Mayan references in RahXephon

Alpha_Hazard · Post by **Alpha_Hazard** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:12 pm

<contains spoilers>

I am currently taking a Pre-Columbian Art History class and was astonished to find the number of references RahXephon makes to the Mayan Civilization. Most of the references are anotated in the liner Notes of the DVD, Such as Ollin and The Fate of Katun.

Ollin is the Nahuatl word for Movement, and the Prefix to the Title of the sun god, which also references RahXephon directly, because of it's relationship to the Egyptian sun god Ra... In the Pre-columbian calendar the age of Ollin ends in 2012, of course, the year (and probably to the day) that Tokyo Jupiter appeared.

Also, Ixtli, meaning Eye in Nahuatl, kind of being the eye through which ayato views his existence throughout the series (until the end of course)

My question is, Does anybody else think that RahXephon somehow suggests that civilizations such as Egyptian and Mayan somehow developed from a Mulian source rather than a human source?

EvaXephon · Post by **EvaXephon** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:28 pm

...So, that's where all of the weird names like Ollin and Ixti and Katun came from. I'd always wondered what the point of all that was. It's a darn shame that I just finished re-watching all of RahXephon a few days ago; I would have loved to have watched it after learning where all of its weird terminology came from.

Well, no, I don't think that RahXephon is somehow suggesting that civilizations such as Egyptian and Mayan somehow developed from an alien source rather than a human source. I think that they are just using a bunch of referances from real-world mythology to look cool, like in Evangelion. Don't get me wrong, though - Eva and Rah are my favorite anime. (Look at my name!) Maybe, in the anime Rah, the Mulians were the Egyptians / Mayans, or whatever, but I don't think that the anime is trying to tell us anything about the Egyptians / Mayans in real life.

Nice find, I hope that someone else can be of more help to you than I can be.

(By the way, if this interests you, then you might want to check out the similarities between the anime Metropolis and the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia.)

Alpha_Hazard · Post by **Alpha_Hazard** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:42 pm

I guess I should have phrased it that in the Series they were suggesting that...not in real life...

I tend to think that people in real life who think Human civilization developed as a result of alien intervention and hypocrites, since they often dismiss the Idea of God.

Kajino Rei · Post by **Kajino Rei** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 9:56 pm

Nevertheless some still think aliens did help the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas, AND Egyptians build the pyramids.
Since simpleminded people can't believe these civilizations (especially the Pre-Columbian) could be able to be so "civilized", "forward", "structured" and more.
This is me talking about stuff I studied a long time ago.
Eh, liked that class, those people are intriguing indeed.
Nice to see the Ancient West connecting with the East (even if it’s thru anime)

badmartialarts · Post by **badmartialarts** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 1:32 pm

I know there's a book or two on this subject, but I'm too lazy to look up a bibliography.

Mu and Atlantis are synonyms. They were both supposed to be this ancient civilization with wonderous architechtural and scientific knowledge that existed somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea (most modern scholars say the old stories of Atlantis/Mu are actually talking about the Minoan or Phoenecian civilizations which created a lot of the things we take the Greeks as inventors of, such as the Greek alphabet....

) Anyway, there was a old theory (like I said, lots of books) that stated that perhaps Atlantean sailors/traders/scholars visited Egypt and even travelled as far as the Mayan peninsula, bearing knowledge about writing and pyramid-shaped buildings. (Early Minoan script does look sort of like Egyptian and Mayan scripts). Other books suggest that this Mulian/Atlantean civilization was actually a group of aliens who lived among us millenia ago. I think RahXephon just took the two theories, blended them with some music-based stuff, and bam, a plot.

Alpha_Hazard · Post by **Alpha_Hazard** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 2:58 pm

Alpha_Hazard · Post by **Alpha_Hazard** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 12:39 am

Further realizations about Rahxephon...

The Wings on the Head are a prevalent theme in Meso American art, as the images of wings or flames on the forehead often symbolizes divinity and denotes something as a sort of herald or messanger.

The Hero twins, characters referenced often in the Mayan Genesis myth the Popal Vuh, are prevalent as balancers of power, I see a clear parallel between this and the two RahXephon as well as the fact that Quon's Rahxephon has Butterfly wings. Butterflies in Mayan mythology are ancestral spirits that died honorably and now help convey the sun across the sky.

The conveyance of the sun is important as well, because as revealed in the motion picture, the rahxephon are a sort of conveyer and observer of time, and so it logically follows that man's first time piece, the sun, would be conveyed by the rahxephon (see also, Rah as in sun god)

It's all so interesting and structured...neato!

Nandez · Post by **Nandez** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 12:50 am

I gust got through watching dvd 1-6 i'm waiting for number 7 to arrive.And Raxephon is totally awesome.I was surprised to see how it also actually talks about American Religions being real and about anciet Egypt.You don't see to much of that in anime.Raxephon was great how it came with surprise after surprise.Did anyone else notice that one of the ship looked like the ones in cowboy bebop?Thats probally because the team animaters from cowboy bebop and escaflowne worked on Rahxephon.And Alpha when you tlaked aobut butterflys coveiyng the sun acorss the sky reminds me of episode 9 when After Ayato destroyed the ice Dolem they said "Its almost like that things the sun itself"

Alpha_Hazard · Post by **Alpha_Hazard** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 1:14 am

Spoiler wrote:I think that the most prevalent theme in all of anime is that of identity. RahXephon tackles the issue very well, better even than Eva I think, because although both character's ultimately make thier own decision to act for themselves, Ayato still accepts his role and manages to take charge of it as well.

I'm sorry, I forgot the SPoiler Courtesy Previously, I hope that doesn't ruin it for you, Nandez.

BTW...you wouldn't happen to be from CO? It's just we've got Nan Desu Kan here, and I thought your name might be related somehow...

Nandez · Post by **Nandez** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 1:24 am

Nah you didn't ruin it i made sure to only read so much waiting for the last dvd is killing me.And Nope,my full name is Cody Duran Hernandez.My friends started calling me Nandez one day and eversince its been my nickname.