MAYA ART AS NARRATIVE OF AND KINGSHIP

A Thesis

Presented

to the Faculty of

California State University Dominguez Hills

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

in

Humanities

by

Laura Lingenfelter

Spring 2016

Copyright by

LAURA LINGENFELTER

2016

All Rights Reserved

DEDICATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Anthony, my husband and staunchest supporter and to my thesis mentor,

Dr. Kirstin Ellsworth, for her patience, encouragement and guidance.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

COPYRIGHT ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... iv

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vi

ABSTRACT ...... vii

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. STATE OF THE RESEARCH...... 6

Friar ...... 6 Early Explorers ...... 8 Early Scholars ...... 9 Major Developments in Decipherment ...... 12 Other Developments and Accomplishments ...... 14

3. HISTORY AND CULTURE ...... 20

Setting ...... 21 Counting and Calendars ...... 23 Script...... 24 Social Structure ...... 25 Scribes ...... 29 Religion ...... 30 Court...... 31 Women ...... 32 Conflict and War ...... 36 The Ball Game ...... 38

4. MYTHOLOGY ...... 40

Cosmogony ...... 41 Maya Myth ...... 43 The Popul Vuh ...... 46 Contemporary Celebration of Myth ...... 58

5. ICONOGRAPHY OF DIVINE KINGS AND QUEENS ...... 60

iv

Sacred Beings and Blood ...... 61 Sacred Beings and the Night Sky ...... 62 Sacred Beings and Artistic Representation ...... 63 Sacred Being—The Maize God: Male and Female ...... 65 Women at Court ...... 68 ...... 69 Female Imagery ...... 80 Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc—Male and Female Complementary Roles ..... 81 Conclusion...... 83

WORKS CITED ...... 87

v

LIST OF FIGURES

PAGE

1. Relief of noble with weapon, Tonina, , 613 CE...... 27

2. Monkey Scribe, Copan, , 600–800 CE ...... 30

3. Drawing of Stela 40, Ruler 4, Piedras Negras...... 32

4. Queen Ix Mutal Ahaw, Lower Mexico or , 761 CE ...... 35

5. Drawing of hieroglyphic stair, Structure 33. Yaxchilan, 750–776 CE. Research. famsi.org. April 2015...... 38

6. Rebirth of the Maize God ...... 54

7. Plate with Maize God resurrection scene, or Vicinity, Maya area, Peten, Guatemala, 600–800 CE ...... 57

8. Censer with seated king, Guatemala, 350–450 CE ...... 63

9. Maya Maize God, Temple 22, Copan, Honduras, 680–750 CE ...... 64

10. Portrait head of Lord Pakal, , Mexico, 650–683 CE ...... 65

11. Lady Six Sky, ...... 69

12. Lintel 24, detailed Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE ...... 72

13. Lintel 24, detailed Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE ...... 73

14. Lintel 24, Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE ...... 74

15. Lintel 24, detailed Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE ...... 75

16. Lintel 25, Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 681 CE ...... 77

17. Lintel 26, Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 724 CE...... 79

vi

ABSTRACT

The iconography of ancient Maya art addresses and

communicates the Maya belief system. The decipherment of Maya glyphs has contributed to the understanding of the historical circumstances of much of ancient Maya art; however, the art is more accurately and completely understood by examining the meaning of the images in relationship to myth. While the form of specific artistic works is laudable, the primary focus of this discussion is on the subject matter and reasons for certain innovations. Art can only be understood in the context of its culture and the presentation of certain contemporary Maya beliefs and practices contributes to an understanding of ancient Maya art. By means of examining images, symbols and the rituals illustrated in the art, conjectures have been made as to the reason for the innovative inclusion of a female figure as the primary actor in a series of lintels in Yaxchilan.

1 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

While studying Maya art and history, one encounters incredible monuments, sculpture, wall paintings, and painted ceramic vases. Without a context for or experience with the images, one is at a loss as to the art’s meaning or significance. As one reads explanations and studies the artworks, perhaps with a magnifying glass to isolate obscure aspects of the images, similarities and recurring images enable one to become comfortable with the subject matter. With familiarity, knowledge, and experience, preferences and favorites develop. For me, three stone lintels in Yaxchilan became favorites because of the intricacy of the carving, the beauty of the images, and the subject matter. After reading that the representation of a woman in such a setting was quite unique, the reason for the appearance of a female became the subject of much thought, consideration, and speculation. Was the queen’s relationship with the king so strong, so fervent, that the king initiated a radical deviation from custom to express passion? Was the queen’s political power such that it required her image in the setting? Because the images were completed late in the Classic Period, did some aspect of the decline of

Yaxchilan necessitate a departure from tradition? Most of my thoughts on the subject seemed possible but all seemed too simple and more reading and research needed to be done to support my thoughts.

Even elementary studies of Maya art point to art as a means of communicating the

Maya belief system. Reading deciphered hieroglyphic text; becoming knowledgeable of

2 the : The Maya Book of the Dawn of Life; considering the works of Maya

scholars such as , Michael Coe, and Mary Miller; and viewing an exhibit of

Maya ceramic vases at Princeton University Museum confirmed my suspicion of the

relationship between Maya art and mythology. With that suspicion validated, the next

step was to reflect on the Maya creation myth as told in the Popol Vuh and inscribed at

various ancient Maya sites to determine if the myth related to the appearance of the

female figure. However, even the idea of female is complex in the Popol Vuh. The term

mother-father is a confusing concept. The first men created were referred to as mothers

and fathers (Bassie-Sweet 2). Additional reading reveals that contemporary Maya use

mother-father to refer to ancestors and to day keepers, who are ritual specialists or diviners. In Palin, Guatemala, both husband and wife hold the title because they are one unit (2). In many contemporary Maya communities, a man is thought to have less strength when his wife is not present (2).

The Popol Vuh reveals that the creator gods were quite concerned that the humans they created must acknowledge the gods; be grateful to the gods; and provide support, sacrifice, and sustenance to the gods. The primary focus of the Maya cosmology and religious ceremony was the creation and re-creation of the multitiered universe. The humans were to provide for the re-creation by sacrifice and reenacting the initial creation

(Wagner 292).

The Maya universe according to myth consists of heaven, earth, and the , with an axis mundi to link them. As told in the Popol Vuh, the gods of the

primordial waters and the gods of the primordial sky were in conversation and, by means

3 of their thoughts, designed and created the universe (Part One). They debated how the crops would be sown, how the dawning of light would be brought about, and who would support and provide for the gods. The words of the gods had already brought the earth, but the gods were concerned that there would be no praise for the creators’ work until

there was a human. Although quite successful in creation of the earth, with its mountains

and plains, the first attempt at creating humans was not so successful. They tried again

because “[t]he time for planting and dawning is nearing. For this we must make a

provider and nurturer. How else can we be invoked and remembered on the face of the

earth?” (Popol Vuh Part One) They approach Xpiyacoc, the grandfather, and Xmuxane,

the grandmother, and ask if the human should be carved from wood. Xpiyacoc and

Xmuxane agree with the plan, but the beings do not demonstrate gratitude to the gods.

Finally, the gods learn of the mountain filled with yellow and white corn. Xmuxane

grinds the corn and, mixing the water she used to wash her hands with the corn flour, she

provides the material for human flesh. The first mother-fathers are formed from the

yellow and white corn. Today, the men who are the “mother-fathers” of the Quiche,

similar to the first humans, are symbolic androgynous parents to their lineages (Popol

Vuh Introduction).

Maya artists, in depicting the universe, focused on the many ways Maya royalty

performed the required rituals and tasks in a manner to preserve the balance of the

universe. The royalty completed the rituals, as was their duty, to ensure the preservation of the community. Because the gods had created the universe, the royalty were obligated to preserve the universe by means of ritual, ceremony, and sacrifice. The artists’ work

4 demonstrated how Maya courtly life and sacred ritual were inseparable. The royalty was presented in the guise of gods reenacting their sacred and performing sacred rituals

(Miller 21). Whether illustrating a journey into the , the creation of the various realms of the cosmos, or royalty ensuring the prosperity of the community through sacrifice or some other intervention, artists demonstrated the joining of the temporal and

spiritual worlds (Schele and Miller 42).

Reading, research, and consideration gave rise to my hypothesis that (a) the Popol

Vuh definitively established the creator gods’ requirement that the Maya support and

venerate the creator gods; (b) the Yaxchilan lintels, by means of an artistic representation,

demonstrate the king’s and queen’s fulfillment of the gods’ requirement by reenacting the

creation and providing sustenance to the gods by means of sacrifice; (c) the king and

queen, by appearing together, more fully reenact the original creation by being the

mother-father recreators, as were the original divine mother-father creators.

As with most research and development of a hypothesis, the path is not straight.

Reading material that appears to be extraneous sparks ideas and leads to more research

and new ideas. Thus, the presentation of the thesis takes a wide berth in presenting

material that will ultimately pave the way for a possible explanation for a diversion from

traditional convention in ancient Maya artistic presentation. To develop a theory

concerning the possible reasons for representations in ancient Maya art, especially any

that divert from established practices, it is necessary to be knowledgeable of the state of

the research in the field, the ancient Maya culture and myth, and the artistic conventions

of ancient Maya artists. Chapter 2 addresses the research, chapter 3 discusses ancient

5 Maya history and culture, chapter 4 recounts and considers Maya myth, and chapter 5 examines divine imagery of the king and queen and possible reasons for a diversion from

traditional ancient Maya artistic convention.

6 CHAPTER 2

STATE OF THE RESEARCH

Twenty-first century tourists visit the many Maya archaeological sites in Central

America and Mexico, meandering among the plazas and pyramids that, fewer than two hundred years ago, were obscured from view by trees and jungle foliage. In 1839, John

Lloyd Stephens, an American lawyer, travel writer and Special Ambassador to Central

America, and Frederick Catherwood, an English artist, after landing in what is now

City, were eventually led by local guides and villagers to the ruins of Copan. Stephens and Catherwood asked who had constructed the edifices, but the builders’ names had

been forgotten long ago (Coulter 7).

Friar Diego de Landa

Of course, the Spaniards knew of the Maya from the Spanish Conquest in the

1500s; however, few but the religious missionaries, such as Diego de Landa, pursued any

scholarly investigation into the Maya culture. Landa wrote of what he observed and heard

from the Maya during his time in their midst. Friar Diego de Landa was a Franciscan priest who, with five other priests, went to the Yucatan in 1547. According to Maya scholar Michael Coe, Landa passionately desired to abolish idolatry among the Maya

(Coe, Breaking 100). In 1562 Landa conducted a crusade of sorts that culminated in the destruction of the majority of Mayan manuscripts and hundreds of ritual objects. Landa was eventually recalled to Spain to defend his actions before an ecclesiastical court.

During Landa’s period of exile in Spain, he wrote his Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan

7 (100). Some argue that Landa wrote the most complete account of the Maya way of life before the Spanish Conquest (72). Some scholars also credit Landa’s account of the Maya days and months as vital to understanding the , one of the four surviving

American codices (80). David Webster contends that the single most important record of sixteenth-century Maya life and history is Landa’s Relación (Fall 85). Nevertheless, in

Landa’s zeal to eradicate Maya culture of what he thought to be barbaric beliefs, he destroyed primary documents and artifacts that would have offered more credible information than he provided in his writings.

