Goddess I is the Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube letter designation for one of the most important Maya deities: a youthful woman to whom considerable parts of the post-Classic codices are dedicated, and who equally figures in Classic Period scenes. Based on her representation in codical almanacs, she is considered to represent vital functions of the fertile woman, and to preside over eroticism, human procreation, and marriage. Her aged form is associated with weaving. While being terrestrial herself, goddess I has a celestial counterpart in the Maya moon goddess

Maya moon goddess

The traditional Mayas generally assume the moon to be female, and the moon's phases are accordingly conceived as the stages of a woman's life. The Maya moon goddess wields great influence in many areas. Being in the image of a woman, she is naturally associated with sexuality and procreation,...

. In important respects, she corresponds to Xochiquetzal

Xochiquetzal

In Aztec mythology, Xochiquetzal was a goddess associated with concepts of fertility, beauty, and female sexual power, serving as a protector of young mothers and a patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and the crafts practised by women such as weaving and embroidery...

 among the Aztecs.

Name and attributes

The hieroglyphical name of the goddess consists of a female head characterized by a hair-like curl (prefixed or infixed). The curl is not unimportant, since it is usually assumed to be the sign of the earth (kab'[an]) or the moon (Landa's u-sign), with the goddess being identified accordingly. However, the curl might, perhaps, better be viewed as the post-Classic rendition of the infix and hair curl characteristic of Classic glyphs for 'woman' (ixik). The head of goddess I is often preceded by the glyph for 'white' (sak). The figure of goddess I shows a restricted set of variable attributes, amongst which is also the coiled snake headband of goddess O. As a mantic designation, 'White Woman' contrasts with 'Red Woman', a name referring to the aged patroness of midwifery, Ixchel

Ixchel

Ixchel or Ix Chel is the 16th-century name of the aged jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine in the ancient Maya culture. She corresponds, more or less, to Toci Yoalticitl ‘Our Grandmother the Nocturnal Physician’, an Aztec earth goddess inhabiting the sweatbath, and is related to another...

 (the goddess O). In the codices, the main female functions have been distributed over the White Woman - the Red Woman.

Functions in ancient almanacs

Goddess I is the subject of almanacs which take up several pages in the Post-Classic codices of Dresden (16-23) and Madrid (91-95). There, she is chiefly represented in the following ways:

• Carrying a bird on the shoulders:

The bird species have been argued to refer to the names of specific diseases mentioned in early-colonial medical treatises (especially the Ritual of the Bacabs

Ritual of the Bacabs

Ritual of the Bacabs is the name given to a manuscript from the Yucatán containing shamanistic incantations written in the Yucatec Maya language. The manuscript was given its name by Mayanist William E. Gates due to the frequent mentioning of the Maya deities known as the Bacabs...

). Goddess I thereby appears to function as a general mother of disease.

• Carrying a deity or a symbol in a carrying-strap on her back:

The deity (e.g., the rain god, the death god) or the symbol (e.g., 'abundance') contains a general prognostication .

• Holding a deity as a child on her lap:

The deity so held may contain a prediction relative to the child's development.

• Seated opposite another deity or animal:

The combinations with a deity or an animal (vulture, armadillo, deer, dog) seem to refer to the prospects of marriage, in the Madrid codex symbolized by the reed mat on which the couples have been placed. The deity or the animal may be indicative of certain qualities of the male partner in marriage, with the female partner representing the constant element. In some cases - involving a young deity as well as the old, lecherous God N - the coupling has unmistakable erotic overtones.

• Seated on the lap of another deity:

This occurs only once, and implies the aged God L

God L

God L of the Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube classification of codical gods is one of the major pre-Spanish Maya deities, specifically associated with trade. He is characterized by high age, jaguar traits , a broad feathery hat topped by an owl, and by a jaguar mantle or a cape with a pattern somewhat...

. The prognostication may conceivably refer to the sort of husband that can be expected to take and marry the woman, or to the deity's influence on the female partner in marriage.

Classic correspondences

With the exception of the disease-carrying birds, several depictions of the goddess in the almanacs have their counterparts in the Classic Period: Goddess I can be depicted with the maize child in a carrying-strap on her back; is shown in amorous embrace with the aged and lecherous god N; and is found in encounters, sometimes markedly erotic, with animals such as armadillo, deer, spider monkey, and stinging insects.

The combinations with animals are not well understood. They have been interpreted astronomically (on the assumption that goddess I is identical with the moon goddess), but could in principle also be viewed as metaphorical references to marriage; as mythological scenes; or as relating to animal fertility.

Mythological comparisons

Although in the codices and in Classic Period art, goddess I is not identified with the moon goddess (who can be recognized by her rabbit pet and the lunar crescent), her main functions seem largely to coincide with those of the Moon (excepting the Moon's strong association with water and rain). Mythologically, she has been compared to the underworldly wife of Hun-Hunahpu, Xquic

Xquic

Xquic is a mythological figure known from the 16th century Quiché Maya manuscript Popol Vuh. She was the daughter of Cuchumaquic, one of the lords of Xibalba, the Maya Underworld...

, in the Quichean Popol Vuh, and to the wife of the deer-hunting hero of Q'eqchi' Sun and Moon myth, Po 'Moon'. Thompson has pointed out that in the Q'eqchi' myth - which is about the earthly life of a mountain deity's daughter before her final transformation into the Moon - the themes of eroticism, fertility, and marriage strongly come to the fore. In contemporary Maya religion generally, goddess I may possibly go under the cloak of the Virgin Mary, in the latter's various aspects and local manifestations, such as that of "guardian and embracer of the maize".