Sun Stone (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Octavio Paz
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: History, Nature, Women, Gods or goddesses, Rivers or waterways, Personality, Childbirth, Aztecs, Time, Water, Stars, Geography, Prayers, Stone
The Poem
The title Sun Stone refers to the massive calendar stone of the ancient Aztecs. The well-known Aztec calendar measured the synodical period of the planet Venus (the period from one conjunction of the planet Venus with the sun to another). For the ancient Mexicans, Venus was one of the manifestations of the god Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent. The calendar begins, as the poem does, at day 4, Olín (movement), and ends 584 days (and exactly 584 lines) later at day 4, Ehécatl (wind), the conjunction of Venus and the sun: the end of one cycle and the...
[The entire page is 2166 words long]
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