Read Ebook: Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts by Schellhas Paul Parker A M Alberta M Translator Wesselhoeft Selma Translator

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According to F?rstemann, the day ruled by C seems to be Chuen.

D. The Moon- and Night-God.

God D is not connected with the grim powers of destruction; he never appears with death symbols. In Dr. 5c and 9a he wears the snail on his head. He seems, therefore, like god A to be connected with birth. In Dr. 8c he is connected with god C, and this is quite appropriate, if we look upon these gods as heavenly bodies. The aged face, the sunken, toothless mouth are his distinguishing marks. In the Madrid manuscript, where god D occurs with special frequency, his chief characteristic, by which he is always easily recognized, is the single tooth in his under-jaw , compare too Dr. 8c, where the solitary tooth is also to be seen. In Dr. 9a the god holds in his hand a kind of sprinkler with the rattles of the rattlesnake, as Landa describes the god in connection with the rite of infant baptism

J. Walter Fewkes has made god D the subject of a special, very detailed monograph in which he has treated also of gods B and G, whom he considers allied to D. He believes D to be the god Itzamn?, as do also F?rstemann, Cyrus Thomas and Seler, and sees sun-gods in all three of these deities. Whether god D is to be separated from G and B as an independent deity, Fewkes thinks is doubtful. Brinton again holds that god D is Kukulcan. These different opinions show, at all events, on what uncertain grounds such attempts at interpretation stand, and that it is best to be satisfied with designating the deities by letters and collecting material for their purely descriptive designation.

According to F?rstemann the calendar day devoted to D is Ahau.

E. The Maize-God.

The hieroglyph of this deity is thus explained; it is the head of the god merged into the conventionalized form of the ear of maize surrounded by leaves. When we remember that the Maya nations practised the custom of artificially deforming the skull, as is seen in particular on the reliefs at Palenque, we may also regard the heads of these deities as representations of such artificially flattened skulls.

God E occurs frequently as the god of husbandry, especially in the Madrid manuscript, which devotes much attention to agriculture. He seems to be a counterpart of the Mexican maize-god Centeotl. The passages in the Madrid manuscript are very remarkable, where the deity E is represented in the position of a woman in labor with numerals on the abdomen; perhaps the underlying idea is that of fruitfulness.

In the Codex Cort., p. 40, this grain-deity is pictured with a tall and slender vessel before him, which he holds in his hands. It is possible that this is meant to suggest a grain receptacle; to be sure, in the same place, other figures of gods likewise have such vessels in their hands. At any rate, it is interesting to note that in the passage already mentioned god E also holds a similar tall and slender vessel in his hands.

According to all appearances the scene pictured in Dr. 50a has reference to the conflict of the grain-god with a death-deity. The latter, the figure sitting on the right, is characterized by a skull as a head ornament and seems to address threats or commands to god E, who stands before him in the attitude of a terrified and cowed individual.

Furthermore god E has nothing to do with the powers of the underworld; he is a god of life, of prosperity and fruitfulness; symbols of death are never found in connection with him. Brinton calls this god Ghanan, equivalent to Kan; it is possible, too, that he is identical with a deity Yum Kaax who has been handed down to us and whose name means "Lord of the harvest fields".

According to F?rstemann the day dedicated to this god is Kan.

F. The God of War and of Human Sacrifices.

This is a deity closely related to the death-god A, resembling the Aztec Xipe, and may, I think, without hesitation be regarded simply as the god of human sacrifice, perhaps, even more generally, as the god of death by violence. His hieroglyph is Figs. 28-30; it contains the number 11. A variant of this occurs on Dr. 7b, where instead of the 11 there is the following sign:

The characteristic mark of god F is a single black line usually running perpendicularly down the face in the vicinity of the eye. This line should be distinguished from the parallel lines of C's face and from the line, which, as a continuation of god E's head resembling an ear of maize, frequently appears on his face, especially as in the variants of the Madrid manuscript . These pictures of E can always be unfailingly recognized by the peculiar shape of the head and should be distinguished from those representing F. The black face-line is the distinguishing mark of god F, just as it is of the Aztec Xipe. It sometimes runs in a curve over the cheek as a thick, black stripe, as Cort. 42. Sometimes it encircles the eye only and again it is a dotted double line . The hieroglyph of god F likewise exhibits this line and with the very same variants as the god himself. See the hieroglyphs of the god belonging to the pictures in Dr. 6a, 1st and 3d figures, in which the line likewise differs from the other forms .

