Saturday, November 25, 2023

Thelma D. Sullivan on Court Orations among the Aztecs

  

COURT ORATIONS

 

The court orations were delivered by the ruler and high-ranking functionaries—lords, nobles, magistrates, military commanders, and the like—on such occasions as the election and accession of a new king; when the ruler sat in session with his advisors; during legal trials; before, during, or after a battle to animate or console the warriors; or when the king received an embassy from another ruler. (Thelma D. Sullivan, “A Scattering of Jades: The Words of the Aztec Elders,” in Symbol and Meaning Beyond the Closed Community: Essays in Mesoamerican Ideas, ed. Gary H. Gossen [Studies on Culture and Society 1; New York: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, 1986], 11)