Landa undoubtedly knew that destroying the materials that express and support cultural memory—that is, the books, stories, and symbols of a society—would provide the opportunity to reform the society by establishing a new and different base. What is the

Bible? What is the Koran? What in sacred texts make them so important? Such texts are the mythological basis of the cultures that revere them. The sacred text of a society is the foundation of the culture that shows, by divine example and proclamation, how the people are to live. Therefore, it is reasonable to conjecture that knowing the mythology and the rituals based on that mythology could be the greatest key to understanding the culture. By knowing the mythology and rituals, it is possible to know the culture. Of course, the symbols may be incorrectly defined, thereby leading to a complete misunderstanding of the culture—as is demonstrated in the following brief discussion of the study of Maya culture.

8 Early Explorers

When Stephens and Catherwood were making their way to Belize City, the prevailing thought was that the New World peoples were migrants from Scandinavia,

China, Africa, or some other ancient or lost civilization, such as the Lost Tribes of Israel

(Webster, The Fall 24). They did not consider that the primitive people of the New World could possibly have developed anything with the complexity and magnitude described by the Spanish explorers (24). Stephens believed that the ruins were the remains of residential centers and that the faces carved in stone were images of the rulers of the centers. Stephens believed that the monuments were historical records; he wrote, “. . . tablets probably contain the history of the king or hero delineated, and the particular circumstances or actions which constituted his greatness” (Schele and Miller, The Blood of Kings 20). It would be more than a century before he would be proven correct on the two points.

The focus of British explorer and archaeologist Alfred Maudsley’s study of Maya art was patterns, which he found in the iconography and hieroglyphics. Maudsley’s study was of Maya art and writing. In addition to patterns, he also saw repeated themes, primarily at individual sites, occurring over several generations. His pursuits led eventually to Maya hieroglyphic decipherment and appointment of the Maya as the most cultured of the New World peoples because of their complex writing system (Miller 15).

When Maudsley visited Yaxchilan, he was so taken by the beauty of some of the stone lintels that he had them shipped to England, and they are even now part of the British

Museum’s permanent collection (two were included in the museum’s recent A History of

9 the World in One Hundred Objects). In addition to their beauty, the stone lintels were unique in their depiction of a female figure.

Early Scholars

Herbert Spinden, an early twentieth-century anthropologist, wrote Maya Art

(1909), his doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Harvard. In this work, which yielded the first serious consideration of Maya iconography, he sought to identify universal religious principles. Spinden was the first art historian to give attention to the female figure, identifying the women in the lintels from Yaxchilan by their elaborate huipiles, the traditional embroidered garment worn by Maya women (Ardren 6). Spinden maintained that Maya art exhibited regional style and evolved (Miller 16). Both points seem reasonable and are referred to in the discussion of the Yaxchilan lintels. First, the Maya covered an area of more than 135,000 square miles, which gives credence to regionalism

(Fields and Budet 55). Second, because Maya art covered more than one thousand years, change and evolution would be expected, just as European art changed and evolved between Trajan’s Column and the Vietnam War Memorial. Spinden’s work brought him to the conclusion that the study of was vital, even when the ceramic’s provenance was unknown. The consideration, exhibition, and study of unprovenienced antiquities, such as Maya ceramics, are an ongoing discussion among scholars. In its academic journals, the Society of American will not publish objects that do not have an accurate description of origin (Just 55). Bryan Just, Princeton University

Museum Curator of Art of the Ancient Americas, in the book for the exhibition Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik’ Kingdom, agrees with Spinden’s conclusion,

10 asserting that limiting inquiry to objects with a clear provenance precludes an enormous body of information (55). In another proposal, whose controversy was not settled for many years, Spinden argued that the sculptures at Piedras Negras were of accession and warriors. Spinden’s theories and his assertions concerning the study of Maya art were not

adopted, and scholars focused on the study of Maya writing (Miller 16–17).

By the beginning of the twentieth century, much work had been completed in establishing dates, thereby demonstrating the Maya’s arithmetical and calendrical skills.

In 1905, J. T. Goodman, established the relationship between the Maya and Christian calendars (Schele and Miller 21). Goodman’s work enabled researchers to define more clearly the construction dates of monuments and to differentiate historic periods in . Research continued, and more and more dates were discovered through interpretation and decipherment of the hieroglyphs (Coe, Breaking 114). Researchers argued that the human figures on the various surfaces were anonymous representations of priests and scholars studying time and astronomy, not historical individuals (Schele and

Miller 22). Scholars also maintained that all of the pictures were male figures, even when they were wearing skirts (Miller 17). Previous assertions from such as Herbert

Spinden that the individuals were rulers, were completely rejected. Even the early twentieth-century researchers who viewed the Maya art of Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras took no notice of the seemingly obvious images of warriors, battles, captives, and blood sacrifice (Schele and Miller 22). The rigid viewpoint and the lack of interest in the study of Maya art continued until the end of World War II. Then, in 1946, Sylvanus G. Morley

11 wrote of the beauty of Maya art, designating Lintel 24 in Structure 23 in Yaxchilan “the most beautiful example of sculptured stone door lintel” (Miller 18).

As an example of why one must always consider the possibility that an interpretation of ancient representations or behavior is inaccurate, in the mid-1940s, the most revered Morley asserted,

The Maya inscriptions treat primarily of chronology, astronomy—perhaps

one might better say astrology—and religious matters. They are in no

sense records of personal glorification and self-laudation, like the

inscriptions of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. They tell no story of kingly

conquests, recount no deeds of imperial achievement; they neither praise

not exalt, glorify nor aggrandize, indeed they are so utterly impersonal, as

completely nonindividualistic, that it is even probable that the name-

glyphs of specific men and women were never recorded upon the Maya

monuments. (Webster, The Fall 114)

In the early 1950s, J. Eric S. Thompson, another respected Mayanist, and George

Stuart, “the man who knew more about the Maya than anyone” (Breaking the Maya

Code), described the Maya as peaceful stargazers who were primarily focused on astrology and religion. According to Thompson, the carved stone images were of gods or priests, not of rulers, historical events, or important personages. Furthermore, Thompson insisted that the Maya were peaceful, loving, and totally devoid of any violent tendencies.

This description made the Maya unique in the world. Even in writing about the

Bonampak murals, which had been discovered in 1946, Thompson was steadfast in his

12 professional assessment of the Maya (Schele and Miller 18–24). However, what even those unschooled in artistic analysis saw at was a battle scene comparable to

Uccello’s Battle of San Romano (1438–40). Coe suggests that Thompson’s experience as a soldier in the trenches of World War I made him want—almost need—the Maya to be spiritual and peaceful (Breaking the Maya Code). Although Thompson’s opinion did not change, things were soon to change as new and convincing developments unfolded.

Major Developments in Decipherment

In the late 1950s, after spending many years analyzing Palenque inscriptions as an avocation, Heinrich Berlin, a German-born grocery wholesaler in , deciphered site-specific “emblem” glyphs for Tikal, Naranjo, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras,

Palenque, Copan, Quirigua, and . Further scholarship has shown that some sites have more than one emblem glyph: Yaxchilan has two and Palenque three (Coe, Breaking

178). However, the question remains as to whether the emblem glyph is a place-name, the names of tutelary divinities, or the name of the ruling dynasty (178).

In 1959, Tatiana Proskouriakoff’s discovery of the meaning of patterns of glyphs

on the stelae of Piedras Negras demonstrated that Maya glyphs and art do contain

historical information. Morley’s dictum in the middle 1940s that Maya art told “no

stories” was quickly debunked. When Proskouriakoff showed Thompson what she had

discovered, he said it could not be right. However, the next day, Thompson went back to

Proskouriakoff and congratulated her on the discovery (Breaking the Maya Code).

Proskouriakoff’s 1961 article “Portraits of Women in Maya Art” discussed the identifying factors that characterized female figures and feminine head glyphs (Ardren 6).

13 Proskouriakoff turned her attention in 1963 and 1964 to Yaxchilan and deciphered works at Yaxchilan that proclaimed two rulers: Itzamnaaj Bʻalam II (ruled 681–742 CE)1 and

Yaxun B’alam IV (ruled 752–768 CE)2 as military leaders who were imposing warriors.

Proskouriakoff’s work also showed the importance of the role of women in the political

setting, specifically through marriage alliances (Ardren 7). Continuing with his study of

Maya art and women, in 1969, George Kubler wrote of the role of women in Maya

culture, particularly regarding images of the royal family in the Bonampak murals and the

accession ceremonies in Palenque (7). The study of Maya women, at least Maya royal women, became an acceptable scholarly subject.

The study of the Maya became more focused, and the study of aspects of Maya life became a priority. Whereas earlier opinions held that the large centers were ceremonial and housed only priests and scholars, archaeological studies showed large populations in many of the centers. In December 1973, the Primera Mesa Redonda de

Palenque brought artists, linguists, epigraphers, art historians, astronomers, dirt archaeologists, and Maya enthusiasts together for the first time (Coe, Breaking 198). The participants worked together in Palenque in the morning, going to the site when there was doubt or disagreement regarding a carving or glyph. The unlikely trio who stole the show at the round table was Linda Schele, an unknown artist, Peter Mathews, a student at the

University of Calgary, and Floyd Loundsbury, a linguist from Yale. Mathews, Schele,

1. Also known as Shield Jaguar II, commonly referred to as Shield Jaguar based on his name glyph before the phonetic name was deciphered. 2. Also known as Bird Jaguar IV, son of Itzamnaaj B’alam II.

14 and Loundsbury, strangers to each other before the conference, sat down together and, in a few hours, put together the history of Palenque from the beginning of the seventh century to the city’s demise, including the story of six Palenque kings from birth to accession to death (205).

Other Developments and Accomplishments

In 1982, Carolyn E. Tate culminated her study of Yaxchilan with the publication of her book, Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City. Tate’s study of the iconography of Maya art within a single city brought her to assert that art objects tell the reader of the object about the ideals and cultural systems of the society as distinctly as the written word. She also asserted that Maya art objects did not have the same meaning across the spectrum of Maya cities (Tate xi-xiii). Tate considered Yaxchilan an appropriate choice for in-depth study because of size, the quality of the sixty lintels, and the unique extent to which women were represented in ceremonial roles (3). Tate also wrote of the cosmological foundation for gender complementarity and its role in Maya royal political agenda (Ardren 10). Additional work on complementarity that followed

Tate’s contributes to the discussion of Yaxchilan lintels in chapter 5.

Study continued, and with the decipherment of more and more hieroglyphs, various site kingship lineages and site-specific histories were determined. Schele argues that the use of the photocopier was a boon to decipherment because it enabled texts and drawings to be shared with large numbers of scholars and students (Breaking the Maya

Code). A visit to the actual site was no longer required to work on a decipherment. As decipherment developed at an escalated pace, “there was a realization of the logosyllabic

15 character of ancient Maya writing (i.e., glyphs record whole words or other meaningful

parts of speech, or syllables)” (Webster, The Fall 114). In addition, a relationship between writing and art was uncovered (e.g., designs in the costumes of kings at times have phonetic meanings). The discoveries made possible more accurate and in depth decipherments. Alfred Bush’s 1992 exhibition at Princeton University’s Firestone Library of that institution’s Garrett-Gates Mesoamerican Manuscripts Collection was a landmark exhibit in the scholarship of Maya writing and the uniting of Maya art and literature (Just

7).

Although a plethora of Maya books or codices were destroyed by Landa, there are a few surviving codices that reveal historical events and genealogies. In addition,

surviving inscriptions were discovered carved on durable materials in and on such

structures as building fronts, stairways, walls, and tombs. The writings tell the tales of

war, kingship, court life, rituals, birth, and death. Experts determined that the writings

must be deciphered within the context of where they are found; many artifacts, however,

have been stolen and moved far from the original context. Knowing the original location

and context makes the interpretation of the text more accurate. Materials placed in an

open public space or on accompanying buildings were meant for public viewing. Text or

images within a temple or palace were meant for a more limited audience (e.g., royalty or

priests). Materials within tombs or mortuary objects would most likely have been meant

for the gods or ancestors (Webster, The Fall 115).

