As ever we've got a hotch-potch of myths and gods and an obligatory Sean Connery clip. Oddly enough there's quite a lot of music this time 'round too.
So to get you in the mood here's a little tune.
What does this music have to do with gods beginning with 'X'? Well, a weird set of synchronicities and coincidences came into force as I was doing research for the letter 'X'. Most of the 'X' gods come from th Mayan pantheon. Quite a bit of what we know about the Mayan creation myths and cosmology comes from a Dominican priests translation of a text known as the Popol Vuh. So far, so blah! But something niggled at the back of my brain. I had heard the name Popol Vuh before and it wasn't in the context of Mayan mythology. I racked my brains and finally remembered that Popol Vuh was the name of the band that film maker and famous shoe eater Werner Herzog used for his early films. What you are listening to now is the music that plays over the opening scene "Aguirre: The Wrath of God". (Minor digression No. 1 - I don't know if you remember the adventure books they used to have in the 80s which gave you a choice - "If you want to fight the bizzarly trousered monster turn to page 246. If you want to fill your pants with the brown stuff turn to page 249". If you do then at this point in time you've got a choice. You can either carry on listening and ignore the clip below or stop the beautiful Teutonic cosmic Krautrock nosnsense and click on the clip below to watch the opening scene od Aguirre. To be honest I'd go for the first option only because a clip from the web doesn't do justice to the majesty of this scene or the film. Buy/rent/borrow the film. I promise you it's worth it. Klaus Kinsky plays a Conquisdador losing his mables as he sails down the Amazon river searching for El Dorado in German. Nuff said!)
Just in case you didn't believe me about Werner Herzog eating shoes here the evidence.
Anyway, back to gods and stuff. Our first story has got many threads. Immaculate conception, ball games and decapitation, so bear with me! It's also got lots of 'X' gods.
So let's begin at the beginning.
Things you need to know...
Xibalba
This is the name give to the Mayan Underworld (Think Hades not Mafia)
Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu
Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu were brother. Brothers who like to play ball. Unfortunately they decided to have a kick about in the wrong place. That place was Xibalba (see previous point). The Lords of Xibalba became displeased with all the noise the two brothers were making. Rather that putting a garden fork in the brother's ball and telling them to piss off home the Lords invited them to play against the Xibalba team. Unfortumetly the Lords had rigged the ball with razor sharp blades and within seconds Huh Hunahpu was decapitated. The Lords of Xibalba hung Huh Hunahpu's head on a tree as a kind of Mayan 'No Ball Games' warning.
(All this talk of ball games and decapitation made me think of next clip. It's got Sean Connery in it, but don't worry it's not shit. It's from the sublime 'The Man Who Would Be King')
Back to our story...
As the head of Huh Hunahpu hung from the branches who happened to walk by but Xquic
(sometimes know as the Blood Maiden, sometimes know as the Blood Moon). The strange skull shape fruit that hung from the tree sparked her curiosity. The Head of Hun Hunahpu began to talk and told her to pick him. She did so and the skull spat on her hand and she became pregnant. (Maybe the skull said it was spit but we all know what it really was.)
Nine months later Xquic gave birth to the Hero-Twins Xbalanque and Hunahpu. They went back to Xibalba and challenged the Lords to a ball game. After many trials and tribulations (including bats, blades, ovens disgused as benches, even more decapitations and butternut squashes) they whupped the Lords asses and ascended to heaven and became the embodiment of the Sun and the Moon. A happy ending of sorts, I think you'll all agree.
Xipe-Totec
Xipe Totec is know as 'The Flayed One'. He is the Aztec god of Life, Death and Rebirth. In myths, Xipe Totec flayed off his flesh to give food to humanity, in much the same way snakes shed their skin and maize sheds it's husk.
The thing I kinda like about Xipe Totec is that he would wear other peoples skin over his own flayed flesh. I'm sure the first thing that come to mind when you think of people putting other peoples skin over their own is Leatherface in Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' but personally when I heard this story all I could think about was Geroge Franju's 1960 masterpiece 'Les Yeux Sans Visage' (Eyes Without A Face)
'Les Yeux Sans Visage' has one of the strangest soundtracks, courtesy of Maurice Jarre (father of Jean Michel Jarre). It also has one of the most haunting endings.
Once again you have a choice....
You can either watch the opening titles...
And/or watch the ending
(Before you do watch the ending please consider this small piece of advice; if you are a hardcore horror fan and have not seen Les Yeux Sans Visage then shame on you. Don't watch the ending. Instead go to your nearest film shop and buy it right now and watch the whole film. I don't care what time it is. Just go. On the other hand if you are not a hardcore horror fan and are not the kind of person that is going to watch a seminal 1960 French body horror classic then watch the ending but I do warn you there are some gruesome bits))
Xanadu
Much like Xibalba it's a place rather than a god. Xanadu was the summer residence of Kublai Khan. The story of the Kublai Khan and his summer palace were immortalised in Samuel L Coleridge's poem though most scholars believe the definitive version of the story is portrayed in Frankie Goes To Hollywood 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome'. (Coleridge's poem is only 54 lines long and the reason for this, according to the author was because a 'Man From Porlock' interrupted his laudanum-induced train of thought. Most people now think that the man from Porlock was a fabrication and that old Sammy couldn't think of any more).
You've had the background and so it's time once again to boogie. Here's Olivia Newton-John and ELO singing the theme from one of he 1970's worst musicals.
It seems that many band's have been inspired by the poem but this is the only one that I know of that has a horse whip in it. Here's Davee Dee, Bozy, BEaky, Mick and Titch with 'The Legend of Xanadu'. Deep joy!
Xmulzencab
And to finish we have the Mayan Bee Gods. There wasn't much info on these but I included them just as an excuse to show one of the weirdest bee related trailers I've ever seen.
That's all for now. I know I've been a bit slack updating but hopefully I'll be back with 'W" in the next few weeks.
You know where to find me.
Hell Yeah!
