Debunking the so-called apotheosis myth, Nicholas Griffiths argues that Indigenous peoples in North America, Mexico, the Andes, and Hawaii during the early modern period (1492–1789) did not believe invading Europeans were gods. Instead, many perceived them as 'more-than-human' intruders of considerable spiritual power. By exploring the Indigenous context and terminology, using published primary and secondary sources, the book investigates what natives meant when they used words that Europeans translated as 'gods.' In contrast to traditional accounts, Griffiths centers native points of view and the dynamic interactions between European and Indigenous perspectives. Ultimately, both groups were fundamentally comparable since both interpreted their mutual contact in terms of their pre-existing mythology. The traditional contrast between the scientific, rational, and modern Europeans on the one hand, and the myth-bound, irrational, pre-modern Indigenous peoples on the other, is entirely misleading. The first book-length synthesis of this myth, Griffiths reinterprets ideas that have long been debated in various regional literatures.

'Griffiths has achieved a rare feat: to revisit well-trodden ground from an astonishingly fresh perspective. At every stage, he forces us to re-think our deep-rooted preconceptions of what non-European peoples have made of the strange and often terrifying intruders that began to disrupt their worlds in increasing numbers from the late fifteenth century onwards. Marked by impeccable scholarship and disciplined imagination, Fallen from Heaven will become an indispensable reference point for anyone interested in re-imagining the period anachronistically called ‘The Age of Discovery’.'

Fernando Cervantes - author of Conquistadores: A New History