A PROMETHEAN CONQUEROR, as supposed by transcendent mythopoetic theoreticians, concerns our epigraph.
Perhaps its divinity is inherent in, let us say, an ancient Mayan idol — a deity of death — found in Mexico. Or alternatively, a particular Mesoamerican imago of numinous power, once adored and venerated, like the shattered Aztec Coyolxauhqui Monolith. Other effigies comprise idols smashed during Spanish \"extirpation\" campaigns, or Exorcismic Ritual Termination, during which sacred objects were intentionally broken and buried by friars and priests working for the Holy Office of the Inquisition.
But this fate was not original to the barbarous Conquistadores. Many Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian cultures intentionally smashed, dismembered, or decapitated stone and ceramic idols when rulers changed, cities were abandoned, or a sacred object\'s spiritual life cycle ended.
Yet most significantly, during the 16th century miliant Spanish missionaries conducted \"Burning of the Idols\" Trials and public destruction, breaking and defiling Native religious sculptures to enforce and compel Christian conversion, the concealment of breasts and the wearing of pants. As to that Coyolxauhqui Stone, it depicts an Aztec goddess dismembered and fractionated into pieces, mirroring the cosmic myth of La Montaña de las Serpientes, the unspeakable and dreaded Snake Mountain (see the worship of Yig, the Serpent God), while age-old Cyclopean ruins at sites like Copán feature eldritch moldering, fallen and fractured monuments. We also feature a drop-in visit from KrOB. And now, off to Burning Man.