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THE “GREAT GODDESS” OF TEOTIHUACAN: Fiction or Reality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2006

Zoltán Paulinyi
Zoltán Paulinyi
Affiliation:
Departamento de Teoría del Arte, Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile
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Abstract

A critical review of the history of research devoted to the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan shows that over the past twenty years, and in several publications, this goddess has been transformed gradually into a universal nature deity, has received the title “Great,” and has been regarded by many authorities as the principal deity of Teotihuacan. This has become accepted even though, in my judgment, the goddess was created through a highly speculative line of argument, fusing several different iconographic complexes under that name, and despite the fact that the greater part seem to have nothing to do with each other. As a consequence, the concept of this omnipotent goddess has become a serious obstacle holding back the progress of iconographic research on the Teotihuacan supernatural world. The discussion here reaches the conclusion that in place of a Great Goddess, we are able to identify at least six different gods and goddesses, several among them not yet subjected to analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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