In 2002, David Webster published his thought-provoking account The Fall of the

Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of the Maya Collapse. Webster attempts to dispel the

16 popular misconception that the Maya civilization disappeared and presents theories as to the cause of the ancient culture’s decline. Conflict, ambition, extravagance, and overuse are some of the factors he explored in his career-long study of the Maya.

The ancient Maya came to the world’s attention in 2012 when “experts” proclaimed that the Maya had predicted that the world would come to an end on

December 21 of that year. Making use of the interest in everything Maya, numerous museum exhibits were developed: the University of Pennsylvania’s exhibit was Lords of

Time; the San Diego Museum of Man opened The Maya: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth; the Houston Museum of Natural Science launched its exhibit Maya 2012: Prophecy

Becomes History; and the Canadian Museum of History opened its Maya Secrets of their

Ancient World. Books were written, including Mark Van Stone’s 2012 Science and

Prophecy of the Ancient Maya, which utilizes decipherment of hieroglyphs to refute the popular end-of-the-world speculation regarding Maya prophecy.

Contrary to the advice Mary Miller received in 1978 from Tatiana Proskouriakoff

that “Oh, don’t work on Bonampak . . . Bonampak is done,” Miller pursued her study of the Bonampak murals (Miller and Brittenham, xiii). The culmination of that work, authored by Mary Miller and Claudia Brittenham, was published in 2013 as The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak. Miller’s study of

Bonampak brought to light background information concerning military alliances

between Bonampak and Yaxchilan as well as similarities in artistic style. The work

includes images on the Bonampak murals of Yaxchilan royalty as well as the signatures

of Yaxchilan sculptors at Bonampak. Miller also suggested that some artists at Bonampak

17 were from Yaxchilan (59, 162). Because important female figures went to Bonampak from Yaxchilan, she conjectures that women played a pivotal role in the development of the cross-cultural exchange in artistic style (162–63). Here, again, the women of

Yaxchilan are the subject of scholarly interest.

As decipherments enabled the advancement of Maya study, so did the work of

individuals such as Linda Schele, who joined the disciplines of art history and

archaeology. Schele also studied the modern Maya to develop a comprehensive understanding of the culture. Michael Coe studied the iconography of painted and carved

pots, discerning that the images were of religious personages and supernatural beings.

Coe discerned that the images were accompanied by text that was highly sophisticated and, in some cases, representative of the stories in the Popol Vuh. David Stuart, youngest recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, has been working on decipherment since his teens

(Coe, Breaking 238). Stuart continues his work in decipherment and supports Maya

Decipherment, a weblog that regularly posts articles pertaining to the latest work on Maya hieroglyphics, iconography, archaeology, and linguistics.

The final two decades of the twentieth century brought increased attention to gender, gender roles, and the representation of Maya women. In 1987, Schele and

Miller’s The Blood of Kings addressed women not as incidental to Maya culture and art but as active and important members of the society. They also emphasized the male– female relationship in a manner that is now referred to as complementarity (Ardren 8).

Rosemary Joyce has published extensively on the question of the relationship of gender and power, developing the concept of complementarity from a study of such relationships

18 between males and females in Maya myth. Joyce asserts that artworks were produced to define gender roles as deemed appropriate by the ruling class (9). The work of Carolyn

Tate and Joel Palka probed male and female complementarity based in Maya cosmology and utilized in Maya political propaganda (10). Karen Bassie-Sweet presented her thoughts on the corn and complementary male–female representation at the 1999

La Tercera Mesa Redonda de Palenque. Gender studies continue, and the concept of complementarity presents a framework for looking at the meaning and purpose of female representation in ancient Maya artistic renderings.

Attempting to summarize the long history of the state of the research of the Maya means there are researchers and scholars who are given little or no attention. For example, the American anthropologist Cyrus Thomas established the order for reading Maya glyphs (Coe, Breaking 116). Thomas’s work was criticized and debunked by German

Scholar Eduard Seler (88). The Russian linguist Yuri Knorosov proposed, in the early

1950s, that individual Maya glyphs stood for phonetic sounds and that some glyphs symbolized an entire word. Eric Thompson strongly disliked Communism and completely discredited Knorosov (149). Merle Greene Robertson, an artist with a passion for preserving Palenque, was the impetus for the Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque that brought together diverse Maya enthusiasts and yielded incredible results. Elizabeth

Benson, curator of pre-Columbian art at Dumbarton Oaks, with Michael Coe of Yale

University, put together a conference on Mesoamerican writing systems. Follow-up miniconferences organized by Benson, Schele, Mathews, Lounsbury, and Greene brought more decipherments, as each specialist shared knowledge and expertise in the ideal

19 setting of the Dumbarton Oaks Library (210). The list could go on. However, the conversation continues in chapter 3 with a discussion of salient points concerning Maya history and culture, which provides additional context for examining myth in chapter 4 and assessing artworks studied in chapter 5.

20 CHAPTER 3

HISTORY AND CULTURE

Although separated from other developing cultures on the world stage, and with little if any reliable evidence of any contact with other world cultures, civilizations came into being and disappeared in the Americas. As is commonly accepted, during the last Ice

Age, Paleolithic peoples from Siberia crossed into Alaska (40,000–21,000 BCE) over what is now the Bering Strait (). Upon migrating south from the northern region, the migrants developed settlements in the Americas. After spending thousands of years as hunter-gatherers and an estimated five thousand years as nomadic farmers in

Mesoamerica—the land connecting North and South America—three major civilizations developed: the Olmec, Teotihuacano, and Maya (Phillips 27). The collective histories have been divided into major phases: the Preclassic (or Formative) Period (2000 BCE–

250 CE); the Classic Period (250 CE–900 CE); and the Postclassic Period (900 CE–1521

CE; Coe, Breaking 59–60).

While the Olmec and civilizations were developing northwest of the

Maya, the Maya civilization was taking shape in the area now known as southeastern and eastern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (31). Southern highlands and central lowlands settlements became Maya cultural centers after 800 BCE (31). By the period of 3000–

2000 BCE the farming of maize and other cereals, as well as the making of pottery and trading of goods over large distances, was occurring (31). By 600–400 BCE, the Maya were building substantial settlements that grew to be noteworthy urban centers (31).

21 Because the civilization did not have a single or unifying Maya governing body or ruler, naming or classifying the population centers has been and still is a point of discussion and debate. Some Mayanists refer to the population centers as city-states (64), some prefer the terms polity or kingdom (Webster, The Fall 164), and some refer to the population centers as ceremonial centers (Tate 17). Each city-state had a royal family or dynasty that was engaging in conflict with other city-states in a sequence of alliances and oppositions.

However, regardless of the almost constant conflict, during the Classic Period the Maya produced magnificent temples and palaces, irrigation systems, a sophisticated writing system, a timekeeping system, complicated mathematical calculations, and detailed astronomical observations (Phillips 33).

Along with the accomplishments delineated above, the Maya shared several

important cultural traits with all Mesoamericans: (a) hieroglyphic writing; (b) fig-bark or

deerskin books folded like screens; (c) complex calendars; (d) knowledge of the stars and

planets; (e) a game played with a rubber ball in a special ball court; (f) specialized

markets; (g) human sacrifice; (h) self-sacrifice; (i) a complex of nature

divinities and deities associated with royal descent; (j) a cosmic cycle of rebirth and

destruction; and (k) a universe with four cardinal directions and a central axus mundi

(Coe, The Maya 13).

Setting

Mesoamerica lies in the tropics, with differences in the climate determined by

latitude and altitude. The setting made a difference in the lifestyles and political stability of the ancient city-states (Webster, Out 467). Maya societies have lived in two distinct

22 settings: highlands and lowlands. Most of Mesoamerica is characterized by a system of young mountains with frequent earthquakes and volcanoes that produce obsidian, the hard volcanic glass used for knives; basalt, which is used to make grinding stones for processing maize, and volcanic byproducts that yield fertile soil (467). The highlands of

Chiapas, Mexico, run eastward and join with the volcanic mountains of Guatemala, the southern border of the Maya lands. North of the volcanic mountains, the land descends to the Maya lowlands, with fertile tropical forests and swamps. The Usumacinta River feeds the lowlands, where early ceremonial centers, such as Yaxchilan, were built (Phillips 46–

47). Further north is flatland covered with scrub forest—the region now known as the

Yucatan peninsula. The Yucatan receives little rainfall, and the major water sources for the region are wells and underground caverns (referred to as cenotes) located in the limestone of the Yucatan (Schele and Matthews 15).

In the highlands, the earth was fertile and enabled farmers to cultivate the same fields for an extended period of time (Phillips 48). The Maya settlements in the highlands were well established and remained in one place. The Maya farmers in the jungle settlements used a slash-and-burn farming method, exhausting the land and making the soil unproductive after only ten years. Phillips argues that the Maya farming method and resulting ever-expanding need for cultivatable land might have been a cause for instability and repeated aggression of one city-state against another (48). In addition, archaeologists now believe that the slash-and-burn farming method, which, by the eighth century, had cleared most of the jungle in the region, might have contributed to the abandonment of

Maya cities during the ninth century, as all the cultivatable land might have been

23 exhausted (Phillips 49; Webster, The Fall 330–34). The relationship between cultivatable land and the disappearance of Maya cities is an important area for study that might give some explanations for why certain changes occurred in Maya imagery. For example, why did warrior kings became the predominant artistic subject, and why did women become the subject of artistic renderings but then disappear from Maya art in the ninth century?

Counting and Calendars

The Maya numbering system used bars to denote a value of five and a dot to denote a value of one. A bar with one dot above it stood for six, a bar with two dots above it stood for seven, and so on. The system used a vigesimal system (based on the number

20), and the bar-and-dot numbers were deployed with the smallest to largest values placed vertically, not right to left and horizontally, as is done in the base-10 system. Also, the numbering system employed the not commonly understood concept of zero. Therefore, the Maya were able to calculate very large numbers (Coe, Breaking 91).

The Maya had two cyclical calendars (Sun 1). The 260-day sacred calendar matched nine cycles of the moon and the human gestational period and was related to the sun and the maize growing cycle (1). The solar calendar of 365 days and 6 hours was divided into months (1). The two calendars fit together. Once every 18,980 days, or 365 times 52, the cycle began again, and the first day of each calendar reappeared. The fifty- two year cycle was called the Calendar Round (Tate 13).

The long count is a linear count of days to which the Maya assigned a beginning date; in present-day Western calendars the beginning date is variously calculated and has been reported to be 8 September 3114 BCE (Coe and Van Stone 45), 11 or 13 August

24 3114 BCE (Fields and Reents-Budet 39; Van Stone 110; Webster, The Fall 181), and 13

August 3113 BCE (Tate 14). Although there is no factual understanding as to why the particular beginning date was chosen, on that date, the sun was at the zenith at midday, and the Maya Turtle constellation (Orion) was at its nadir. For the Maya, the point on the surface of the earth beneath the observer was referred to as the underworld () and was understood, according to Maya mythology, as the subterranean world where the ancestors and “Death Lord” deities dwelled (Sun 1).

The long count provided guidance regarding the time of eclipses and astrological events related to Maya dependence on the gods, allowed for recording of mythological and historical events, and recorded significant events in the lives of kings and other important personages (1). The Maya believe time is cyclical, not linear, as European tradition prescribes.