Since god F is a death-deity the familiar sign , which occurs so frequently with the hieroglyphs of A, also belongs to his symbols. F is pictured in company with the death-god in connection with human sacrifice ; an exactly similar picture of the two gods of human sacrifice is given in Codex Tro. 30d; here, too, they sit opposite one another. The identity of this attendant of death with the deity, designated by the hieroglyph with the numeral 11, is proved by the following passages: Tro. 19, bottom , Dr. 5b, 6a, b, and c and many others. In some of the passages cited he is distinguished by an unusually large ear-peg. His hieroglyph occurs with the hieroglyph of the death-god in Dr. 6c, where he is himself not pictured.

As war-god, god F occurs combined with the death-god in the passages mentioned above , where he sets the houses on fire with his torch and demolishes them with his spear.

God F occurs quite frequently in the manuscripts and must therefore be considered as one of the more important deities.

According to F?rstemann his day is Manik, the seizing, grasping hand, symbolizing the capturing of an enemy in war for sacrificial purposes.

G. The Sun-God.

God G's hieroglyph contains as its chief factor the sun-sign Kin. It is one of the signs , which has the Ben-ik prefix and doubtless denotes a month dedicated to the sun. There is, I think, no difference of opinion regarding the significance of this deity, although Fewkes, as already stated, is inclined to identify G with B, whom, it is true, the former resembles. It is surprising that a deity who from his nature must be considered as very important, is represented with such comparative infrequency. He occurs only a few times in the Dresden manuscript, for example 22b, 11c, and in the Codex Tro.-Cortesianus none can be found among the figures which could be safely regarded as the sun-god; in no manuscript except the Dresden does a deity occur wearing the sun-sign Kin on his body. But once in the Codex Cort. the figure of D appears with the sun-sign on his head, as pointed out by Fewkes in his article entitled "The God 'D' in the Codex Cortesianus". G's hieroglyph, to be sure, is found repeatedly in the Madrid manuscript, for example Codex Tro. 31c.

God G seems to be not wholly without relation to the powers of death; the owl-sign occurs once in connection with him . Besides the sun-sign Kin, which the god bears on his body, his representations are distinguished by a peculiar nose ornament which, as may be seen by comparison with other similar pictures in the Dresden manuscript, is nothing but a large and especially elaborate nose-peg. Similar ornaments are rather common just here in the carefully drawn first part of the Dresden manuscript. Compare Dr. 22b , 21 , 17b, 14a, b; occasionally they also have the shape of a flower, for example 12b , 11c , 19a. Lastly it is worthy of note, that god G is sometimes represented with a snake-like tongue protruding from his mouth, as in Dr. 11b and c.

H. The Chicchan-God.

The figure of a deity of frequent occurrence in the Dresden manuscript is a god, who is characterized by a skin-spot or a scale of a serpent on his temple of the same shape as the hieroglyph of the day Chicchan . Moreover the representations of the god himself differ very much, so that there are almost no other positive, unvarying characteristic marks to be specified. His picture is plainly recognizable and has the Chicchan-mark on the temple in Dr. 11a, 12b and 20b.

That god H has some relation to the serpent must be conjectured from what has been said. Thus, for example, on Dr. 15b, we see his hieroglyph belonging to the figure of a woman with the knotted serpent on her head, in Dr. 4a to the god P, who there bears a serpent in his hand, and in Dr. 35b in connection with a serpent with B's head. What this relation is, cannot now be stated.

The day dedicated to god H is Chicchan, and the sign for this day is his distinguishing hieroglyph.

In the Dresden manuscript the figure of an old woman, with the body stained brown and claws in place of feet, occurs repeatedly. She wears on her head a knotted serpent and with her hands pours water from a vessel. Evidently we have here a personification of water in its quality of destroyer, a goddess of floods and cloud-bursts, which, as we know, play an important part in Central America. Page 27, of the Codex Troano contains a picture, in which this character of goddess I may be distinctly recognized. In accordance with this character, also on Dr. 74, where something resembling a flood is represented, she wears the cross-bones of the death-god.

Strange to say, a fixed hieroglyph of this goddess cannot be proved with certainty. There is some probability in favor of the sign given in Fig. 41. The well-known oblong signs, which F?rstemann interprets as the sign for evil days, frequently occur with her. This would be appropriate for the goddess of floods.

In the Dresden manuscript a few similar figures of women are found, who, like goddess I, wear a knotted serpent on the head. Representations of this kind occur in Dr. 9c, 15b, 18a, 20a, 22b and 23b. Whether they are identical with goddess I is doubtful, since there is no symbolic reference to water in these passages. Besides, the hieroglyphs of other known deities occur each time in the above-mentioned places, so that definite mythologic relations must be assumed to exist here between the women repsented and the deities in question. Thus in Dr. 9c we find D's sign, in 15b that of H; on 18a, 22b and 23b we see only the general sign for a woman. In Dr. 20a the signs are effaced.

