Heroic narrative which tells of the brave deeds of warriors and semi-divine heroes is found in many societies around the world from earliest times onwards. Behind most of these epic poems and prose sagas is the memory of some kind of Heroic Age in the far distant past. Sometimes the heroic past is conceived of as a series of Ages, often beginning with an account of creation and proceeding through successive Ages down to the present. In the classical Aztec version the Fifth Age or Sun is the present age in which we now live. The Aztec Calendar Stone embodies the Five Suns in stone, while the Legend of the Suns in the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, an important historical source in Classical Nahuatl, is a more or less parallel written version of the same. While this is probably the best known version of the theme of the successive Suns or Ages in ancient Mexico it is not the only one.
The Texcocan historian Ixtlilxochitl gives a somewhat different account of the Ages in which the people of each successive Age are also destroyed by some great catastrophe, along with dire predictions for the Final Age. In this version the First Age, Atonatiuh (Sun of Water), is also the Age of Creation. Earth was destroyed by a flood. The Second Age, Tlachitonatiuh (Sun of Earth), was the Age of Giants on earth. The world and its inhabitants were destroyed by earthquakes. In the Third Age, Ecatonatiuh (Sun of Wind), much of the world was destroyed but some people escaped and found monkeys which, they say, must have somehow been brought there from other places by the wind.Therefore, men must have been turned into monkeys (the opposite of Darwin=s Theory of Evolution). The Fourth and Final Age, Tletonatiuh (Sun of Fire), will, appropriately, be destroyed by fire. Ixtlilxochitl=s version differs from the Aztec account in that he names three, sometimes four Suns or Ages and not always in the same order.
The early Greek epic poet Hesiod wrote a long didactic epic entitled Works and Days, in which he gave much moral advice and practical instruction aimed ostensibly at his wayward brother Perses. In this version the Golden Race of mortals lived like gods free from toil and grief and died in their sleep. When the earth covered them they became benign spirits to those on earth and Zeus then made a second race. The Silver Race remained children for a hundred years and when they finally grew up they only lived a very short time. They refused to honor the immortal gods so Zeus did away with them. The Brazen Race was a terrible and strong race who loved to fight. Their armor and weapons were all of bronze and they destroyed each other in warfare. The Race of Demi-gods was the Age of Heroes, valiant and strong men who fought in righteous causes, some in Thebes when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus, others at Troy for the sake of Helen. Some perished, others were sent by Zeus to the islands of the Blessed, where they live eternally. Finally, the Iron Race, the people of the present day, who are confronted by strife and hard labor. Children no longer honor their parents. Might makes right. Strife and bitterness are rife. Envy is everywhere. Human beings lose any sense of reverence or shame at wrong-doing or righteous indignation at the sight of wrong-doing in others. Sound familiar? In ancient Greek terms this is the Age in which we now live.
Let us return to ancient Mesoamerica and the Quiche people in the Maya Highlands of Guatemala. The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya may be divided into Four Ages or Creations. The first creation is the Cosmic Cycle, the Age of the Gods, when the eternal order was established. The Second Creation featured the pre-human ancestors, a foreshadowing of the following Age of Heroes. The Third Creation is the Age of Heroes, during which a similar cycle of events takes place as in the Second Creation but with the Divine Twins winning the ball game against the lords of the underworld and thereby conquering death. There is a complex interrelationship here between the 2nd and 3rd creations which is understandable only in terms of the processes of Maya thought patterns. The Fourth Creation is the present day, the Age in which the Quiche lived at the time of the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. Unlike the Aztec Five Ages the Fifth Age of the Quiche Maya is not specifically mentioned. But the Popol Vuh ends with the statement that everything is finished about Quiche, which is now called Holy Cross. In Maya thought this appears to refer to the New Age under Christianity, a new cycle or Fifth Age, in a never-ending sequence of time cycles
The Aztec and Maya versions of the Ages are much more optimistic than the Greek version. The Fifth Age witnessed the destruction of the Aztec empire but up until that time the Aztecs believed that by offering human sacrifice to the gods they could prevent the destruction of the universe. The Maya saw the Final Age of their era not simply as the end of everything but as the beginning of a new era to replace the previous time cycle. Could it be that the ancient Aztecs and Maya actually had a more positive world outlook that we have today?
