Commentary on the Maya Manuscript in the Royal Public Library of Dresden

by Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann

Page 60.

This is the last page of the front of the second part and is divided into four sections:—at the top we find hieroglyphs, below these a picture, then hieroglyphs again and in the lowest section another picture.

The upper picture contains first a rectangular elevation like a platform. Enclosed in this rectangle is the picture of the animal resembling a dog lying down, which we have often met with, the last time on page 47. In front of the dog is a hieroglyph, which, I regret to say, is still unknown and which occurred six times as a heading on page 23b. On the platform two personages are fighting; one is in war-dress holding in his left hand the throwing-stick or atlatl, and in his right probably arrows; the other figure, whose back is somewhat indistinct owing to obliteration, is apparently unarmed and is making a defensive gesture with one hand. Beside the platform, and therefore on a lower level, is a second person walking behind the armed person as if to help him. He too is in war-dress and likewise holds an atlatl. A black 3 is set down between the two combatants, and there may also have been a red 2, which is indistinct owing to the red background of the picture.

Let us next examine the lower picture. A blindfolded personage is kneeling on the left. A serpent's head rises from the ground in front of him. A second serpent rises in several coils on the shoulders of the blindfolded personage and on the serpent's neck sits enthroned another personage, who is rather indistinct, holding a spear and a shield. On the right, opposite this group and facing it, is a second. A personage with arms bound and bowed head is sitting on the ground. There is a black ring around his eye. Behind him stands the victor in war-dress and again equipped with spear and shield. There is a red 11 and a black 2 between the two groups.

We see that the reference here is to combat, just as it was on the right side of pages 46-50. And since the subject of these pages like that of 46-59 is confined to the revolutions of the planets, it is natural that the pursuit of one by the other, their periodical disappearance, the crossing of their orbits and the variation in the length of their revolutions should be looked upon as a contest. Therefore, since the sun, the moon and the five planets have hitherto been treated of on these pages, I look for these seven heavenly bodies in the seven personages pictured here on page 60. I will attempt to explain them, hoping that my interpretation may be replaced by a better one.

The sun and moon stand on the platform in the upper picture; their combat is equivalent to the eclipses to which they at times succumb. The moon is the assailant and the sun makes only a proud defensive gesture. The person behind the moon must be Mars. The animal under the two persons is the embodiment of the eclipses, which the Aztecs interpreted as the act of being devoured by the jaguar. The hieroglyph in front looks very much like the meeting of two circles. Does it refer to the day Lamat (Aztec tochtli = rabbit)?

At the left, bottom, the powerful Venus triumphs over the weak Mercury. The two planets are real chronometers by reason of the regular alternation of their appearance as morning and evening stars, and also by their disappearance twice in each revolution and finally even in the variation in the length of the two periods of invisibility. Hence they are each accompanied by a serpent as the usual symbol of time.

On the right, on the other hand, Jupiter as the stronger has vanquished Saturn, whose bound arms symbolize his slowness of motion and the fact that he is confined to the same region of the sky. Should not the ring around his eye have a very special meaning? But we must guard against an excess of imagination. Jupiter and Saturn are the last to be represented, as they were of but secondary importance, on pages 51-58 and perhaps also in the 2200 on page 24.