Avatar meta? eh. Mesoamerica dorkage.
In which I spam you all with pictures and caps to explain a ridiculous idea that Mesoamerica and the First Firebenders are totes similar. Well, at least I kept thinking about The Firebending Masters episode while reading and during lecture and on field trips for the first four weeks of this class...
Includes feathered serpent motifs, fire serpent motifs, ancient ruins of sun temples, primal serpents cavorting, and a magical sacred spiritual hill that I totally visited here in Oaxaca.
Teotihuacan was thought by the later Aztecs to be the birthplace of man and the sun and moon and where the Gods lived - specifically in a cave beneath the Temple of the Sun (Coe, Mexico, 107). Their city was laid out according to astronomical patterns, according to the movement of the sun, moon, and probably Venus (I forget already).
Teotihuacan from the north (doesn't quite show the more distant Quetzalcoatl temple):
Pyramid of the Sun (stepped!) (I SCALED THAT MOTHERFUCKER AT 7,000+ FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL. KNOW THIS.)
And, you know, those Ancient Firebender Civilization ruins center around a fire temple where the key to open it depends on the summer solstice.
Firebending City:
Fire Temple (also stepped!)
Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan: two different styles of serpent carved into the walls, a feathered serpent (Quetzalcoatl) and a fire serpent. (Coe, Mexico, 108)
Feathered serpent is the normal looking one; fire serpent is the boxy one with goggle eyes. Photo credit goes to my friend Lauren B.
"A legend from the Maya highlands suggests that we have here another version of the first moment of creation, with an opposed pair of serpents, one representing life, greenness, and peace, and the other heat, the desert regions, and war, cavorting or conversing in the primal ocean." (Coe, Mexico, 110)
Feathery opposed serpents cavorting/conversing:
Very obviously these are Asian dragons in Avatar. But they're featheryish, right?
Mostly the feathered serpent is used in decoration; the other one looks actually like the rain god Tlaloc, with the goggles. Lots of protruding serpent heads from walls, and the ends of balustrades.
Teotihuacan serpent-head balustrades:
Avatar serpent-heads:
A very, very old village called Machilxochitl still exists today in the Mitla valley (near Oaxaca de Juarez), near an archaeological site called Dainzú, has this hill called Danush. "Among the many things they say about the hill, numerous residents report that it is hollow and contains treasure. Further, an enormous plumed serpent that dwells within emerges for a few hours each December 31." These hills are thought to be like portals to the spiritual world, full of treasure but not really treasure-treasure, more like spiritual treasure.
Ren and Sha's mountain is nothing like Danush, but for comparison's sake:
Danush:
(omg it was SO HARD to find a picture of this D: my camera died on that day, and the internet hardly cares.)
Includes feathered serpent motifs, fire serpent motifs, ancient ruins of sun temples, primal serpents cavorting, and a magical sacred spiritual hill that I totally visited here in Oaxaca.
Teotihuacan was thought by the later Aztecs to be the birthplace of man and the sun and moon and where the Gods lived - specifically in a cave beneath the Temple of the Sun (Coe, Mexico, 107). Their city was laid out according to astronomical patterns, according to the movement of the sun, moon, and probably Venus (I forget already).
Teotihuacan from the north (doesn't quite show the more distant Quetzalcoatl temple):
Pyramid of the Sun (stepped!) (I SCALED THAT MOTHERFUCKER AT 7,000+ FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL. KNOW THIS.)
And, you know, those Ancient Firebender Civilization ruins center around a fire temple where the key to open it depends on the summer solstice.
Firebending City:
Fire Temple (also stepped!)
Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan: two different styles of serpent carved into the walls, a feathered serpent (Quetzalcoatl) and a fire serpent. (Coe, Mexico, 108)
Feathered serpent is the normal looking one; fire serpent is the boxy one with goggle eyes. Photo credit goes to my friend Lauren B.
"A legend from the Maya highlands suggests that we have here another version of the first moment of creation, with an opposed pair of serpents, one representing life, greenness, and peace, and the other heat, the desert regions, and war, cavorting or conversing in the primal ocean." (Coe, Mexico, 110)
Feathery opposed serpents cavorting/conversing:
Very obviously these are Asian dragons in Avatar. But they're featheryish, right?
Mostly the feathered serpent is used in decoration; the other one looks actually like the rain god Tlaloc, with the goggles. Lots of protruding serpent heads from walls, and the ends of balustrades.
Teotihuacan serpent-head balustrades:
Avatar serpent-heads:
A very, very old village called Machilxochitl still exists today in the Mitla valley (near Oaxaca de Juarez), near an archaeological site called Dainzú, has this hill called Danush. "Among the many things they say about the hill, numerous residents report that it is hollow and contains treasure. Further, an enormous plumed serpent that dwells within emerges for a few hours each December 31." These hills are thought to be like portals to the spiritual world, full of treasure but not really treasure-treasure, more like spiritual treasure.
Ren and Sha's mountain is nothing like Danush, but for comparison's sake:
Danush:
(omg it was SO HARD to find a picture of this D: my camera died on that day, and the internet hardly cares.)