A “Lossless” Seuss-Style Rendition (Anapestic Tetrameter)
(All original facts and references retained, with no omissions or additions.)

[1]
Behold the Epiclassic Mixtec ceremonial place,
Where Codex Zouche-Nuttall (obverse) spans a forty-one-page space.
It’s mainly documenting the ceremonies told,
Their histories, and the ideology they hold.
Because its rituals echo those of Codex Vienna,
I’ll name that worldview “Epiclassic Mixtec” as my henna.
Three separate “sagas” fill these pages in a row,
Each “ritual history” in content’s how they flow:
Lineage, certain rituals, and that Cult of the Dead,
All form a cosmic tapestry in everything that’s said.

[2]
On Zouche-Nuttall pages 1 through 8, each pictogram you meet—
Even the War from Heaven capture scenes on pages 3 and 4 complete—
They are ceremonies. Their central place,
Apoala, in the Mixtec space,
Exchanging ceremonial bits with Yucuñudahui’s land,
So the codex scribes proclaim that bond so grand.
From older narratives, we know the oracles within
Endured as a Mixtec stabilizer, steadfast kin.
Meanwhile, the codex’s reverse—Lord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw we see—
Tells of changes that warlord sought, but they weren’t meant to be:
Codex Bodley shows that after Eight Deer’s death in AD 1115,
His reforms (linked to Chalcatongo’s oracle) left few traces in between.

[3]
Shifts in Epiclassic settlement and ideology appear,
In Nochixtlan Valley (per Spores 1969:560c) quite clear.
Older sites from about AD 300 slipped away by Classic’s end,
That phasing out occurred with time, bridging periods that blend.
We call that bridging “Epiclassic,” from Late Classic to Postclassic’s stage,
Yet some sites thrived, like Yucuita, with Yucuñudahui turning its page.
Other civic centers also formed or else they grew apace—
Cerro Jasmin, Jaltepec (Monkey Hill, Suchixtlan’s place).
By Epiclassic or Early Postclassic days, says Spores (1969:561c–562a),
Population soared around AD 1000 on display.
From Yanhuitlan to Sayultepec and Etlantongo’s ridged array,
The Natividad phase saw near continuous dwellings hold their sway.

[4]
Codex Zouche-Nuttall plus Codex Vienna depict big ideological turns,
The second saga (ZN 14–22) plainly discerns:
(1) Founding Wasp Hill’s lineage prior to Lord Eight Wind’s hour,
(2) The War from Heaven extermination of that power,
(3) At Tilantongo, the next lineage took root.
Four great temples or ceremonial hubs we might impute.
Between pages 14 and 19, “sky” abounds with “descent” from above,
Representing interactions of water, earth, and sky in love.
Thirteen sky/water pictures from 14 to 22 appear,
Five show cave openings, three with folks—so that is clear.
Saga one (pages 1 to 8) shows only once a watery place,
Another scene (page 5) pours water from a jar with grace,
While sky as icon emerges but once on page 4’s war design,
Where Striped Men from the Sky are seized in conflict so malign.
Hence pages 1–8 have twenty-five images of cave or earth,
And minimal sky or water forms do mark that saga’s birth.

[5]
Codex Vienna begins with order in the sky so dear,
Where the greatest moment: Lord Nine Wind Quetzalcoatl’s birth appears.
All subsequent stuff in Vienna depends on that event,
And across other codices, Nine Wind is also bent
On battling Stone Men and Striped Men in that War from Heaven’s call.
He even fights Lady Nine Grass (oracle at Chalcatongo’s hall).
That fight in Nochixtlan’s southern valley we see in ZN (20b–21a) told,
Mirroring epic ideological shifts of old.

[6]
Thus, with Nine Wind’s portrayal, we watch a lineage undone—
The Wasp Hill clan extinguished, replaced by brand-new lineage begun.
Codex Vienna centers on sky elements at Apoala,
While ZN’s first saga fosters more earth-cave aura.
Lord Eight Wind arises from a watery cave once (page 1 is that track),
But the rest are purely earth or temple caves, leading him back
To show how “caves” represent transitions in Mixtec domain.
Note that pages 1–8 have only one watery scene again,
And only one sky cameo found (page 4) in that War from Heaven fight;
Hence the epic tilt is earth-based, not water or sky in sight.

[7]
In saga three (ZN 36–41), once more we start at Apoala land,
With a cave event but lacking sky illusions grand.
We see water as rivers and a waterfall on page 36’s line,
No sky images fill that saga, so the difference is divine.
From pages 1–8, we glean that Lord Eight Wind was prime
In fueling wide social changes that emerged in his time.
He either joined or helped forge new lineage with the “People of Rain,”
Later codices show that lineage was key in Mixtec’s domain.

