Olmecs and other quest

[micc at home.com]

Duran, fortunately is not the only source for the ball game.  Tajin has
very elaborate sculptures that re-enforce other writer's description of
the game as a cosmolical battle.

The game may be a re-enactment of a mythical event: the Maya sacred
twin's ball game in the underworld, or the cosmic dance between
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl.......


CCBtlevine at aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 02/15/2000 6:40:13 PM Pacific Standard Time, micc at home.co=
> m=20
> writes:
>
> << The ball game or "tlachtli" was 10% "recreational" or "entertainment
>  spectacle"  and 90% ritual and cosmological in importance. >>
>
> Duran took a different view of the game.  It was a game and it continued to=20
> be played long after the conquest.  They played with the fanatacism that=20
> soccer is played today in Mexico.  They even had professional athletes,=20
> people who did nothing for a living but playing ball.  I highly recommend=20
> Duran's description in Chapter 23 of Volume II of the Historia de las Indias=
> =20
> de Nueva Espa=F1a e Islas de Tierra Firme.
>
> Tom Levine