The Legacy of Mesoamerica History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 6 INDIGENOUS LITERATURE FROM COLONIAL MESOAMERICA 227

Figure 6.4 The frontispiece of the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer,depicting the layout of the earth

and the spatial distribution of the ritual calendar’s 260 days. Reprinted with permission from

Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1971.

These Mixtec codices are predominantly genealogical and historical in content.
They tell the history of the ruling dynasties of particular towns and cities in the Mix-
tec region, including the exploits of various individual rulers, both male and female.
These histories, however, include many elements of myth and ritual. The historical
personages are shown engaging in religious rites and consulting priests and diviners.
The mythological origins of the dynasties are also represented, with the lineage
founders being, for example, born out of trees or out of the earth. An exception to
this pattern is the Codex Vienna,which is genealogical on one side but on the other
is devoted to mythology, particularly the story of the deity Nine Wind, the Mixtec
version of the god that the Nahuas called Quetzalcoatl (Figure 6.5).
The third group consists of four manuscripts that come from the Mayan region.
One of these, the Codex Madrid,consists of two parts that were formerly considered
to be two separate manuscripts. Another, the Codex Grolier,emerged from a private
collection in 1971. It had reportedly been discovered by looters in a dry cave, and