World Creator and World Sustainer: God N at Chichen Itza LYNN FOSTER UNIVERSITY of MASSACHUSETTS LINNEA WREN GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE
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World Creator and World Sustainer: God N at Chichen Itza LYNN FOSTER UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LINNEA WREN GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE During the ninth century, the site of Chichen Despite his importance, First Father has not Itza in northern Yucatan emerged as the center been identified with certainty in Maya art. First of a powerful state that spread its influence Father has been identified with God D, known throughout much of Mesoamerica. As attested as Itzamna (Taube 1992), and with God L by the art of Chichen Itza, the success of the pol (Pickands 1980). He is known in the Popol Yuh ity depended not only on stridently militaristic as Hun Hunahpu and in the Late Classic inscrip policies, but also upon fervent religious beliefs. tions as Hun Ahau and as the Maize God, Hun The murals, sculptures and other forms of repre Nal Ye (Schele 1992a:21). He is depicted as a skull; sentational art of the site demonstrate that at the he is resurrected as the youthful Maize God. Yet same time that the people of Chichen Itza boasted he remains at times practically indistinguishable of their dominance over defeated polities and from his Hero Twin Son, Hunahpu. He seems to captive peoples, they also acknowledged their be everywhere at once but remains elusive. No obedience to the supernatural powers that in single deity in Maya sculpture has consistently fused their existence and that determined their been depicted with a set of iconographic at destiny. tributes that fully symbolizes the supernatural Among the gods to whom the populace of aspects of First Father. Chichen Itza gave their reverence was the eld At Chichen Itza, a complex of visual motifs erly male supernatural (fig. 1) identified as God associated withGod N suggests that the deity was N (Forstemann 1901; Schellhas 1904; Thompson understood as a manifestation of First Father. 1970a; Taube 1989a, 1992). It is the contention of One element in this complex of visual motifs is this paper that at Chichen Itza, God N can be the compositional pairing of God N and Goddess identified as First Father, the primordialmale god o on the piers of the Lower Temple of the Jag of Maya cosmology. uars. The female supernatural (fig. 2) is depicted According to Maya beliefs of both the pre with death motifs including a skeletalized face conquest and post-conquest periods, First Father and long skirt decorated with crossed bones and played an important role in shaping the cosmos death eyes. Similar death motifs are frequently (Edmonson 1971; Tedlock 1985; Schele and associated in the codices with Goddess 0 whose Freidel 1990; Schele 1992a; Freidel, et aI, 1993). identify as the ancient genetrix of creation has Like First Mother, the female deity who was his been well established (Joralemon 1981; Taube consort, First Father was born before 4 Ahau 8 1992). Kumk'u, the date on which the fourth cycle of A second element in the complex of visual cosmic creation was begun (Schele 1992a:120). motifs at Chichen Itza that identifies God N with Through the supernatural agency of the primor First Father is the serpentine umbilical cord as dial couple, the natural world was formed, the sociated with each of the ancestral deities. First younger gods were conceived, maize was Father, as well as First Mother, possessed procre brought into cultivation and humankind was ative powers of a supernatural magnitude. Late modeled from com dough. Creation was com Classic period figurines (Robicsek and Hales pleted when shamanism and kingship, the essen 1981:fig. 67; Taube 1989:fig. 24-12c) and vessels tial institutions of Maya society, were established (Robicsek and Hales 1981:vesseI12a) frequently by the ancestral deity couple (Schele 1992a:163 depict young women being fondled by an eager 165). God N (Coe 1973; Schele and Miller 1986). In 259 Fig. 1 God N. Lower Temple of the Jaguars. South Fig. 4 Goddess O. Lower Temple ofthe Jaguars. North Jamb. Chichhl Itza. Tozzer 1957, v. 12:fig. 614. Pier. North Side. Chichhl Itzti. Tozzer 1957, v. 12:fig. 195. Fig. 2 Goddess O. Lower Temple ofthe Jaguars. North Fig. 5 God N. Lower Temple of the Jaguars. South Pier. North Side. Chichhl Itza. Tozzer 1957, v. 12:fig. Pier. West Face. Chichhl Itzti. Tozzer 1957, v. 12:fig. 196. 