Script

As explained by Coe and Van Stone in Reading the Maya Glyphs, Maya texts are mostly created within a grid, much like a checkerboard. If the checkerboard spaces were labeled A, B, C, D, E, and F across the top from left to right and labeled 1, 2, 3, 4 from top to bottom on the left side, the glyph blocks would be read from left to right and top to bottom. Maya writing is both semantic (indicating meaning) and phonetic (expressing particular sounds). The meaning signs are called logograms. The phonetic signs are syllabograms (Coe and Van Stone 17). The Maya could have written without logograms, but the Maya elite valued the cultural meaning of signs and revered the skill required to execute the more difficult logograms (19).

25 In the video Breaking the Maya Code, scholars Linda Schele, David Stuart, Coe,

George Stuart, William Fash, , and Stephen Houston discuss the complexity and beauty of and the difficulty deciphering it. Linda Schele describes the genius of Maya script as art. The scribe was an artist whose script was an example of visual artistry. David Stuart contends that the artistry adds to the difficulty in decipherment because the artist was given—in fact, expected to use—great latitude in creating the script (Breaking the Maya Code).

Social Structure

As reported by Webster in The Fall of the Ancient Maya, what is known of the societal structure of the Maya comes primarily from knowledge of the upper classes and from the study of the ruins of the Maya centers. In addition, the texts primarily tell of the life and activities of the elite because the elite were the financial supporters of the scribes

(Webster, The Fall 119).

Mayanists consistently emphasize that Maya kings were sacred, the embodiment of the gods, and the descendants of the mythical gods and founding rulers (Fields and

Reents-Budet 21; Grube and Martin 149; Schele and Miller 103; Webster, The Fall 119).

Upon becoming king, in addition to the title, descriptive titles such as K’uhul Ajaw

(holy lord) or K’inich Ajaw (sun-faced lord) were added. Women of royal status carried a k’ubul ixik title, meaning “holy woman” (Webster 119). The add-on titles would have distinguished the kings and royal women from other elite persons who also held the ajaw title.

26 As one studies and considers Maya visual representations of these royal personages with titles encompassing such terms as holy and lord, it is essential to do so in the context of the mythology in which the art was produced. Viewing the images as the portraits of merely temporal or secular men and women would miss the depth of meaning.

The images are of sacred men and women who had a unique relationship with the gods who created man and the universe. The images reinforce an understanding of the king as divine and the rituals and ceremonies as sacred. As Schele and Miller emphasize, “Maya art depicts ritual: the critical information communicated is not who did something, but what he did” (emphasis original; 66). The titles designated the king as holy lord, and the art confirmed the legitimacy of the title because the king performed the rituals to sustain the gods, as required by Maya creation myth.

Maya society had many privileged people in addition to the kings. Only close male and female relatives of the king, or possibly a previous king, were able to use the ajaw title (Webster, The Fall 137). Although research focused on the lords and elite is relatively new, representational art on Maya vases and the wall paintings at Bonampak clearly depict nobles being close to the kings. The Bonampak paintings show the nobles in a variety of ways: in stunning and elaborate costumes offering gifts or presiding over others giving gifts to the seated king; in intimate rooms conferring with the king; in the presence of the king performing rituals or ceremonies; and presenting humbled captives to the king (Miller and Brittenham 173). Noble titles were also attached to the ajaw designation, such as b’aah ajaw (head lord) or yajaw k’ak’ (lord of fire; Webster, The

Fall 137). Another much-used title was aj k’uhuun, which is translated as “courtier” or

27 “He of the Holy Book” or “He of the Headband,” probably referring to a scribal title

(138). Coe and Van Stone contend that aj k’uhuun referred to “the keeper of the holy paper,” the highest ranking scribe in the palace, a multitasking individual whose responsibilities might have included roles as diverse as librarian; historian; marriage arranger; and, almost certainly, astronomer and mathematician (Coe and Van Stone 13).

The individuals designated as aj k’uhuun “wear a highly distinctive costume, including a sarong, unkempt hair bound in a cloth, and an object bound to the forehead that looks very much like a bunch of quill pens” (97). The most distinguished scribes were titled aj itz’aat, meaning “wise one” (13).

Fig. 1. Relief of noble with weapon, Tonina, Mexico, 613 CE. Stone 44 1/8 x 22 1/8 x 5 15/16 in. Museo de Sitio de Tonina, —INAH, Mexico 10-461094.

In Miller and Martin’s Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, a Tonina stone relief of a noble (fig. 1) commemorates his accession as an aj k’uhuun in 612. The figure does not resemble Coe and Van Stone’s description of an aj k’uhuun; rather, he wears a Jester God headband and carries a flint blade in his right hand and an incense bag in his left hand.

28 His name is not known; however, it is known that this was a time of considerable upheaval in Tonina and, when nobility shared status with the king (188). The Jester God headband was traditionally a symbol of kingship and is shown being given to a young lord at the time of his accession. The Jester God headband relates to fertility, regeneration, and rebirth as part of the accession ritual and its relationship to the Maize

God and the creation myth (Friedel, Schele, and Parker 283; Stone and Zender 107). An observer who does not know the mythological significance of the Jester God and its relationship with the creation myth might interpret the image inaccurately. Especially because of the designation of “jester,” the observer could easily interpret the image as denoting a fool or clown in a royal court, rather than a respected royal personage. Or, with no clues, the image might seem to be a woman venturing out with her machete for protection and cloth bucket to gather some berry or herb. By understanding Maya creation myth and the significance of the Jester God’s three-point plume as iconography of the

Maize God, the observer can infer a more accurate understanding of the carved relief.

The title sajal refers to an undergovernor or subordinate governor of a center dependent on a king, a subsidiary war leader, or provincial governor (Coe and Van Stone

77). In many examples, sajal is associated with a military function because sajals are often designated as captives or captive takers. The sajals are sometimes connected with , the Maya gods who support the heavens, perhaps in reference to the sajal’s role in supporting the king (Webster, The Fall 138). Documentation at Yaxchilan indicates that some women held the title of sajal (Coe and Van Stone 77). Scholars might ponder

29 why women were given this title in Yaxchilan. What conditions led to this title being bestowed on women at Yaxchilan but not routinely at other sites?

Little is known of the structure of Classic Maya government. In his discussion of

Maya society and organization, Webster states that he knows of no definitive answer as to whether the population centers were ruled by a bureaucracy occupied by appointees of the elite. The deciphered texts do not refer to commoners, farmers, or governmental structure, so researchers are not able to make definitive statements. Scholars have developed theories based on present Maya community structure and archaeological knowledge of similar cultures but have arrived at no conclusive answers (Webster, The Fall 162).

Scribes

Scribes were revered intellectuals within Maya society and were depicted primarily as supernatural. Their importance was such that they were singled out for capture during warfare. Although not associated with one particular god, the Maya considered writing to be a divine invention and to be related to the gods of creation, fertility, and revered ancestors (Stone and Zender 115).

The sculpture of a scribe from Copan (fig. 2) holds a brush in his right hand and a sliced shell paint pot in his left hand (115). Although not the image of what the Maya considered beautiful, the sculpture is a human figure with the small and close-set eyes of the twin Monkey Scribes who were, according to the Popol Vuh, the supernatural patrons of scribes (Miller and Martin 132). The scribe has stone markings on his arm, the hieroglyph tuun, which resembles a bunch of grapes (Stone and Zender 169). The

30 sculpture might have been originally in a niche and is approximately half life size (Miller and Martin 132).

Fig. 2. Monkey Scribe, Copan, Honduras, 600–800 CE. Stone 22 7/16 x14 9/16 in. Instituto Hondureno de Anthropologia e Historia. 3446.

When viewing this sculpture, the Maya observer might have thought of the conflict of the Hero Twins and their stepbrothers that resulted in the stepbrothers being transformed into monkeys, as told in the Popol Vuh. In addition, the sculpture might have conjured thoughts of the howler Monkey God as a divine scribe. These thoughts and reflections would have been brought to mind because of the individual’s knowledge of

Maya mythology. Being familiar with the myth, the individual would have had an understanding of the art. The individual might not have been literate, but, if familiar with the myth, the message would have been communicated by means of the visual image.

Religion

Webster asserts that religious myth and ritual were interwoven throughout the culture. The Maya were polytheists and believed in a pantheon of gods, some of which were regional favorites and were associated with particular royal families or dynasties.

31 The Maya believed in multiple creations, with the current one having multiple layers: heaven, earth, and underworld. In the center of the cosmos stood a tree connecting the three layers. The king was responsible to the gods to safeguard the well-being of the kingdom’s populace. Webster asserts that the Maya did not have a concept of sin; rather,

they believed in offensive behaviors of omission, such as not performing the appropriate

and timely rituals required to ensure the well-being of the people and the correct balance

of the universe (Webster, The Fall 147–50). According to Webster, no decipherment of a

Maya text has revealed a definitive “priest” title. Kings and other high-ranking officials performed the required sacred rituals (149).

The extent to which the Maya recorded their beliefs in books is unknown; however, their monumental art proclaims the king’s support of and involvement in the divine. Religion was not a separate aspect of Maya life but the bedrock of the culture.

Myth, ceremony, ritual, sacrifice, costumes for imitating gods, war, and royal divine lineage are some of the areas of Maya life that are referred to as religion.

Maya Court

We have knowledge of life in the Maya court from court scenes on walls, vases, carved monuments, lintels, and stelae. According to Miller and Martin, the Maya court was an institution of artists and scribes (Webster, The Fall 121). Because the gods of

Maya myth were creators (the “makers” of the universe), artistic and creative skills were valued, and the individuals with such skills were given important roles within the court.

Maya art was created for and by the nobility. In following the gods’ role as creators, the

32 nobility reenacted creation by impersonating the Maize God and wearing costumes of jade and the iridescent-green feathers of the male quetzal bird, which represented rebirth.

Women

Women first appeared, mostly in texts, in the fifth and sixth century and had important roles to play at court (Webster, The Fall 93). The texts and depictions on monuments stress the importance of the women as mothers of a king and as bearers of strategic genealogical attributes. “Kings name their mothers as often as they name their fathers” (94).

Fig. 3. Drawing of Stela 40, Ruler 4, Piedras Negras (Martin and Grube 149).

On Stela 40 at Piedras Negras (fig. 3), Ruler 4 scatters blood or incense into a tomb via a “psychoduct,” or vent. It is thought that the wrapped body in the tomb could be that of Ruler 4’s mother (Martin and Grube 149). The connection between the living

33 king and his dead mother is by way of a knotted cord of breath. The deceased breathes out her breath-like soul, represented by a rope with flaming knots and a head in the form of a square-nosed . The serpent, located in the upper right corner of the stone, has a black-petaled flower in its nose and imparts the mother’s life essence to the king (Stone and Zender 227). Ruler 4’s right hand, which is scattering the blood or incense, has a strong resemblance to the glyph chok, which means “to sprinkle.” The glyph denotes a ritual when incense or some kind of liquid, probably blood, was sprinkled over the tombs or bones of ancestors (Coe and Van Stone 63).

This is an intimate scene that demonstrates the king’s ritualistic responsibilities.

As his mother gave him life at birth, he is giving to her his lifeblood. She, in return, is symbolically reinforcing him with her breath of life. Her life force will combine with his to make him stronger, more powerful, and thereby strengthen the community. The line formed by his headdress and his rounded back gives his image an elongated and elegant appearance and resembles an ear of husked corn. The ritual is taking place in a dark place, and the king is carrying his own lantern in his left hand. The deceased is on a platform, symbolically the mountain of creation, and her headdress appears to be emblematic of the

Maize God. By honoring his mother, the king shows the community that he ensures the continuation of the universe and the community’s favorable relationship with the deities.

