of shamanic transformation, a May lord would take on an animal self or 'uay,' most commonly the jaguar." Another shows a "Maya figure wearing a War Serpent headdress." The fangs of the serpent rise above the figure's head. Still another shows "The monkey scribal gods painting a codex." The monkey-headed men are dressed like Maya scribes. I would recommend buying a used copy of this book.

Although sometimes it feels a little bit outdated and/or incomplete, this book continues to be a great, informative and authoritative source for anyone interested in Mesoamerica.

Very well researched and complete reference book of the ancient Mexico and Mayan deities.

Wow! What a spectacular book. This book is a must if your interested in the mythology of the Aztecs, Mayans or other Mesoamerican civilizations. It is profusely illustrated with black & white line drawings and photographs and is written in an easy to understand text that covers just about everything you could possibly ever want to know. I have learned a great deal from perusing this book and you will, too. This certainly is a book to add to you library.

You don't need to be a student of Ancient Mexico for this to be useful to you. There is a lot of interesting information here. It's not a book you read cover to cover, but scanning the different topics always provides a good "mini" read. There are ample illustrations for all of the topics and I do believe they made a good use of space and the layout.

Muy completo

This book is an excellent read and can be a great gift. Very fast shipping and an overall great shopping experience

こちらを購入しました。 アステカ・マヤの神話（丸善ブックス）のカール・タウベ氏も共著しているだけあって、神格や、神話に登場する意匠に関してかなり仔細に解説してあります。 和訳版は高額過ぎに思いますが、こちらは価格の面でも良い資料だと思います。 ハードカヴァーではありませんが、表紙のデザインも格好いいです。

Esaustiva raccolti dei simboli del passato di una antica e bellissima cultura. Must have nella propria libreria. Testo integralmente in inglese.

Excelente trabalho.