The ancients knew him well. He was as powerful as a god, as dangerous as a demon. He generously gave life – and he ruthlessly took it away. He appeared to all, from the darkest and most bone-chilling conditions of the north, to the parched and shimmering-hot deserts of the south. The ancient peoples of the Americas knew who was in charge of their lives and fates, and so he featured widely across cultures and mythologies. Curiously, though he was dangerous, he was almost always welcomed! He was as reliable as the sun, rising in the east and setting in the west. And that’s no coincidence, because he was the sun itself: powerful, unknowable, and blindingly obvious. Even in belief