The woman also serves an important purpose in this scene: even in death she is able to give strength to her son, just as the maize is able to generate life after death. The king gives his blood sacrifice, but even in death the woman is able to reinforce life.

34 In the seventh and eighth centuries, women took on more important roles and, in stone monuments, they were shown as solitary actors, even in ways previously restricted to men (Miller and Martin 93). The Yaxchilan lintels that feature Lady Xoc (discussed in detail in chapter 5) were unique when they were completed. The increase in the frequency

and prominence of female images occurred at a time of intensified competition between

and among kingdoms. Strategic marriages might have been a reason for increased

attention to females. By the ninth century, monumental images of women disappeared.

However, the images the Maya artists created indicate the important roles women played

in court, from participation in public and private ceremonies to the performance of

religious rituals, including conjuring and self-sacrifice (93–94). Maya queens were important participants in the sacred ceremonies and rites that were an integral, required, aspect of royal life and power (102).

As described by Miller and Martin, an eighth-century limestone stela (fig. 4) of Ix

Mutal Ahaw shows the queen holding a femur, out of which comes a serpent that she has

conjured as a vision. The queen has blood spots on her cheek, which confirms that she has

made a sacrifice of blood that dripped onto folded papers. The comes from

the smoke of the burning, blood-spattered papers. The serpent winds around the queen’s

body, and, out of its yawning mouth, comes the lightening god K’awill, with a torch

protruding from his forehead (Schele and Miller 102).

35

Fig. 4. Queen Ix Mutal Ahaw, Lower Mexico or Guatemala, 761 CE. Limestone 92x42 x3 in. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. 1999.42a-k.

The TOK glyph, the spotted curls at the top of the serpent’s head, denotes a form of fire related to lightening (Stone and Zender 158). The rite that the queen is performing and that is memorialized in stone is basic to royal power. Her jade skirt and shark belt ornament are symbolic of the maize deities (Miller and Martin 102). Her headdress has quetzal feathers protruding from it. The feathers are symbolic of the maize foliage that sways in the wind. Lightening, according to Maya mythology, split open the mountain in which the maize was contained. This image would have confirmed her role as royalty in the rebirth of maize, the basic fuel of Maya existence (102). The image also confirms the queen’s ability to harness the powers of nature, as she is able to control the serpent. This is a powerful woman who demonstrates her power within the imagery of Maya myth. No male figure shares her power, even though the customary thought would be that the

Maize God she emulates is male. Perhaps this is an instance of the mother-father creator gods being imitated in a female image. Once again, the viewer must understand the

36 mythology, specifically the creation myth with the Maize God as a primary character, to

make sense of the art. Without this understanding, the carving might be seen as a

frightening image of a giant serpent strangling a woman and swallowing a duck-billed

creature with an arrow through the head.

Maya elite women of the court also participated in the domestic tasks of any

household. Figurines represent royal women weaving, using the traditional backstrap

loom (Miller and Martin 94). Although men generally painted fine ceramics, women

formed the vessels (95). The act of a woman molding and creating a vessel, rather than

decorating it, raises interesting comparisons with the gods’ creation of man from clay, as

told in the Popol Vuh. The role of women in forming or molding and of the man in

painting the vessel brings to mind the complementary role of the mother-fathers in the

successful creation of man, also told in the Popol Vuh. Was there a reason for the separation of roles? Was the assignment of gender roles a permanent arrangement, or did role assignments evolve as the culture changed or as outside influences demonstrated alternate assignments?

Conflict and War

Although much of the representational art shows an elite nobility engaged in rituals and ceremonies, presenting themselves as sophisticated and in control, scenes of the aftermath of war give a very different impression (Miller and Martin 163–64). The

Bonampak murals show a world of chaos, with bleeding and humbled captives. Not only was war unpredictable, it resulted in the capture of important members of the elite.

Evidence on paintings, carvings, and names of kings and other nobles (“he of so many

37 captives”) indicates that the capture of nobles was a priority in battle (166). The images

appear to focus on the captives because they are presented as mythical reenactments, with

paper rags through the earlobes rather than the usual elite jade earplugs, and are curled up

with the victor standing on the captive’s back (166). Scholars have evidence that some

artists from defeated cities were forced to make carvings of the captives (169). The

artwork of the eighth century was particularly populated with war and captive scenes, no

doubt depicting the tone and reality of the culture at the time (163).

Although the artwork provides an image of Maya war, Simon Martin maintains that decipherment of inscriptions is essential for a fuller understanding of the factors that contributed to conflicts, most likely some of the same factors characteristic of war throughout human history: petty jealousies, betrayed alliances, perceived insults, hunger, or need for restored power and territory. To have an understanding of Maya conflicts, it is

important to investigate why Maya kings went to war and what the kings might have

expected to gain by going to war (Martin 175).

During the Classic Period, Maya art transformed from presenting images of gods

and related subjects to images of the idealized “warrior king,” who was often depicted

standing on the back of the captured enemy (176). Although descriptive detail was not

included in the inscriptions, and little is known of Maya military tactics or strategies,

battle scenes on vessels and walls show weapons, armor, conch-shell trumpets, and wooden drums (182). In addition, visual evidence reveals that the Maya brought effigies of gods with them into battle; a battle was a conflict of men and of opposing divine

powers (Hardman 3). The capture of an enemy’s god effigy was akin to the taking of

38 human captives (Martin 182). With the onset of the ninth century, any limitation of the total destruction of life and property that might have been in place was forgotten, and all- out war became the norm (175). Although past thinking fluctuated from extremes of arguing that the Maya were totally peace loving to viciously aggressive, there is no reason to believe warfare was more or less important to the Maya than it was to European

countries during the same time period. Warfare settings and consequences were the

subject of much Maya art, and the murals of Bonampak are a prime example of this (173).

The Ball Game

The Maya ball game is an important element of the Popol Vuh, as it recounts the

origin myth of the Quiche people. Although the Popol Vuh was recorded during Colonial

times, it shows strong similarities to the images and inscriptions of the art of the Classic period (Miller and Martin 91). Little is known of the rules of the ball game, although the

Maya painted images of the game onto vessels, clay sculptures, and stone monuments

(Colas and Voss 186).

Fig. 5. Drawing of hieroglyphic stair, Structure 33. Yaxchilan, 750–776 CE. Research. famsi.org. April 2015.

Maya artists used the ball game drama of the Popol Vuh in depictions of various aspects of the game. On a stairway in Yaxchilan (fig. 5), the text recounts the beheading

39 of three gods on a ball court in a “black hole,” the opening to the underworld. Colas and

Voss assert that the gods on the stairway represent different facets of the Maize God, whose death and rebirth are required for the continuation of life (189). The relief shows the ruler, Bird Jaguar, playing the ball game with the trussed body of a prisoner bouncing down the steps, as if the prisoner were a ball. Bird Jaguar is obviously the victor in this depiction of the mythological game, and the prisoner is humiliated, an important element in the portrayal of the king in Maya art (189). Art is the medium by which the king is portrayed as a powerful and victorious participant in this mythical game first played by the gods.

Maya myth is the linchpin of every aspect of Maya culture; it must be studied to understand the culture and the art. What are the stories, the major participants in the stories, and the messages that the stories tell the outside observer of the culture’s values and the society’s structure? To answer these questions, the next chapter focuses on the meaning of myth, and Maya myth in particular.

40 CHAPTER 4

MYTHOLOGY

For all men stand in need of the gods. —The Odyssey, Book III

The words myth and mythology conjure thoughts of fairy tales and legends.

Almost by definition, myth and mythology mean fiction, made-up story, fantasy, or more dramatically, lie or falsehood—that is, unless one is speaking of his or her own beliefs in a religious or spiritual tradition. Myth is only myth to those standing outside the myth. In

Myth and Reality, Mircea Eliade contends that the “foremost function of myth is to reveal the exemplary model for all human rites and all significant human activities . . .” (8).

When believers speak of their own myths, they refer to eternal truths, stories that reveal the answers to the eternal questions of the universe: What is the meaning of life? How and when was humankind made? How was the universe created? What is humankind’s relationship to the universe? What are the rules for right living? What are the human’s obligations regarding the universe and the higher being(s) within the universe? What will happen to me when I die?

When studying a culture, the researcher should ask what the culture’s myth says about the values and structure of the community. In discussing the various aspects of

Maya myth, several questions must be considered. Putting aside the idea that the culture was male dominated, what were the role and degree of importance of women in the myth?

What does the myth say about the value of intelligence, cleverness, cunning, and family?

41 Is innovation valued? Does the myth support both male and female roles in the universe?

What is the human’s relationship with the whole of creation?

Cosmogony

Cosmogony is the technical term for creation myth—the accounting of the establishment of order from chaos at or before the beginning of time. Some creation myths, such as the Maya Popol Vuh, tell that creation begins with a large expanse of water or sky in which two gods create a world through words and meditation (Voth 23).

The Maya cosmogony is also referred to as an ex nihilo creation myth, that is, from nothing. As discussed below, the Maya creation does not culminate in the creation of

man. The culmination of the Maya creation is the beginning of time and the need for man to worship, pay tribute to, and nourish the gods. According to J. Eric S. Thompson, “The

Maya did not set the human race so far apart from the rest of created life as we do, but then the Maya had and still has a deeper sense of his unimportance in creation” (as quoted

in Noss 74). This knowledge of how Maya individuals believed themselves to be part of—not over or above—the rest of creation is critical to understanding the Maya and their relationship to nature and the gods.

In The Sacred and the Profane, Eliade argues that humans follow the example of

the gods as presented in myth or in sacred history disclosed in myth. Not only does the

creation myth have to be reiterated through storytelling, the creation needs to be re-

created and reenacted. Consequently, the human can only be fully human by following

the model of the gods as revealed in myth. Imitating or following the example of the gods can present difficulties when, in a cultivator culture such as the Maya’s, a god sacrifices

42 himself or herself to create life. The self-sacrifice by the gods might require the self-

sacrifice or killing of a human to recreate or provide for the continuation of life (Eliade,

Sacred and Profane 100–03). Furthermore, self-sacrifice elevates the human who performs the act to a position alongside the gods (Eliade, Myth and Reality 145). Because the myth takes place in a sacred, primordial time rather than a profane time, the myth could necessitate the performance of certain re-creations in a certain manner at a specific time (Eliade, Images and Symbols 57). In primordial time, Maya myth established the standards for the creation and the behavior of the created.

As Maya myth is recounted and discussed in this thesis, many of Eliade’s assertions regarding the characteristics of myth become apparent. The Maya certainly followed and mimicked the behavior of the gods through reenactment, as in the Yaxchilan lintels. Storytelling in carved stone is evident on the sides of Stela C at Quirigua, which recounts the story of the creation of the current world. Maya modeling, by wearing costumes in the guise of the gods, is evident in the murals at Bonampak. A cultivator culture, the Maya practiced self-sacrifice and human sacrifice, as memorialized on stone stelae and murals, to ensure the continuation of the universe. The kings who performed self-sacrifice were imitating the gods and, therefore, were in an elevated position in Maya society, as demonstrated on the Bonampak murals. And the Maya performed rituals to coincide with important celestial occurrences that related to the gods, as they planned and executed wars to coincide with the appearance of Venus.

That standard of behavior has not changed. Contemporary Maya continue to worship, pay tribute to, and nourish the gods. Becoming familiar with the myth and

43 considering the art as it reveals the myth in visual form illuminates the lives of the ancient

Maya as well as the heritage and cultural foundation and practices of contemporary Maya.