[8]
Though ZN never shows him fighting in War from Heaven’s prime,
He faced the Stone Men conflict, playing a major role sublime,
And shaped new rule by tree-born nobles from dear Apoala’s throne,
Then, beyond his active politics, he married thrice when older grown.
He fathered lines that later warred—Tilantongo versus Jaltepec’s clan—
Both parties came from daughters of Eight Wind, so that was the plan.
But “Hua Chino” lineage was not from him (Caso 1964:54a states),
Hence they were exterminated in that alliance war of fates.

[9]
Even postmortem, Eight Wind’s corpse bore influence so strong,
His mummy could prompt new wars among the kin who got along—
Or used to. The codex scribes provide connections that relate
Events on the manuscript reverse in Lord Eight Deer’s state.
Hence we see that the first saga ties Early Epiclassic times,
A new Mixtec society to later historic climbs:
All through the lens of one patriarch’s power, enshrined in fear and awe,
He shaped them mystically and physically, a father with wide draw.

[10]
Lord Eight Wind was indeed a patriarch in stride—
He lived to ninety-two, then left a lineage multiplied.
Descent from him through daughters gave certain royals right
To claim female-line ascendancy by genealogical might.
All three obverse sagas revolve around lineages formed,
And tie themselves by ancestry that each event has warmed.
Hence Jansen and Jimenez (2005:14b) propose a name for this codex text:
“Codex Tonindeye,” “Book of Lineage History,” so context is unvexed.

[11]
They say that early Mixtec history’s done in threefold track:
Saga one (pages 1–8) reveals new lineage at Apoala’s back.
Saga two (pages 14–22) shows an older clan removed
And new ceremonial centers discovered or proved.
Finally, saga three (36–41) is fully from that Apoala line,
So these scribes kept trifocal vantage to show how times combine.

[12]
To deliver the data in Zouche-Nuttall’s first eight leaves,
They used some clever formats that imagination weaves.
One trick is “eclipse” or “hiding” pages by a fold,
Yet another merges chronologies with Vienna’s told.
A kind of “literary duality” is also at play:
Pages come in pairs, each pair a data set that day.
Pages 1 and 2: Lord Eight Wind’s introduction in a supernatural role,
Making “People of the Rain” and “Land of the Rain God” the Mixtec soul.
Pages 3 and 4: The War from Heaven in twin arcs—
Stone Men first, Striped Men next—two separate warlike sparks.
Pages 5 and 6: The lineage founding and the patron deities appear,
Then 7 and 8 shift focus to Lord Eight Deer’s future sphere.
These last two pages have “metaphysical” events: a cult of the dead in sight,
As two deceased kings’ mummy bundles attend a conference at night.

[13]
Additionally, on pages 3 and 4, each ends in part
Of a ceremony from Apoala that’s spliced so they can start
Half each on separate pages, forming two halves of a whole,
While the protagonist, Eight Wind, shares with Nine Wind a role:
He’s “double-born,” so Quetzalcoatl parallels abide—
Two sequential chronologies link each other in stride.
Yes, Lord Eight Wind had “two lives”: first fifty-two near-supernatural years,
Then a final forty years more human, as it appears.
And beyond the grave he lingered in a third plane as well,
Influencing politics from a posthumous mystic shell.

[14]
Codex Zouche-Nuttall is not alone—its “sister” stands,
Codex Vienna, tied since Zelia Nuttall laid her hands
Upon them. Montezuma II bestowed these bright artifacts so grand
To Hernán Cortés as treasure leaving Aztec land (Nuttall 1902:9a–11b in brand).
They traveled to Europe side by side, then parted ways at last,
Physically split but conceptually tied by scholars in centuries passed.
They share a historical, ideological unity in art so bold,
Proclaiming Mixtec glory from over seven centuries old.

[15]
Now, these ancient manuscripts were not composed for our eyes,
Yet they act as time machines unveiling realms of surprise.
They show a world unshaped by Europe’s regal hand,
A place of living power in each noble’s stand.
These great houses of lords and ladies governed close domain,
Their might enthralls us even now, beyond the modern plain.

[16]
Yet a sorrow also resonates in 1521’s array,
When Europeans arrived in Oaxaca, took societies away.
A new cultural paradigm swept the old ways aside,
Leaving folks “without history,” though they once strode in pride.
The Mixtec codices—fragile, painted on gessoed leather leaves—
Are truer testaments to that lost world than gold or jeweled heaves.
Perhaps that’s why Montezuma II included them among his “treasure,”
They might outlast the gold or gems across centuries’ measure.
Indeed, the Spanish plunder’s mostly vanished or forgot,
While five centuries later, these codices remain, a precious lot.

[17]
Today, in calmer moments, we see the real trove so keen:
These Mixtec manuscripts, the tonindeye, preserving genealogies unseen.
Accounts of mighty kings and queens who walked that land so wide,
And shaped their realm through ideology and politics with pride.
Here, in these few surviving books, the world’s great literatures hold a gem:
Oaxacan states where authority rose from lords, a shining stem.
Thus the Mixtec culture thrived by what their heroes wrought,
And even after centuries, their story remains well-fought.

(End of Dr. Seuss–style anapestic tetrameter rendition, with no omitted data.)