Maya Death Gods
Encyclopedia
The Maya death gods, known under various names, belong to only two basic types, respectively represented by the 16th-century Yucatec deities Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau mentioned by Spanish Bishop Landa
. Hunhau is the lord of the Underworld
. Iconographically, Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau correspond to the Gods A and A'.
In recent narratives, particularly in the oral tradition of the Lacandons, there is only one death god (called "Kisin" in Lacandon
), who acts as the antipode of the Upper God in the creation of the world and of the human body and soul. This death god inhabits an Underworld that is also the world of the dead. As a ruler over the world of the dead (Metnal or Xibalba
), the principal death god corresponds to the Aztec deity Mictlantecuhtli
. The Popol Vuh
has two leading death gods, but these two are really one: Both are called 'Death', with only the prefixes ('One' and 'Seven') being different. They were vanquished by the Hero Twins.
The two principal death gods count among the many were-animals and spooks (wayob
) inhabiting the Underworld, with the God A way in particular manifesting himself as a head hunter and a deer hunter.
uses another name and calls the lord of the Underworld and "prince of the devils" Hunhau, a name that, recurring in early Yucatec dictionaries as Humhau and Cumhau, is not to be confused with Hun-Ahau; hau, or haw, means 'to end' and 'to lay on its back (mouth up)'. Other names include Yum Kimil 'Lord of Death' in Yucatán and (Ah) Pukuh in Chiapas. (Ah Puch, though often mentioned in books about the Mayas, does not appear to be an authentic Maya name for the death god.)
) where a pair of Death Gods, Hun-Came 'One-Death' and Vucub-Came 'Seven-Death', rule over a series of disease-bringing deities. They defeat the Death Gods and put restrictions on their cult.
, who revived three days later.
). In connection with these apparitions, he tends to be depicted either as a head hunter or as deer hunter (see figure). On the grandiose Tonina
stucco wall, the severed head is that of an enemy king. The death god's deer hunt has two sides. On the one hand, this deer hunt may metaphorically refer to a hunt for human victims. On the other hand, there also seems to be a connection with certain wayob shaped like deer but with the tail of a spider monkey. On the famous peccary skull from Copan, for example, such a deer way appears to be welcoming the death god returning from a hunt.
s are paired off with death gods. This may relate to the fact that in Yucatán, one of the four Bacabs was called 'White Death' (Zaccimi).
. Instead of being a head hunter, however, God A' is a demonic apparition often shown in the illusionistic act of self-decapitation. He may also assume the shape of a blowfly or of a firefly carrying a torch. It has been suggested that the hieroglyphic name of God A' should be read as Akan, although this name is otherwise only known as that of a 16th-century deity of alcoholic beverages.
states the Underworld (Miitnal) to be opened and Kisin (Cizin) to be liberated during the concluding twenty days of the year (Uayah-yaab). In the Classic period, the head of the skeletal God A serves as (i) the hieroglyph for the day Kimi 'Death', corresponding to Kame' in Quiché, also the name of the paired rulers of Xibalba
in the Popol Vuh; (ii) the hieroglyph for the number Ten (lajun), perhaps because the verbal stem laj- means 'to end'; (iii) a variable element in glyph C of the Lunar Series, registering one to six completed lunations, probably for the prediction of lunar eclipses. Apparently connected to this, God A can be depicted with the attribute of a crescent that seems to mark him as a lunar patron deity. A vignette of God A (or perhaps his female counterpart) illustrates the lunar eclipse tables of the Dresden Codex (see figure).
Diego de Landa
Diego de Landa Calderón was a Spanish Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán. He left future generations with a mixed legacy in his writings, which contain much valuable information on pre-Columbian Maya civilization, and his actions which destroyed much of that civilization's...
. Hunhau is the lord of the Underworld
Underworld
The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...
. Iconographically, Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau correspond to the Gods A and A'.
In recent narratives, particularly in the oral tradition of the Lacandons, there is only one death god (called "Kisin" in Lacandon
Lacandon language
Lacandon is a Mayan language spoken by approximately 1000 Lacandon people in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. Native Lacandon speakers refer to their language as Jach t’aan or Hach t'an. A portion of the Lacandon people also speak Tzeltal, Chol, and Spanish....