Maya Myth

Maya myth is rich in imagery and ideas and can be confusing because it contains several primary gods who have multiple names, personalities, genders, and appearances.

Another quality of the myth is the time variable. Whereas one might try to place the myth in a linear sequence, such is not the case. Even the Popol Vuh, which will be discussed in more detail below, does not always move forward. The Popol Vuh has a preamble and four parts. The preamble discusses the purpose of the writing; the first part tells of failed attempts at creating humans; the second part tells of the adventures of the Hero Twins and their father and family; and the third and fourth parts return to explaining the creation of man, the first fathers and their wives, and the activities of the ancestral lineage of the

Quiche. The mythical account of the creation of First Mother and First Father also comes from inscriptions from Palenque. Although some themes recur through and unify the myths, multiple versions of the stories are told in different locations on stone tablets and plates, as well as on painted ceramic vessels. The kings and nobility of different Maya centers claimed gods as their ancestors. Therefore, each location likely emphasized a certain version of the creation and mythic tales in which the regional divine ancestors were the stars of the story. Images and hieroglyphic narratives provide evidence that the

Maya creation myth existed long before the writing of the Popol Vuh. Richard Hansen’s team of archaeologists found images dating back to 300 BCE at , perhaps the largest and oldest , of what they believe are the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh

44 (Barnhart). Several images of the Hero Twins on monuments in , a Preclassic or

Formative Period (2000 BCE–250 CE) highland city, were created long before the sixteenth-century version of the Popol Vuh (Barnhart). The early appearance of these images from the myth indicates the strength of the tradition. These stories and the rituals and ceremonies developed to comply with the myth would have defined the Maya world.

The Western mind sees white and thinks purity, cleanliness, innocence, and virginity because of cultural traditions and beliefs, the origin of which most people do not even know. Therefore, the Maya must also have had such traditions, prejudices, biases, priorities, and beliefs from their earliest mythological heritage.

Some of scholars’ knowledge of the time before the present creation comes from inscriptions from Palenque’s Temple of the Cross, which tell of the birth of First Mother and First Father. First Father’s enthronement “under the supervision of” Itzamnaaj, who was thought to be the supreme being in the Maya pantheon, is noted in inscriptions in

Palenque Temple XIX (Wagner 281). David Stuart explains that the decipherment of the glyph for “under the supervision” refers to the farmer’s relationship to the maturing corn field as “under the supervision of,” bringing the relationship of the gods, creation myth, and humans back to agricultural underpinnings (Breaking the Maya Code). The beginning of First Father’s rule was followed by the Day of Creation, 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u (8

September, 3114 BCE), which is noted as the beginning of the present era (283). The inscription on the sides of Stela C at Quirigua in Izabel, Guatemala, details the creation of the current world. The stela inscriptions tell that, subsequent to the creation of the world, three stones were placed, one each by a different character. The Jaguar throne stone was

45 placed by the two paddler gods. On the front of Stella C, the ruler K’ak Tiliw Chan Yoaat is shown placing the Jaguar throne stone (281). Another, still unnamed god placed the

Serpent throne stone. The third stone, the Water throne stone, was placed by Itzamnaaj.

The three stones are the center of the universe and allow for the sky to be lifted up from the primeval waters (282). The three stones of the Cosmic Hearth are related to three stars in the constellation Orion (Stone and Zender 95). Modern Maya astronomers of

Momostenango refer to the three stars in the Orion constellation—Alnitak, Saiph, and

Rige—as “three hearthstones,” and the nebula—Orion Nebula—as smoke from the hearth’s fire (Looper, Three Stones 25). The Maya home is a metaphor for the universe, and, for centuries, the center of a Maya home has been the three hearthstones, the domain of Maya women, the mothers (Wagner 282). According to Van Stone, the majority of stone monuments refer to the creation story as the placing of the three stones. When a new Maya home is built, the first step in construction is building the hearth, thereby reenacting the creation of the universe (Van Stone 36). The home of the Maya represents the center of creation and the universe; therefore, the mother and father are the symbolic creators. The home with the hearth and the three stones, symbolic of the three stars, is the center of life on earth and in the sky. The whole of the universe is centered as one.

Ancient past and the present, earth and sky are connected by the images and narrative of myth. The values of home and family are basic tenets.

In the creation myth, the Maize God, along with the two paddler gods, raises the sky and supports it with the (Eliade’s axis mundi) that was placed at the center of the universe. Creation was finally put into motion when the sky began to rotate.

46 The motion of the stars, sun, and moon are the basis for the Maya’s astronomical calculations used to calculate, predict, and explain what happened and happens in the social and natural environments (Wagner 284–85). The Maya earth floats on water and is in the shape of a square with four cardinal points. Each cardinal section has a color: east is red and is associated with sun and daylight; west is black and is associated with darkness and nighttime; north is white and is associated with the moon; and south is yellow and is the direction pointing to the planet Venus. The world faces the four cardinal points, with the points of the sunrise and sunset coinciding with the summer and winter solstices, respectively, thereby determining the corners. Each side has a mountain at the center with a tree. The tree denotes the entrance to the underworld and the water on which the earth floats (286). The Maya universe is organized and ordered. Each part of the creation has a position. Nothing is left to chance or disorder. As discussed in the next chapter, the agricultural world of the Maya is also ordered, particularly in the cornfield.

Cardinal directions and the rituals of planting are ordered and prescribed.

The Popul Vuh

The Popol Vuh tells of the creation of the world and humans, the adventures of lesser gods in Xibalba, the underworld, and the origins and events in the lives of the indigenous people. It is important to remember while reading and considering the Popol

Vuh that the work was translated and recorded by a Dominican friar, which created risk of translator biases and prejudices. That being said, many of the story fragments in the Popol

Vuh appear to be directly illustrated in Classic and earlier imagery, such as those discovered in El Mirador and Izapa.

47 The stories in the Popol Vuh are the accounts of the creation of the universe, gods, and man. The four parts of the Popol Vuh were originally written to be performed as an oral narrative over several days (Schele and Miller 32). Primary themes of the Popol Vuh are the demonstration of the Maya ideas of good and evil and defeat and victory. The

Maya hero, as personified in the Hero Twins, is witty, clever, and imaginative. Unlike the

American hero of the Wild West, the Maya hero does not need to be physically strong, but must be smart and clever (32).3

Although not recorded in the Popol Vuh in chronological order, before the

creation of man, the legend tells of twin brothers, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, who

excel at playing the traditional ball game. One Hunahpu has a wife, Egret Woman, and two sons, One Monkey and One Artisan. Being young and quite exuberant in play, One

Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu make such a ruckus when playing the ball game that the lords of Xibalba, the underworld, are disturbed by the noise. The lords of Xibalba challenge and defeat the young twins at the ball game, sacrificing the twins and burying their bodies under the ball court. The lords of Xibalba save the head of one twin, Hun

Hunahpu, and place it on a tree. , a young goddess, although told not to do so, decides to see the curious tree. While Xquic is standing next to the tree, ’s head spits into Xquic’s hand, impregnating her. Xquic’s father is enraged that Xquic is pregnant and sends her away, ordering that she be sacrificed. Xquic escapes and travels to

3. When presenting the mythological accounts of the Popul Vuh, Dennis Tedlock’s translation, discussion, and notes for The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and Glories of Gods and Kings, revised edition, were used, unless otherwise noted.

48 the house of her mother-in-law, the mother of Hun Hunahpu, and gives birth to Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the Hero Twins. The Hero Twins also excel at the traditional ball game and are invited to play ball with the lords of Xibalba. Like their father, Hun Hunahpu, and their uncle Seven Hunahpu, the Hero Twins are put through many tests and are eventually defeated. After they are sacrificed and their bones are ground and tossed into the river, the

Hero Twins are reborn as fish and then vagabonds. Through ingenuity, the Hero Twins convince the lords of the underworld to sacrifice themselves; the lords of Xibalba agree, believing they will be reborn. However, the underworld lords are not reborn, and, with the triumph of good over evil, the world is ready for the sun to rise and man to be created.

After One Hunahpu is defeated and sacrificed in Xibalba, he is reborn as maize (Freidel,

Schele, and Parker 55). The Hero Twins ascend into the sky, where “the sun belongs to one and the moon to the other” (276).

The implications that this legend has for Maya cultural values and gender roles are explored in chapter 5. Xquic was not a girl who accepted being told what she could and could not do. In the myth, as she ventures close to the tree, she convinces the servants not to kill her, as they have been ordered to do by her father. Because of her curiosity and cunning persuasion, the Hero Twins are born. Xquic’s mother-in-law cares for her first two grandsons, Xquic, and the Hero Twins. Her loyalty to her sons and their children demonstrates the importance of the role of women in preserving the family and the universe. Without the cunning and care of their mother and grandmother, the Hero Twins would not live to bring about a positive conclusion to the myth. The men go out to explore and play ball. The fathers and sons are lured into the underworld; they eventually

49 escape; however, without the women, the grandmother, and the mother, the Hero Twins

would not be born to save the day. The Hero Twins, who eventually become the sun and

moon, owe their existence to the women. Is the lesson of the myth that there are separate

gender roles and that the woman’s role is the creator and sustainer of life?

According to the Popul Vuh’s next chapter, before the beginning of time, all was peaceful—no sound, movement, or light existed, and the skies were empty. Only the sea and skies existed. The primordial sea gods and the primordial sky gods come together and determine that, when dawn breaks, man will appear. The waters recede to allow the earth to appear and seeds to be sown on the surface, and the mountains rise from the waters.

Animals come to be and are given voice, but, when they are created, the gods ask the creatures to praise and nourish them. The animals cannot vocally praise the creators; they can only hiss and scream. Because of the animals’ limitations, the gods make their home ravines and forests and declare that their flesh be eaten.

The gods decide to create a man who will be obedient and respectful and who will support and nourish the creators. When man is made of mud, the creation is unsuccessful.

The mud man does not move, is limp, has no brain, and falls apart when in contact with water. The gods determine that another try is necessary. However, before making another man, the gods consult Xpiyacoe, grandfather and lord of the tzite (seeds used in ), and Xmucane, the diviner, maker, and grandmother. Man is to be made from wood. The gods envision that the Wood Men will be able to talk, reason, adore, and praise the creators. The first man to walk on the earth is crafted from wood. The Wood

50 Men live and procreate but have neither heart nor recollection of the creators. They do not think of praising or nourishing the gods.

The gods bring forth a great flood to drown the Wood People. Before they die, birds pluck out their eyes, and their heads are cut off, their flesh eaten, and their bones ground to powder. The dogs and cooking implements scream with anger at their mistreatment by the Wood People. According to the myth, some descendants of the Wood

People remain today as the little monkeys in the forest.

The stories of the creation of the animals that could not speak or thank the creators, the Mud People who had no brain or substance, and the Wood People who had no heart or remembrance of the creators demonstrate other Maya values. Once again, humans needed to have a brain and to be intelligent, for, without intelligence, they could not pay tribute to the gods. The Wood People had no heart, were cruel to the animals, had no memory of the creators, and lacked kindness and gratitude. As the waters of the flood that destroyed the Wood People most likely came from the waters of the rising underworld, so was born the notion that positive results can come from evil. Also, the gods felt a sense of cooperation and consensus; “after conversation,” they decided to proceed with creation and consulted others about the creation of the Wood People. If the gods are behavioral role models, man is to use his intelligence in conversation and consensus to make major decisions. However, the myth also acknowledges that the gods made mistakes and moved forward to correct those mistakes. The gods were imperfect in their creation. Does this mean that humans, in imitating the gods, may also be imperfect, have faults, and make wrong decisions?