K. The God with the Ornamented Nose.

In Dr. 65a B is pictured. But in the text we see K's hieroglyph presented by a hand. The next figure on the same page at the right represents god B with the head of K on his own and the same head once more in his hand. Agreeing with this, we find in the accompanying text the signs of B and K, the latter in a hand. K seems to be pictured again in Dr. 46 ; the passage, however, is somewhat obliterated. The hieroglyph is lacking in this place; it is found, however, on the preceding page 45 .

Brinton considers this figure simply as a special manifestation of B and identical with that god. F?rstemann thinks that god K is a storm-deity, whose ornamental nose, according to the conventional mode of drawing of the Central American peoples, is intended to represent the blast of the storm.

According to F?rstemann, Muluc is the day dedicated to god K.

L. The Old, Black God.

God L's features are those of an old man with sunken, toothless mouth. His hieroglyph is Fig. 44, which is characterized by the black face.

God L, who is also black, must not be confounded with M whose description follows. L is represented and designated by his hieroglyph in the accompanying text, in Dr. 14b and 14c and Dr. 46b; the figure has the characteristic black face. He appears entirely black in Dr. 7a. The hieroglyph alone occurs in Dr. 21b and 24 with a variation, namely without the Ymix-sign before the head. This deity does not occur in the Madrid and Paris manuscripts.

The significance of god L does not appear from the few pictures, which are given of him. In Dr. 46b the god is pictured armed and in warlike attitude. Both in Dr. 14b and 14c he wears a bird on his head and has a Kan in his hand.

According to F?rstemann, his day is Akbal, darkness, night.

Cyrus Thomas thinks he is the god Ekchuah, who has come down to us as a black deity. God M seems, however, to correspond to Ekchuah .

M. The Black God with the Red Lips.

God M's hieroglyph is Figs. 45, 46; it seems to represent an eye rimmed with black, though the figure of the god himself displays an entirely different drawing of the eye .

The god is found in the Dresden manuscript only three times, namely in Dr. 16b in picture and sign, in Dr. 13c grouped with an animal, without the hieroglyph, and in Dr. 43a while finally his hieroglyph alone appears in Dr. 56 in a group and of a somewhat different form.

On the other hand, god M appears with special frequency in the Madrid manuscript, which treats of this deity with great fullness of detail. While he is represented in the Dresden manuscript with his body striped black and white, and on p. 43a entirely white, he is always entirely black in the Codex Troano. His other distinguishing marks are the following:

Besides his hieroglyph mentioned above, Figs. 45 and 46, another sign seems to refer to god M, namely Fig. 48 . The head in this sign has the same curved lines at the corner of the eye as appear on the deity himself. F?rstemann mentions this sign in his Commentary on the Paris Manuscript, p. 15, and in his Commentary on the Dresden Manuscript, p. 56. He thinks the hieroglyph has relation to the revolution of Venus, which is performed in 584 days. A relation of this kind is, I think, very possible, if we bear in mind that all the god-figures of the manuscripts have more or less of a calendric and chronologic significance in their chief or in their secondary function.

According to Brinton , there is among the Tzendals in addition to Ekchuah, a second black deity called Xicalahua, "black lord".

N. The God of the End of the Year.

We have here a deity with the features of an old man and wearing a peculiar head ornament reproduced in Fig. 50, which contains the sign for the year of 360 days. The god's hieroglyph is Fig. 49, which consists of the numeral 5 with the sign of the month Zac. F?rstemann has recognized in god N the god of the five Uayeyab days, which were added as intercalary days at the end of the original year of 360 days, and were considered unlucky days. N is, therefore, the god of the end of the year. F?rstemann has discussed him in detail under this title in a monograph published in Globus, Vol. 80, No. 12. It is still open to question whether god N actually occurs in all the places of the Dresden manuscript, which are mentioned by F?rstemann. He can be recognized positively on Dr. 17a, 21c and 37a; also on 12c, but in this latter place with pronounced deviations from the usual representations. The figures in Dr. 23c and 43a are doubtful, especially since the hieroglyph of the god is lacking in both instances. The third group in Dr. 21c is equally dubious. Here a woman is pictured sitting opposite a god. The latter seems to be god N, yet in the text we find instead of his sign the hieroglyph given in Fig. 51. It is not impossible that this sign likewise denotes god N.

God N is found a few times in the Paris manuscript, for example on p. 4, where he holds K's head in his hands, and on p. 22.

O. A Goddess with the Features of an Old Woman.

Her hieroglyph is Fig. 52; it is distinguished by the wrinkles of age about the eye. Owing to the limited number of her pictures, there is little to be said concerning the significance of this goddess.

P. The Frog-God.

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