The legend of Quetzalcóatl is the enduring epic myth of Mesoamerica. The gods create the universe, but man must carefully tend to the harmony of the world. Without spirital attention to harmony, chaos may reing, destroying the universe and civilitation.
The ancient Mexicans, like other peoples troughout the world, wrestled with ideas and metaphors by wich to know the Godhead and developed their own concepts about their relationship to the universe. Quetzalcóatl come to the Toltecs to theach them art, agriculture, peace, and knowledge. He was a redeemed god, and his story inspires, instructs, and and entertains, as do all the great myths of the world.
In Lord of the Down, Anaya explores this cosmology and the rich and complex spiritual thought of Native American ancestors. The story depicts the daily word of man, the stuggle between the pace makers and the warmongers, and the world of the gods and their role in the life of mankind.
RUDOLFO ANAYA, widely acclaimed as one of the founder of contemporary Chicano literature, is professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico.
