‘Flowers and Songs of Sorrow #1’
The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of The conquest of Mexico, Miguel Leon-Portilla, pages 1-30 Beacon, 1962, 196 pages
Reading this translation, being careful to avoid the academic commentary placed at its front and at the head of each chapter, in order to compare this account to that of Bernal Diaz, another comparison came to mind: the descriptions of the people of Uruk under the rule of Gilgamesh. One then thought, how many records of the abrupt fall of civilization f…