"quel fatale 'di prima'?"

(Mitreo di Marino scoperto nel 1962)

“ … the boar was some fifty miles broad, five thousand high, and of the color of a dark cloud. His roar was like thunder; his bulk, vast as a mountain. His tusks were white, sharp, and fearful; fire flashed from his eyes; and he was radiant as the sun: His shoulders were plump, rounded, huge; he stroad like a powerful lion; his haunches also were plump; his loins, however, slender; his smooth body, beautiful. […] And he approaching, luminous, through the waters of the cosmic night, auspicious supporter of the universe, thus welcomed by the goddess Earth, emitted a low murmuring sound, like a chanting of the Veda. He came plunging, a mighty boar whose eyes were like luminous lotuses and whose body, great as the Cosmic Mountain, was dark, of the color of lotus leaves. With his radiant white tusks he arrived and with those ample tusks elevated the goddess of his dream from those darkest regions. […] As he reared his head the waters shed and splashing from his brow purified the great sages residing in the heavens of the saints. Through the prints of his hoofs the waters with thundering sound rushed pouring to the netherworlds. The pious denizens of that heaven where the radiant sons of Brahma dwell were scattered before his breath, like leaves before a great wind. And the immortal sages clung for safety to the bristles of his body, trembling as he uprose bearing on his tusk the fair goddess Earth, shedding in all directions the rich brine of the cosmic sea …”
(from the Vayu & Matsya Puranas in ‘The Mythic Image’ by Joseph Campbell, 1974-1981)

“Could this be how nature eventually seals the hole created by the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher?”
www.huffingtonpost.com/dk-matai/gul...f_b_619095.html

“For almost two centuries, the Aztecs dominated over central Mexico. Striking out from their capital, México-Tenochtitlan, site of the present-day Mexico City, their soldiers waged war with the efficiency of Roman legions. Decked in feathery plumage to simulate serpents and other fearsome creatures, they terrorized their neighbors, bringing back captives and exacting tribute of food, blankets, precious metals and cacao beans (for use as money). In a bloody annual ritual known as the Raising of Banners, they appeased their chief deity Huitzilopochtli, the war god, by killing their prisoners as well as slaves especially purchased for sacrifice by Aztec merchants. In one recorder debauch, some 20,000 victims were allegedly delivered to the god. Without such human offerings, the Aztecs were convinced, the world would end. When Cortés and his fellow conquistadors first glimpsed Tenochtitlan, they had every reason to be astonished. Built on an island in Lake Texcoco, it was a thriving metropolis with a population of perhaps 200,000, larger than any European city at the time. It was divided into quadrants, each symbolizing a corner of the world: in the center of this cosmos was a complex of temples, the heart and soul of Aztec life. The largest, some 15 stories high, as tall as many European cathedrals, was a stepped pyramid topped by two shrines – one dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc, the other to Huitzilopochtli. This Grwat Temple or ‘El Templo Mayor’, as the Spaniards called it, was the site of human sacrifice. Victims ascended the stairs, priests tore out their hearts and the eviscerated bodies were tossed back down. As part of the rite, the Aztecs consumed some of the flesh. Now, after what some scholars regard as the most important dig in New World archaeology, this hub of Aztec civilization has again become the subject of intense interest. Excavating in the very heart of bustling Mexico City, archaeologists have succeed not only in unearthing the battered remains of the Great Temple but also in recovering some 6,000 objects: statues, wall carvings, pottery and jewelry as well as human and animal sacrificial remains. […] Though Cortés and other Spaniards – in particular, priest scholars – sent home vivid, sometimes exaggerated descriptions and drawings of the Great Temple, it soon became little more than a fading memory. […] Except for an occasional reminder of its presence with the discovery of a stray Aztec artefact, the Great Temple was virtually forgotten. Even its precise location was not known. […] The door on the Aztec past was opened quite accidentally before dawn on Feb.21, 1978. While workers for the Mexico City Light and Power Co. were digging a hole near the intersection of Argentina and Guatemala streets, they discovered an oval stone eleven feet in diameter, covered with carvings. Archaeologists quickly identified the relief as a representation of an important Aztec myth. The central image on the stone was the dismembered torso of Huitzilopochtli’s evil sister, Coyolxauhqui. According to legend, she had plotted with her many brothers to kill their mother just as she was about to give birth to Huitzilopochtli. Instead, Huitzilopochtli sprang from the womb fully grown and armed, decapitated his matricidal sister and chased off his brothers. Some anthropologists read the myth as a cosmic drama in which Huitzilopochtli represents the sun, who must each day slay his sister (the moon) and disperse his brothers (the stars) in order to sustain his mother (the earth). The Stone, in almost perfect condition, created a sensation. A rumor spread through Mexico City that the workers had found the long lost treasure of Moctezuma II, the ill fated Aztec Emperor who was imprisoned by Cortés. But the find turned out to be even more important. Spurred by concerned archaeologists, the Mexican government authorized a systematic excavation of the old temple. During 4 ½ years of methodical workunder the direction of Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (no kin), the diggers uncovered all four of the Great Temple’s sides, discovering that it was a far more complex structure than early chronicles had suggested. Begun in 1325, it was constructed in successive stages, each Aztec Emperor making his own contribution by building a new temple on top of his predecessor’s. So far the archaeologists have sliced into seven major levels, plus several minor ones. The best preserved is the second, completed in 1390, a date derived from a plaque inscribed with carvings from the 52-year old Aztec calendar. Even the bases of the shrines to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc remain intact, including a strikingly modern motif of parallel lines that may represent rain. By contrast, the large Coyolxauhqui stone was made about a century later, during the reign of Moctezuma I, grandfather of Cortés’ victim. […] ”
(TIME, August 16, 1982. -By Frederic Golden. -Reported by William Orme Jr. / Mexico City)