), who acts as the antipode of the Upper God in the creation of the world and of the human body and soul. This death god inhabits an Underworld that is also the world of the dead. As a ruler over the world of the dead (Metnal or Xibalba
Xibalba
Xibalba , roughly translated as "place of fear", is the name of the underworld in Maya mythology, ruled by the Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. According to some of the...
), the principal death god corresponds to the Aztec deity Mictlantecuhtli
Mictlantecuhtli
Mictlantecuhtli , in Aztec mythology, was a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan , the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He was one of the principal gods of the Aztecs and was the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death and the underworld...
. The Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala's western highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community," "Book of Counsel," or more literally as "Book of the People."...
has two leading death gods, but these two are really one: Both are called 'Death', with only the prefixes ('One' and 'Seven') being different. They were vanquished by the Hero Twins.
The two principal death gods count among the many were-animals and spooks (wayob
Wayob
Wayob is the plural form of way , a Maya word with a basic meaning of 'sleep', but which in Yucatec Maya is a term specifically denoting the Mesoamerican nagual, that is, a person who can transform into an animal while asleep in order to do harm, or else the resulting animal transformation itself...
) inhabiting the Underworld, with the God A way in particular manifesting himself as a head hunter and a deer hunter.
Post-Classic names
Kisin is the name of the death god among the Lacandons as well as the early colonial Choles, kis being a root with meanings like 'flatulence' and 'stench'. LandaLanda
Landa is a Basque surname.Landa may refer to:Places* Landa, North Dakota* Landa de MatamorosPeople* Alfredo Landa* Diego de Landa, fourth bishop of Yucatan* Daniel Landa, Czech musician* Eli Landa* Honorino Landa* Konstantin Landa...
uses another name and calls the lord of the Underworld and "prince of the devils" Hunhau, a name that, recurring in early Yucatec dictionaries as Humhau and Cumhau, is not to be confused with Hun-Ahau; hau, or haw, means 'to end' and 'to lay on its back (mouth up)'. Other names include Yum Kimil 'Lord of Death' in Yucatán and (Ah) Pukuh in Chiapas. (Ah Puch, though often mentioned in books about the Mayas, does not appear to be an authentic Maya name for the death god.)
K'iche'
In the Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins descend to the 'Place of Fright' (XibalbaXibalba
Xibalba , roughly translated as "place of fear", is the name of the underworld in Maya mythology, ruled by the Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. According to some of the...
) where a pair of Death Gods, Hun-Came 'One-Death' and Vucub-Came 'Seven-Death', rule over a series of disease-bringing deities. They defeat the Death Gods and put restrictions on their cult.
Yucatec
According to one of the earliest sources on Maya religion (Francisco Hernández 1545), Eopuco (i.e., Ah Pukuh) mistreated and killed the BacabBacab
Bacab is the generic Yucatec name for each of the four pre-Spanish, aged Maya deities of the interior of the earth and its water deposits. The Bacabs have more recent counterparts in the lecherous, drunken old thunder deities of the Gulf Coast regions...
, who revived three days later.
Lacandon
The skeletal death god Kisin plays a prominent role in Lacandon mythology, chiefly in the following tales:- (i) The creation of the underworld by the upper god, involving the upper god's death at the hands of Kisin, his resurrection, and Kisin's confinement to the underworld; in his anger, Kisin sometimes kicks the pillars of the earth, thus causing earthquakes;
- (ii) A failed attempt at the creation of human beings in emulation of the upper god, leading to the creation of the 'totemic' animals of certain kin groups (onen);
- (iii) The descent of the ancestor Nuxi' into the underworld to woo Kisin's daughter;
- (iv) The description of the destiny of the souls in the underworld, where Kisin (a) burns the souls of evildoers, (b) transforms the souls of certain evildoers into his 'domestic animals', (c) hunts for the spider monkey doubles of men destined to die.
Ritual
Both God A and God A' figure prominently in the New Year rites depicted in the Dresden Codex. God A' probably corresponds to the death god Uacmitun Ahau in Landa's description of the New year rites. He presides over a year of great mortality. To ward off evil during this year, men would walk over a bed of glowing embers that possibly represented the fires of the Underworld.Classic Period: God A
The death god classified as God A always has a fleshless skull with usually a skeletal body. He occurs in the following contexts.Man Hunt and Deer hunt
With varying hieroglyphic names and attributes, God A figures in processions and random arrays of were-animals and spooks (wayobWayob
Wayob is the plural form of way , a Maya word with a basic meaning of 'sleep', but which in Yucatec Maya is a term specifically denoting the Mesoamerican nagual, that is, a person who can transform into an animal while asleep in order to do harm, or else the resulting animal transformation itself...