51 In Part Four of the Popol Vuh, the gods again discuss what is necessary to make man. As dawn approaches, many of the gods come together and debate and consult with each other. The gods finally conclude that corn is the required material. The fox, the coyote, the parrot, and the crow leave to find the yellow and white corn. It is the corn that forms the flesh of man. The gods grind the white and the yellow corn, and Xmuxane, the grandmother, prepares nine drinks that give the bodies strength and give men flesh and muscles. The four people who are created are the original parents. The first mothers and fathers were Balam-Quitze, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqui-Balam. The first people were Tepeu, he who creates, and Gucamatz, he who gives life. The first mothers and fathers could speak, think, see, hear, walk, and feel with their hands. The first people could see the whole world in an instant and see hidden things without moving. The first people were exceedingly wise and had unlimited knowledge of the world, seeing all that existed in the four corners of the earth and sky. The first people were also very thankful for their creation and all that the gods had done in giving life.

In this myth, the gods were intelligent and inventive. When the animals and first people were not able to pay tribute, the gods were able to imagine and then create a human who could. They were able to improvise and change. They were not rigid in their thinking. The myth includes both mothers and fathers who worked together to complete creation.

The gods did not believe that the created people should be able to see to all corners of the earth. The creators feared men would procreate and become more numerous than the gods. Man might want to be the equal of the gods, so the gods made a

52 cloud pass over men’s eyes so that men could only see what was near, and man’s vision was limited. Man no longer had unlimited knowledge and wisdom. However, as the men slept, the gods made beautiful wives and, upon awakening, the men were filled with happiness and joy. The wives gave birth to the children who were the beginning of the

Quiche nation. The culture thus began with the coming together of the First Mothers and

Fathers to give birth to their children. Those children would then perpetuate the universe by paying homage to the gods and making sacrifices to reenact the creation. The value of mothers and fathers is obvious, as is the value of having children.

As confusing as the various, nonlinear, mythic tales may be, they contain overriding themes. The first theme to consider is how the Maya view the earth as a five- part structure of sacred and material space, with four directions and a center. The contemporary Maya farmer, before planting his corn, arrives at his milpa and erects a tree in the center. He then performs an offering of incense in each of the four directions. He first plants corn at the tree (axis mundi) by splitting the earth with his planting stick, placing kernels in the hole, and planting kernels in each of the four directions (Bassie-

Sweet 9). The splitting of the earth is similar to the splitting of the mountain, from which the corn came that became the flesh of the first human. Corn is the sustaining element of the Maya community—without it, they would not thrive. The Maya farmer’s value of the gods is exemplified when he celebrates creation by planting corn.

Another universal theme in Maya myth is the importance of family, specifically ancestors as vital partners in the universe. The gods consulted Grandmother and

Grandfather before making the Wood People, thereby demonstrating respect for the

53 wisdom of elders. The Popol Vuh clearly specifies that the First Mothers and Fathers were the beginnings of the various Maya tribes. The importance of these first humans is plainly understood because, without the First Mothers and First Fathers, there would be no lineage, no K’iche, no Maya. The stories of the Hero Twins, their father and uncle, and their grandmother remind the reader of the importance of family loyalty and willingness to court danger and even endure death to preserve family members. The uniting of a man

and a woman, the bringing forth of children, and the willingness to endure death and

eventual rebirth are exemplary lessons. The many impressive pyramids of ancient Maya

cities are the tombs of ancestors, which demonstrates their custom of ancestor worship.

Some argue that ancestor worship, remembering that ancestors were related to the gods

and not mere mortals, was the most important aspect of Maya religious practice (Miller

and Taube Intro).

Humans’ relationship with the gods and their responsibility to honor and sacrifice

them are plainly and explicitly delineated in the Popol Vuh. The relationship of the gods

and humans and its basis in creation, worship, gratitude, and sacrifice appear to be

primary aspects of ancient Maya life. The importance of the basic tenets of the

relationship seem obvious to twentieth-century observers because the purpose of much of

the art, whether on a building, accompanying a building, or on a ceramic vase, was to memorialize this relationship.

The creation of humans from the sacred and life-sustaining maize, and the

resulting relationship between the Maya and the earth, even as Maya refer to themselves

as maize people, continues even in the lives of contemporary Maya (Freidel, Schele, and

54 Parker 58). And how is it that Maya artistic renderings in various media continue to

communicate the importance of these universal cultural truths?

Artistic Representations of Myth

Accounts of the universe’s and man’s creation appear in Maya Classic Period art with many variations. For example, in one account, a mountain is split by lightening so

that the first maize can grow and provide the material from which the first people are

created. A turtle or crocodile can represent the mountain, and the maize plant might grow from a creature’s back, as the young Maize God (Wagner 286). The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston houses a fired-clay–painted offering plate in the Codex-style from the eighth- century that is referred to as the Resurrection Plate. Note that “codex” refers to a color scheme of black and white with red rim, which appears on the pages of books such as the

Dresden Codex (Van Stone 74). As clearly depicted in Schele’s drawing of the plate (fig.

6), Hun Hunahpu, depicting the Maize God, arises from the crack in a turtle carapace.

Fig. 6. Rebirth of the Maize God. (Freidel, Schele, and Parker 66)

55 To the right of the resurrecting Maize God is Xbalanque (a.k.a., Yax Baluun and

Jaguar deer), and to the left Hunahpu (a.k.a., Juun Ajaw and Hunter) are the Hero Twins, sons of the Maize God. Xbalanque is identified by the jaguar patches on his skin and jaguar fur on his face and body. Hunahpu is identified by the prominent black spots on his face and body (Stone and Zender 45). Xbalanque pours water from a vessel into the sprouting base of his father, while Hunahpu’s hand is extended in a gesture reminiscent of

“scattering.” The sign for throw, used to denote a ritual act of “scattering,” which recalls sowing seed (such as that from which the Maize God emerges), is also associated with generative powers (69). Xbalanque’s water vessel is labeled with the darkness, or night sign glyph, ak’ab, which serves as an adjective to communicate dark color or something connected with darkness (145). Scholars have not formed a definitive answer as to whether the turtle shell refers to the earth—because some Maya myth refers to the earth sitting on the back of a turtle—or to the three hearthstones, which are known as the three stars in the belt of the constellation Orion. The most common sign for ahk (“turtle”) is the profile of a turtle shell (207). In his description of the Resurrection Plate, Van Stone asserts that the Hero Twins are standing in primordial water, indicated by the signs for water lilies and water, and have cracked open the turtle shell, which is symbolic of cracking open a seed or kernel. Van Stone identifies the two heads of the turtle as

Toad on the left and “Te’-God” or “Patron of Pax” on the right. Furthermore, at the base of the crack from which the Maize God is resurrected, the head of Death God A’ is emitting smoke, some foul smell, or perhaps lightning. The eye of Death God A’ has been

56 changed to a glyph that Van Stone refers to as an Ak’bal, or “darkness” (Van Stone 92).

Note that Stone and Zender use the term ak’ba as “darkness” (Stone and Zender 145).

Another example of a resurrection scene is depicted on a plate from the Princeton

University Museum collection (fig. 7). The plate depicts the Maize God resurrected from the seed or kernel, which is symbolic of the mythical mountain, in the stance of a dancer.

Again, the figures to the right and left of the Maize God are extending their hands in a

“scattering” gesture. In addition, the resurrecting figure’s dance pose coincides with the

Maize God’s role as a dancer because corn is a grass and resembles a dancer when it shifts and waves with the breeze (Miller 163). Both resurrection scenes reinforce the concept of death and rebirth as recorded in the Popul Vuh. Although the Maize God has died, he is resurrected and reborn. Without knowledge of Maya mythology, it would be impossible to understand either of these artistic renderings.

57

Fig. 7. Plate with Maize God resurrection scene, Tikal or vicinity, Maya area, Peten, Guatemala, 600–800 CE. Ceramic with polychrome slip 4 ½ x 14 ¾ in. Princeton University Museum. 1997-465.

Another prevailing characteristic of Maya religious thought is duality, or paired

opposites and their interdependence (Miller and Taube 81). There is the duality or

complementarity of male and female; life and death; day and night; sun and moon; left

and right side of the human as, respectively, male and female; and fire and water. Gods often encompass dual natures of good and bad, young and old, male and female (81).

These dual natures and accompanying artistic renditions have complicated the process of decipherment and identification of the gods. The dual natures do reinforce the concept of the unison and the complementarity of the female and male aspects of the gods, and of all of nature. Complementarity is an essential concept in Maya myth, and religious thought suggests that it is also essential in the performance of religious rituals. If gods have both male and female natures, would not the joint celebration by the male and female of rituals and sacrifices be appropriate, or even required?

58 As the various aspects of the myth were recited and recreated over more than a thousand years, the artistic depictions of the myth evolved. However, no matter how the mythology is told or rendered, the underlying principles of how the human creation is to live in balance and unity with the universe and support and nourish the gods remain steadfast. The creators’ first demand that their creation must nourish and adore the gods is an absolute constant. In addition, as can also be gleaned from reading the Popol Vuh and, especially, the adventures and accomplishments of the Hero Twins, wit, wisdom, and intellect are valued, and both men and women are essential characters in the creation story.

Contemporary Celebration of Myth

In a continuation of the ancient story to present day, in Momostenango,

Guatemala, on the Maya ritual calendar day 8, B’atz’, day keepers gather to give offerings on altars of stacked and broken pottery to the gods of earth and sky. The day keepers make the offerings to renew their powers to interpret dreams, to use the calendar to determine the appropriate days for planting and harvesting, to diagnose illnesses, and to make recommendations about marriage. The incense offered on the altar is a petition to the gods for peace for the community. The offerings are made as offerings were made more than a thousand years ago. The fire altars are thought of as books in which the day keepers place words, prayers, and stories. The words are the vehicle of history (Breaking the Maya Code). One can travel to Chichicastenango, Guatemala, and observe the present-day indigenous K’iche’ Maya observe pre-Christian ceremonies on the steps of and in the Church of Santo Tomas where Father Ximenez lived and worked in the early

59 1700s when he penned the Popol Vuh manuscript. On the hillside outside of

Chichicastenango’s town center, local Maya continue to worship and to offer incense, liquor, and tobacco to the Earth God. The contemporary observances are evidence that the

Maya myth is not to be told in the past tense. The Maya story of creation and re-creation continues today, as has been the case since the beginning of time, 0.0.0.0.1. The title of day keeper in contemporary Palin, Guatemala, meaning the diviner or mother-father of the community, is held by both husband and wife (Bassie-Smith 2). This dual title continues the mythological complementarity of the female and male and their role in performing ceremonies of sacrifice to the gods, recreating the universe, and reinforcing the Maya relationship with the gods.

60 CHAPTER 5

ICONOGRAPHY OF DIVINE KINGS AND QUEENS

If the primary focus of Maya cosmology and religious ceremony was the creation

of the multitiered universe, the Maya artist focused on the ways in which Maya royalty

performed rituals and ceremonies to preserve the balance of the universe. As

demonstrated in the discussion of the Popol Vuh above, the creator gods’ unequivocally

delineated man’s responsibility to perform rituals and ceremonies. Because the gods had

created the universe, the royalty were obligated to give sustenance and praise to the gods.

