Customer Reviews

Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies)

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Star Gods of the Maya is one of the best works on Precolumbian religion to be produced in recent years. It presents material about the astronomical interests of the ancient Maya in a manner which is accessible to the amateur but sufficiently well-documented to satisfy the specialist. Well organized and user friendly, it will probably become the desk reference of choice on this subject.

In her brilliant, beautifully researched book, Susan Milbrath uses her extensive knowledge of Mayan art to recreate the structure of the Maya's astronomy and cosmology and, even more importantly, to celebrate their mysterious beauty. Star Gods is a splendid book written by an amazing art historian at the peak of her powers.

Susan Milbrath has created a powerful and fascinating review of the astronomy and cosmology of the ancient Maya and their ties to Mayan art, literature, and religion. The book starts with a look at modern Mayan astronomy and beliefs about the heavens and the movements of its bodies and then proceeds to detail the archaeological and art history record of Mayan astronomy as recorded in various works of art and written sources such as the surviving Mayan codices. She introduces ideas about the Mayan zodiac and the animals associated with it, discusses Mayan thoughts on the Milky Way, brings up Venus beliefs and concepts around other heavenly bodies and discusses ties between Mayan myths and cosmology. The hieroglyph symbols used for astronomy are given and discussed, and there are discussions of Mayan gods and their ties to the heavens. This book is both broad and deep in its scholarship and is well annotated so you can find further information on the topic if you're interested. This book is more than a decade old now but is still a valuable resource on Mayan cosmology that is a foundation for other work in its field. It is quite readable and easy to understand despite its technical nature and mixes insights in many sub-disciplines of Mayan studies into a very rich stew of information that should long have a place on your shelves.

In her brilliant, beautifully researched book, Susan Milbrath uses her extensive knowledge of Mayan art to recreate the structure of the Maya's astronomy and cosmology and, even more importantly, to celebrate their mysterious beauty. Star Gods is a splendid book written by an amazing art historian at the peak of her powers.

This book is full of the most embarassing mistakes. While the drawings are wonderful the discussion of astronomy is a real problem. I'd suggest Anthony Aveni's work (many many books) as a correction to this work.