). In connection with these apparitions, he tends to be depicted either as a head hunter or as deer hunter (see figure). On the grandiose Tonina
Tonina
Tonina is a pre-Columbian archaeological site and ruined city of the Maya civilization located in what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas, some 13 km east of the town of Ocosingo....
stucco wall, the severed head is that of an enemy king. The death god's deer hunt has two sides. On the one hand, this deer hunt may metaphorically refer to a hunt for human victims. On the other hand, there also seems to be a connection with certain wayob shaped like deer but with the tail of a spider monkey. On the famous peccary skull from Copan, for example, such a deer way appears to be welcoming the death god returning from a hunt.
Jaguar baby transformation
Together with the Rain Deity, God A is present at the jaguar transformation of a man (possibly a hero) who is usually shown as a baby, and who seems to disappear into the Underworld.Earth-carriers
On a Copan bench, the earth-carrying BacabBacab
Bacab is the generic Yucatec name for each of the four pre-Spanish, aged Maya deities of the interior of the earth and its water deposits. The Bacabs have more recent counterparts in the lecherous, drunken old thunder deities of the Gulf Coast regions...
s are paired off with death gods. This may relate to the fact that in Yucatán, one of the four Bacabs was called 'White Death' (Zaccimi).
Classic Period: God A'
The other codical death god is God A', corresponding to Landa's Uac Mitun Ahau, and characterized by a black stripe over the eyes and a 'darkness' infix in the forehead. Just like death god A, he figures among wayobWayob
Wayob is the plural form of way , a Maya word with a basic meaning of 'sleep', but which in Yucatec Maya is a term specifically denoting the Mesoamerican nagual, that is, a person who can transform into an animal while asleep in order to do harm, or else the resulting animal transformation itself...
. Instead of being a head hunter, however, God A' is a demonic apparition often shown in the illusionistic act of self-decapitation. He may also assume the shape of a blowfly or of a firefly carrying a torch. It has been suggested that the hieroglyphic name of God A' should be read as Akan, although this name is otherwise only known as that of a 16th-century deity of alcoholic beverages.
Calendrical and astrological functions
A text from the early colonial songbook of DzitbalcheDzitbalché
Dzitbalché is a large town in the extreme northern part of the Mexican state of Campeche. It is located at 20.32°N 90.05°W, within the municipality of Calkiní...
states the Underworld (Miitnal) to be opened and Kisin (Cizin) to be liberated during the concluding twenty days of the year (Uayah-yaab). In the Classic period, the head of the skeletal God A serves as (i) the hieroglyph for the day Kimi 'Death', corresponding to Kame' in Quiché, also the name of the paired rulers of Xibalba
Xibalba
Xibalba , roughly translated as "place of fear", is the name of the underworld in Maya mythology, ruled by the Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. According to some of the...
in the Popol Vuh; (ii) the hieroglyph for the number Ten (lajun), perhaps because the verbal stem laj- means 'to end'; (iii) a variable element in glyph C of the Lunar Series, registering one to six completed lunations, probably for the prediction of lunar eclipses. Apparently connected to this, God A can be depicted with the attribute of a crescent that seems to mark him as a lunar patron deity. A vignette of God A (or perhaps his female counterpart) illustrates the lunar eclipse tables of the Dresden Codex (see figure).
See also
- Black Sun (mythology)Black Sun (mythology)The Black Sun in Mesoamerican mythology has many mystical meanings, among them it is connected to the god Quetzalcoatl and his penetration in the Underworld through the west door after his diurnal passage on the sky. Amidst the Mexicas there were two suns, the young day sun and the ancient sun,...
- List of Maya gods and supernatural beings
- XibalbaXibalbaXibalba , roughly translated as "place of fear", is the name of the underworld in Maya mythology, ruled by the Maya death gods and their helpers. In 16th-century Verapaz, the entrance to Xibalba was traditionally held to be a cave in the vicinity of Cobán, Guatemala. According to some of the...
- WayobWayobWayob is the plural form of way , a Maya word with a basic meaning of 'sleep', but which in Yucatec Maya is a term specifically denoting the Mesoamerican nagual, that is, a person who can transform into an animal while asleep in order to do harm, or else the resulting animal transformation itself...