Stela 14; Piedras Negras, Guatemala
The sun-god proper in Yucatan was, as stated before, Kinich-Ahau, and at his temple in Itzamal the deity was supposed to descend at midday to consume the offerings “as the macaw with its variegated plumage.” The simile is interesting, since it recalls at once the reliefs showing the offerings made to birds perched upon conventional trees (wrongly termed crosses) at Palenque (Fig. [49]), and the similar emblems surmounted by birds held by some of the figures at Menché. Still more interesting is the statement, found in the works of Burgoa, that at Teotitlan in the Zapotec country was a temple with a celebrated idol which was said to have come from heaven in the form of a bird in the midst of a luminous constellation. One of the glyphs identified with practical certainty is that of the sun, and figures or heads of deities with his glyph, “kin,” upon the forehead are found in the manuscripts and upon the monuments. Such is Schellhas’ God G, who differs from Itzamna only in the presence of the kin-mark and of a peculiar curved nose-ornament (Fig. [47, b]). On the monuments this god is invariably shown with peculiarly filed teeth, a characteristic which persists even when the kin-mark is absent (see Fig. [72]; p. 316, and the cover-design), and a long beard-like appendage beneath his chin which probably represents the rays of the sun (Fig. [55, e]; p. 251). But at the date at which the manuscripts were inscribed, as in later Yucatan, the personalities of Itzamna and the sun-god proper were rather confused, and the tendency can be observed even upon the monuments. The association of the sun with war is not so evident among the Maya as among the Aztec, still I think that it may be traced in the fact that nearly all the shields carried by figures carved upon the monuments bear as a device the face of the sun, distinguished by the peculiar form of the teeth. The magnificent relief in the temple at Palenque, usually known as the “temple of the sun,” represents in reality one of these shields slung from two crossed spears, and it is possible that the temple itself was dedicated to the war-god (Fig. [82]; p. 344). Another feature of the sun-face, when shown thus en face, is a twisted snake with the fold upon the nose, but arranged in the reverse position to that seen upon certain of the Tlaloc faces in Mexico (compare Fig. [86, f]; p. 356). It is worth noting, however, that Tlaloc is often shown with the attributes of Tonatiuh in the Mexican manuscripts. In addition to these gods, the Yucatec also believed in the existence of a creator, Hunabku, father of Itzamna, though, like many creating-deities, he does not seem to have been honoured with any definite cult. It is possible that he is to be identified with Hunahpu, a god who held a similar position in the mythology of the Quiché, and who was associated in the work of creation with Gukumatz and Hurakan. The latter was also termed the “Heart of Heaven,” and was a thunder- and lightning-god. As such he was also a god of fertility. The association of lightning with fertility is not perhaps apparent until it is remembered that most rain in the tropics is accompanied by thunder; for this reason Tlaloc and Chac, both of them thunder-gods, are gods of agriculture, and the dualism which makes the god who smites with the lightning the god also of the fertilizing rain is found in South America, in Peru, and in the Antilles. Whilst on this subject the existence of a special maize-god may be mentioned. This personage does not appear in the pantheon of the later Yucatec, for whom the Chac were the agricultural deities, but he is shown constantly in the manuscripts (Schellhas’ God E, Fig. [46, d]), and on the monuments. But his position is peculiar; even in the earlier times the rain-gods represented the active principle of fertility, the maize-god being merely passive, and typifying the spirit of the maize, befriended by the beneficent powers and persecuted by the lord of the underworld and the various animals which plunder the growing crop. On the monuments he is distinguished by a foliated ornament, representing the corncob, which forms his head-dress, and he appears most conspicuously in the so-called “foliated cross” at Palenque (Fig. [49]), which in reality represents a maize-plant like the Mexican Tree of the West, shown in Fig. [10]; p. 79. In the manuscripts he wears a similar head-dress, but is usually shown also with a vertical line running down his face passing across his eye, just as Cinteotl is depicted in the manuscripts of Mexico.
Fig. 49.—Stone relief; Temple of the Foliated Cross, Palenque.
(After Maudslay)
Fig. 50.—The two-headed monster; from a stone carving at Copan.