615. Fig. 3 North Temple. North wall. Chichhl Itzti. Drawing by Linnea Wren. 260 contemporary Maya ritual, God N has survived when the raising of the World Tree separates the as the licentious character know as Mam, whose earth and sky (Freidel, et al. 1993:42). The sky clowning challenges the rigid conventions of so bearing Pauahtun may also be understood as a cial behavior (Stresser-Pean 1952). His public "stand up sky lord" because the Cordemex Dic displays of lewd and undignified behavior make tionary entry for bacahb is 'stood up' (Barrera Mam an affectionate target of Maya humor. God Vasquez 1980). N was the pre-conquest patron god of the five The separation of the earth from the sky is day Uayeb period, whose acts ofbuffoonery were evidently portrayed in Late Classic vessel scenes depicted by the Maya with great relish. In this in which the World Tree grows out of the skeletal aspect, he was often shown with traits adapted head of First Father (Coe 1978:vesseI16; Robicsek from the opossum mam (Taube 1989b:fig. 24-1). and Hales 1981:vessel 109). A similar scene is Despite the apparent incongruity of associ represented in relief at Chichen Itza on the bal ating the clowning opossum god with the vener ustrades of the North and South Temples, struc able First Father, sexual potency is an essential tures located at the ends of the Great Ball Court element in the cosmological role of the ancestral (fig. 6). The moment in the creation drama at couple. Located on the central axis in the basal which First Father is decapitated and buried in band of the north wall of the North Temple at the ballcourt is described in the Popol Vuh. A Chichen Itza is a reclining female figure (fig. 3). similar ritual of divine internment has survived Two serpents emerge like a bifurcated umbilical among the Kekchi Maya 0. E. S. Thompson cord from her abdomen. These paired serpents 1970b:299). The Kekchi celebrate the end of their apparently refer to the Maya interpretation of the Easter ceremonies by the burial of a modem im umbilical cord, not only as the bond that connects age of a Bacab. These ceremonies appear to par ,the mother to her unborn child, but also as the allel the Uayeb ceremonies, which have been rec living rope that linked the supernatural sphere ognized as re-enactments of creation itself (Taube to the natural world in the early period of cre 1988). The identification of God N as the Bacab, ation (Miller 1982). with First Father as the "stand up sky lord," may At Chichen Itza the figures of both Goddess explain the prominence of God N both as patron o (fig. 4) and God N (fig. 5), represented on the of and participant in Uayeb ceremonies. entrance piers of the Lower Temple of the Jag The cosmological motif representing the uars, are superimposed in front of serpent bod separation of the earth from the sky is seen at ies. These serpentine bodies twist behind the Palenque in the Temple of the Foliated Cross supernatural torsos. Dropping like umbilical (Schele 1979:fig. 16). The tablet from this temple cords between their legs, the serpents connect the depicts a Maize Tree growing from a skull that deities to the world below. sprouts vegetation. The skull has been inter A third element in the complex of visual preted by David Freidel as the severed head of motifs at Chichen Itza that identifies God N as First Father, while the Maize Tree has been inter First Father is pose. Whether reclining preted as a the manifestation of First Father as (Proskouriakoff 1970:fig. 15), kneeling (SeIer 1902 the resurrected Maize Lord (Freidel, et al. 23, v. 5:301) or standing (SeIer 1902-23, v. 5:296), 1993:359). The identification of First Father with God N figures raise one or both arms to support the Maize Tree is suggested by the presence on the realm above their heads. These atlantean the upper stalk of the com plant of a full-frontal poses identify God N with the quadripartite, mask. This mask has been assigned the phonetic world-sustaining deities who are known in their value tzuk, a term that means 'partition' and that youthful aspects as Bacabs and in their aged as also serves as one name for First Father (Grube pects as Pauahtuns (Tozzer 1941:137; Coe 1973:15; and Schele 1991). Schele and Miller 1986:122). The function of God The Maize Tree can also be identified as a N as the world-sustaining force can be equated manifestation of God N. A pair of tzuk masks, with the world trees placed at the comers and shown in profile view, can be seen at the base of center of the universe. According to the Chilam the com plant. Since only one side of the Maize Balam ofChumayel (Roys 1933:100), the world tree Tree is visible, it is possible to infer the presence in the cosmic center was called Yax Che, or First of a fourth tzuk mask placed symmetrically with Tree. In Late Classic hieroglyphic texts, First Fa the full-frontal mask (Freidel, Schele and Parker ther is called the "stand up sky lord" because his 1993:360). The implicit representation of four tzuk rebirth coincides with the moment in creation masks apparently refers to the kan tzuk, that is, 261 Fig.