Deities of the Maya World

Maize was the staple crop of Mesoamerican civilization, and so it was universally personified as a deity because of its fundamental importance to human life. From ancient times to the twenty-first century, Mesoamerican religion has often likened the maize to the life stages of a human being, sprouting from infancy into childhood, adolescence, and maturity, in correspondence with the stages of the plant. This wonderful sculpture of the maize god in his young male aspect, adorned with well-combed hair, large earspools, and a massive pectoral, comes from Copan, Honduras.

Copan Museum

The Maya reckoned the underworld, the land of the dead, according to their knowledge of caves, whose profound depths crept into the hidden places of the earth. The bat, a denizen of these portals to the underworld, was therefore the ideal creature to straddle between the lands of the living and the dead. The Kamasots' bats were mythical, grotesque bats of the nether realms, as described in the K'ichee' myth of the Popol Vuh and as shown in these two figures. The vase in the left image is very similar to well-documented vases from the Chama region of Alta Verapaz, a Department in central Guatemala. It speaks with a voice projected like flaring scrolls. Eyes decorate this monstrous bat's wings. At right, a large stone sculpture of the Death Bat looms against a dark underworld background. Its fingers end in hooked talons.

Museum of Fine Arts, Copan Sculpture Museum

Maya gods were mainly associated with the elements of nature or, in the interests of nobility, with the divine legitimation of their ruling authority. Sometimes they satisfied both. The wind god, Ik', occasionally appeared in the form of a howler monkey, as in this regal sculpture from Copan. It is one of two simian sculptures flanking the short stairs running up the south side of Temple 11. The relation between wind and monkey is also made in the K'ichee' Maya creation myth of the Popol Vuh, in which the wooden humans of a previous age were destroyed with great winds, the survivors transformed into monkeys.

Copan

The Sun Lord is often represented with fiery eyes and a shark tooth jutting from the upper jaw, as in this stucco face from the East Plaza of Copan. The sun and moon have also been understood by the Maya as a divine pair of god and goddess, which is in fact a common interpretation across Mesoamerica. In the Popol Vuh the true sun and moon are formed by the self-sacrifice of the Hero Twins (Hunahpu and Xbalamque) after they conquer the darkness that prevents true light from illuminating the earth.

Copan

A culture like that of the Classic Maya, whose social hierarchy reaches to a sovereign king, often understands its divinities in terms of such a stratified hierarchy. In this case, just as the Maya city-state obeyed a supreme figure, the gods also had one, in this case the creator god Itzamnaaj. This deity is usually identified by emerging from the jaws of a great reptile or, as in this fine effigy censer from Mayapán, Yucatán, with an arched nose and orange jaw. This effigy censer is an excellent example of the numerous Chen Mul censers that have been found in the elite center of Mayapán, particularly from the Hocaba (1200-1300 AD) and Tases (1300-1450) ceramic phases.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

Chaak is the Yucatec Maya word for "thunder," a fitting name for the god of rain. The large temple mask at left is from K'abah, a city from the Puuc region of northwest Yucatán. Its curled nose is an exaggerated form of the pointed nose that usually characterizes Chaak; the nose is said to scratch the clouds to bring the rain, or its downward-pointing nose could represent the shape of a whirlwind itself. A pair of fangs at the mouth corners that identify Chaak also appear in this mask. In modern Maya folklore, the rain god often keeps his waters in jars that he releases to pour the necessary rains. The Mayapán effigy censer at right is another outstanding representation of Maya polychrome ceramic. The sculpture may represent either a priest, clad in the garments symbolizing the Rain God Chaak, or Chaak himself.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The Diver God is prominent in the north Yucatán, and this effigy censer portrays him in such descent. Many natural objects "descend" in the Maya world: the sun descends into the western horizon, the rain descends to the earth, and the maize kernel sinks into the earth in order to sprout. At the Postclassic site of Tulum, a diving god over the entrance of the Castillo temple holds a honeycomb in his hands. The one in this censer holds a blossom in one hand, the other free. You can see holes within the palms, from which incense smoke would billow out when lit.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The word k'awiil can refer to either the king's scepter or the spirit of that scepter, a deity personified with wild eyes, a narrow snout, and one leg transformed into a serpent. K'awiil appears in the lower portion of this monolithic stela, beneath an ancestral figure emerging from a Vision Serpent's mouth. Both ancestral lineage and the k'awiil provided a spiritual dimension to a ruler's authority. Many rulers also had K'awiil in their names, and the passing of the k'awiil scepter from one ruler to his or her successor is a common theme in dynastic Maya art.

Amparo Museum

In Yucatec Maya, the merchant god is called Ek Chuah. The problem of applying this name to all of his appearances in Maya art is that they did not all speak the same language. In fact, over 40 Maya languages have been documented! To avoid privileging the name in one language over another, Maya archaeologists often use an alphabetic system for identifying principal deities. The maize god above, for example, is God E, and the merchant god is God M. He can be recognized for his black skin and the red paint around his lips, and he almost always bears his walking stick, as did the ancient Mesoamerican merchants. This image of the merchant god is on a polychrome vase.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

God N is always associated with a shell, especially as he emerges from it; sometimes it is a turtle shell, but in this and other cases it is a snail's. This figure is a rare and exceptional example of the god made into a ceramic sculpture, and the polychrome paint retains the colors of the skin and shell. The elderly God N pertains to the earth and sometimes to the underworld, as do the Kamasots' bats mentioned above and the skeletal death gods. With palms turned up, he appears to be smiling in this piece.

National Museum of Anthropology and History

The ancient Huaxtec Maya of the Postclassic Gulf of Mexico and their Teenek descendants today could count the Maamlaab among their major deities. The Maamlaabob (plural) are spiritual "grandfathers," wise old men who help maintain the earth and promote its fertility. The Maamlaabob always hold a shorter object in front, probably a walking stick that doubles as a plowing staff. It is usually shaped as a child, and I have encountered the interpretation that this could recall the old man guiding his grandson by the head.

Xalapa Museum of Anthropology

If the Maamlaab are the male agents of fertility, the Teem are the fertility goddesses of the Huaxtecs. The Aztec fertility goddess Tlahzolteotl was a clear borrowing from Huaxtec Mayas' Teem. Their headdresses are a unique combination of the Huaxtec conical cap upon a rectangular base. These fertility mother goddess sculptures can reach life size. A fascinating fact about these sculptures is that, in the regions of northern Veracruz where most of these have been discovered, some have had altars built for them by modern indigenes! A few contemporary Aztecs and Otomí in the Huasteca of Veracruz refer to these Postclassic sculptures as the "Ancient Gods," to whom they give ceremonial offerings in petition for abundant rain and crop.

Xalapa Museum of Anthropology