(After Maudslay)
The lords of the underworld held an important position in Maya mythology. The Yucatec recognized two destinations for departed spirits; one was a sort of paradise, where the souls of the dead rested in the shade of the mythical Yaxché tree, the other was called Mitnal, and corresponded to the Aztec Mictlan. Here presided a god called Hunahau or Uac Mitun Ahau, whose attributes are exactly similar to those of Mictlantecutli. He is usually, though not invariably, shown as a skeleton, and skulls and cross-bones, bell-like pendants and sometimes a feather ruff are his chief insignia (Schellhas’ God A, Fig. [47, e]). He is very frequently depicted in the manuscripts, and appears on the monuments chiefly in the form of a skull. The Kakchiquel spoke of him as Mictan Ahau, and associated with him two subordinate deities, Tatan Holon and Tatan Bak (“Father Bones and Father Skull”). The Quiché termed the underworld Xibalba, a word which was also used with the same connotation by the Maya and Kakchiquel. The story of the demi-gods Hunahpu and Xbalanque gives a detailed description of Xibalba. The road to it lies downwards beneath the earth, and its rulers are Hun Camé and Vukub Camé (terms in which we can recognize the Maya word cimi, the name of the day-sign corresponding to miquiztli, symbolized by a skull), whose messengers are the owls. It is expressly stated in the Popol Vuh, however, that the inhabitants of Xibalba are not gods, but beings of a supernatural character who delight in bringing evil upon men and stirring up strife between nations. There are many points about the “harrying” of Xibalba by the two heroes mentioned above which seem to suggest that the original Xibalba was situated in a region at that time inhabited by the Kakchiquel. One of the principal powers there is the Camazotz, a supernatural bat, who nearly compasses the destruction of the heroes in the Zotziha or “bat-house,” and, as has been stated, the principal deity of the Kakchiquel was a god in bat-form called Zotziha Chimalcam. Moreover the owl-messengers of Xibalba bear the title of Ahpop Ahchi, a title which also appears at the Kakchiquel court. Connected with the gods of the underworld was the Maya goddess Ixtab, who received the souls of those who committed suicide (by hanging). A figure which probably represents her appears once in the Dresden codex, in the form of a woman with her head in a noose (Fig. [47, f]). She was associated however rather with the paradise than with Mitnal, since individuals who hung themselves were considered to be assured of future happiness. A few more gods might be mentioned, but as practically nothing is known of them save their names, and they do not appear on the monuments as far as can be traced at present, they are omitted. But a word must be said concerning certain mythological animals which figure in the sculptures. Chief of these is a monster resembling a dragon, which is furnished with a head at either end of the body (Fig. [50]). The head proper is distinguished by an inordinately long upper jaw, and exhibits otherwise certain characteristics usually associated with the serpent in Maya art. The mouth is invariably shown wide open, with the head of a god, usually the sun-god (though sometimes God B), emerging. The reverse head, often shown upside-down, is portrayed with a fleshless jaw and other symbols of death, but is also associated with the sun in so far as it bears upon the forehead the kin-glyph, over which are certain ornaments, notably a flame-like “plume,” which are attributes of the sun. Now the head proper, with the elongated upper jaw, bears a distinct resemblance to the Mexican cipactli animal, from which the earth was created, and in a very confused creation-myth given in one of the books of Chilan Balam we find a monster, Itzamkab-ain, who at the creation is impregnated by a god of fecundity, Ah-uuk-chek-nale. Further the earth in Mexican symbolic art is invariably represented by a monster with gaping jaws, which is often shown as swallowing Tonatiuh or Tlaloc. I think that it is perfectly just to conclude that the so-called “double-headed dragon” of Maya art is the earth-monster. As we have seen, the god who is usually shown in his jaws is the sun-god, and the occasional substitution of God B is paralleled in the Mexican manuscripts which sometimes show Tlaloc in the jaws of the earth-monster. The head with the attributes of death and the sun combined, which appears at the other end of the animal (sometimes, as I have said, upside-down), is, on this explanation, the sun in the underworld, i.e. the sun after its setting. The presence of the sun-attributes is necessitated by the fact that without them the death-face would be indistinguishable from that of the death-god, whereas the head of the other god requires no special identification marks. There are a good many additional points which support this view, but I will mention two only. The magnificent carved lintel from Tikal, now at Basle, shows a figure with all the attributes of the death-god beneath a particularly elaborate example of the double-headed monster. The position of the monster here is unusual, since it is usually shown as a support rather than as a canopy, but I think that in this case it emphasizes the fact that the home of the death-god is below the earth. The other point is the following: in the relief at Palenque, known as the cross, the conventional tree (for such it is in reality), springs from the head with the combined death- and sun-symbols (Fig. [51]). In this case the part is taken for the whole, the head represents the earth-monster, and the whole scene is an exact parallel to the Borgia codex, in which the trees of the world-directions are shown rooted in the body of the monstrous earth-goddess (Fig. [10]; p. 79). The Vaticanus B codex is an even closer parallel, since the trees representing the quarters are there depicted as springing from a cipactli head, and it will be remembered that the Mexicans believed the earth to have been created from a monstrous cipactli (p. 59). It is true that the “foliated cross” is supported by a head of another type, but there is a particular reason for this; the “foliated cross” is in reality a maize-plant, the head is that of a rain- or water-god (of whom parallels are found at Chichen Itza and other places), and the combination symbolizes the dependence of the maize-crop upon the water-supply. The finest example of the double-headed earth-monster is the remarkable monolith, designated P, at Quirigua (Pl. [XXVI, 1]; p. 338.) The illustration shows the principal head of the animal with widely-distended jaws enclosing the figure of a deity.