Man and gods had a reciprocal relationship—a quid pro quo arrangement that enabled the

universe to remain ordered and balanced. In their work, the Maya artists demonstrated

how this relationship manifested itself, making Maya courtly life and sacred ritual

inseparable. Whether illustrating a journey into the afterlife, the creation of the realms of

the cosmos, or royal sacrifice, the artists demonstrated the joining of the temporal and

spiritual worlds. The artistic representation on the Yaxchilan lintels of Structure 23 demonstrate the king and queen’s fulfillment of the gods’ requirement to reenact the mythical creation through sacrifice. Maya artists more fully showed this reenactment by including the king and queen together in the series of lintels, as the mother-father, similar to the original divine mother-father creators. As Herbert Spinden maintains, Maya art exhibited regional styles and evolved (as cited in Miller, Maya Art and Architecture 16).

Thus, Maya spiritual or mystical thought might have had regional elements and

61 progressed, hence the inclusion of the female half of the mother-father creators in

Yaxchilan.

Sacred Beings and Blood

Individuals reared in a culture dominated by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, and never-changing supernatural being, such as the Judeo-Christian god, have a difficult time conceptualizing a belief system in which gods are known through a mythology where they may be born and die, have positive and negative traits, be less than all-powerful, be clothed in multiple guises, change gender, and change in name or in other characteristics over time. Perhaps one of the most challenging qualities of Maya gods to understand—imperfection—is obvious in the Popol Vuh account of the multiple attempts to make man. However, for the ancient Maya, divine weaknesses and changeability were not problematic. For the Maya elite, such human characteristics as the weaknesses and frailties of the gods enabled the royalty to more easily commingle their own humanity and divinity (Houston and Stuart 1).

Any discussion of the Maya involves supernatural beings, traditionally employing the term gods. Houston and Stuart point out that god is not an accurate translation. K’u, or ch’u, more accurately means sacred being, or, when used as an adjective, means holy, sacred, or divine. Ch’u is related to a term that refers to the force or power that is in the blood and empowers people and ritual objects. The divine beings might be in the form of a human, animal, natural force (such as lightning or wind), or some combination thereof

(4). The use of ch’u connects divinity and the power of blood, as well as blood’s importance and its relationship with the Maya practice of sacrifice. To the Maya, blood is

62 sacred and has intrinsic power. The power of blood, blood sacrifice, and the sacred, holy, and divine are all fundamentally related concepts in Maya spiritual thought and practice.

Blood connected Maya royalty and the sacred beings.

Sacred Beings and the Night Sky

In Lords of Creation, Fields and Reents-Budet assert that calendrical and astronomical knowledge became important factors in legitimizing kingship during the

Late Preclassic period. During the period, the long count (a linear calendar that established the last creation of the universe) first appeared and became a device by which the rulers related themselves, demonstrated in sculptural and other artistic forms, to the latest creation and their role in keeping the universe in balance. Through the new calendrical and astronomical knowledge, the rulers were elevated from mere practitioners of ritual to the ranks of the supernatural forces (Fields and Reents-Budet 39).

Similar to many people of early civilizations, such as the Babylonians and

Egyptians, the Maya believed in astrology. The Maya elite consulted the scribes for

advice as to when any important event should take place, such as coinciding the

undertaking of war with the position of Venus (sometimes referred to as star wars; Miller

and Taube 181). The night sky provided the setting for much of Maya mythology, and, by

using the events of the sky and correlating them in inscriptions on surfaces with the

ruler’s actions and rituals, artists bestowed legitimacy on the ruler’s activities. There was

spiritual or divine sanction for actions linking the ruler’s actions with the recurring cycle

of the universe, as evidenced in the night sky (Fields and Reents-Budet 40). The night sky

connected the and the sacred beings.

63 Sacred Beings and Artistic Representation

Certain recurring images carved on stelae monuments visually link the ruler with the supernatural. The image of the king wearing the costume of a bird is one such carved representation. In the avian representation, the king has a tall bird headdress and feathered wings symbolic of the Principal Bird (sometimes referred to as the PBD; fig. 8).

The PBD appears in the Popol Vuh as Itzamnaaj’s way (alter ego or spirit companion).

Fig. 8. Censer with seated king, Guatemala, 350–450 CE. Ceramic with slip 33x12 ½ in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1999.484.1a,b.

The accuracy of declaring the PBD as Itzamnaaj’s way is in question (Miller and

Taube 138). By wearing the costume, the king proclaimed himself as analogous to the gods (Fields and Reents-Budet 41). Having monuments carved that memorialized the avian image demonstrated to the observer that the king communicated with the supernatural, and this bolstered his political standing and legitimized his actions (41).

Artistic representations connected the Maya kings and the sacred beings.

64 Although the complete narrative of a myth may not be represented in a particular artistic work, individual visual symbols (e.g., a topknot resembling the corn silk or elongated profile) remind the viewer of the whole story (fig. 9).

Fig. 9. Maya Maize God, Temple 22, Copan, Honduras, 680–750 CE. Volcanic tuff 90 x 54 x 40 cm. The . 1886-321.

A comparison might be made with the Christian symbols of loaves and fishes. A

Christian might see the loaves and fishes and think of the miracle of Jesus (or the Christ) feeding the multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. Someone with a little more knowledge might think of the miracle of feeding the multitude, see the disciples and the

Christ as fishermen of men; associate the bread with celebrating the Eucharist, Lent with personal sacrifice, and Good Friday with the crucifixion; remember fish and nonmeat

Fridays; and think of the Blood of the Lamb, Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, and Easter Sunday and the resurrection of the Son of God. Such might have been the experience for the Maya observing an elongated profile and “seeing” portions of or the whole mythology, depending on the level of education or cultural literacy of the individual observer. Visual symbols connected the King and the gods.

65 Sacred Being—The Maize God: Male and Female

A recurring mingling of the spiritual or mythological and temporal worlds in art is the frequent resemblance of the Maize God. To reiterate some of the more salient points of the Maize God’s importance in Maya mythology: he was the father of the Hero Twins and Monkey Scribes; the personification of the agricultural cycle; and the symbol for maize, from which human beings were formed (Miller 161). Most Maya renderings of the human face are an idealized youthful male with an unblemished face, such as those of the

Maize God (fig. 10).

Fig. 10. Portrait head of Lord Pakal, Palenque, Mexico, 650–683 CE. Stucco 16 7/8 x 6 11/16 in. Museo Nacional de Antropologia—INAH, Mexico. 10-1285.

The image of the Maize God was understood to be the ear of maize, similar to how corn appears on a stalk, growing long and narrow and coming to a point. His straight and luxurious hair is like the corn silk, with the full head of hair denoting an abundant harvest. Noble Maya babies had their heads strapped to boards to produce long foreheads

(Miller 161–63). In addition, a common practice was for a Maya lord to affix an appliance to the bridge of his nose to produce a straight line from the tip of the nose to the

66 forehead, all in emulation of the Maize God’s profile (163). Corn is a grass that shifts and waves with the breeze, so the Maize God was also a dancer (163). The Maize God’s story is the metaphor of life: the cycling of the wet and dry seasons; the annual plantings; the sprouting of the seeds; the ripening of the corn; and, finally, the harvesting. The Maya believed that the Maize God was born in a sacred mountain and that the god emerged repeatedly from the mountain’s stones. A Maya lord standing on a mountain or stone was seen as a reenactment, a fulfillment of the Maize God’s birth story (Miller and Martin

52). When the Maya farmer planted corn seed in the ground, he was symbolically sending the seed to Xibalba, the underworld. When the young sprout emerged from the earth, the corn plant embodied the rebirth of the Maize God, completing the creation cycle.

Interestingly, young nobles were called ch’ok, or “sprout,” and the heir to the throne was called baah ch’ok, or “head sprout” (26). Thus, the Maize God’s rebirth encompassed royalty as well as farmers (Grube 155). The lifecycle bound the entire community, mortal and divine, into one balanced creation. The ruler’s relationship with the dwarves and hunchbacks, who occupied a revered place in the Maya court, also related to the symbolism of maize. The dwarves are garbed in elite attire but not physically perfect, as is the idealized king. The less than perfect imagery makes the dwarf a reflection of the mythical relationship between the dwarves and the Maize God—similar to the ear of maize and the smaller malformed ears on the stalk (Martin and Miller 25).

The androgynous nature of the Maize God is an important concept to explore prior to investigating the meaning of Lady Xoc’s inclusion in the Yaxchilan lintels. In his article, Women-Men (And Men-Women), Matthew Looper points out that the Maize God,

67 although referred to as representing a masculine deity or First Father, is androgynous. The sexual ambiguity is evidenced in the often-noted facial marking “IL” on the deity’s cheek, which reads “woman.” In addition, the deity’s net skirt’s pattern might symbolize the shell of the turtle, from which the Maize God is reborn, thus denoting a feminine association. The short length of the skirt emphasizes masculinity. The XOK monster belt often worn by the deity, as well as the Maize God’s association with flowers, symbolizes femininity. The net skirt and cape were common apparel for women, and the costume, with the more feminine, longer net skirt descending below the knee and less exposed body, denoted the Moon Goddess. Looper further proposes that the whole concept of the deity’s androgyny might have originally come from the maize plant’s male (tassel) and female (ear and silks) organs. The Maize God was able to fertilize and give birth— functioning both as the male and the female. In the male and female identification, the

Maize God and Moon Goddess have complementary roles similar to those of the Popol

Vuh’s “grandfather” and “grandmother” creator couple (Looper 177–82). In some contemporary communities, maize and the moon are referred to as “Our Mother” (Miller and Martin 97). If the element of creation of the human (i.e., maize) is both male and female, does that specify requirements for the ceremonial re-creation? Must both the male and female be integrated, complementary partners in the blood sacrifice that yields the required tribute to the gods and re-creation of humans and the universe?

In multiple ways, Maya royal authority was rooted in the relationship between maize agriculture and the ceremonies and rituals performed to appease the needs and demands of the gods. By wearing the Maize God ceremonial dress, the power of the gods,

68 both male and female, was invoked for a good harvest, which was essential for the community’s welfare (Fields and Reents-Budet 99).

Women at Court

Although women commonly appeared in text in their role as mother of a king, they were not artistically represented as having supernatural or mortal power until the eighth century (Miller and Martin 93). The eighth century was a period of social upheaval and political positioning for power in Maya society. A common strategic alternative to violent conflict between rivals was to arrange an alliance based on a mutually advantageous marriage. The artistic representations of women during this period show them participating in a full spectrum of religious rituals and ceremonies, both public and private. The women are presented in the costumes of Chak Chel—patron of the women’s work of childbirth—the Moon Goddess, and other deities (98). Royal women are portrayed conjuring vision serpents, as shown in fig. 4 in chapter 3. Lady Six Sky is shown stepping on a captive (fig. 11), a common image for a king but very rarely for a woman (99). Lady Six Sky is wearing the beaded costume (and possibly reenacting the victories) of the Maize God (99).

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Fig. 11. Lady Six Sky, Naranjo. Drawing of Stela 24. (Miller and Martin 99).

Yaxchilan

Yaxchilan, home of the jaguar kings, is located on a hilly outcropping of land on the Usumacinta River in what is now Chiapas, Mexico. The quadripartite universe that the king was to maintain with his rituals was visualized as the milpa (the maize field),

with the king as the Maize God in the center linking the vertical levels of the cosmos (the

center could also be the World Tree). The three levels were (a) the domain of the gods and ancestors, the celestial upper world; (b) the domain of human beings, the middle world; and (c) the underworld, which could be reached through caves and certain bodies of water. The divine royalty maintained the universe by performing their sacred rituals on the three-level cosmic platform (Fields and Reents-Budet 125). They employed their architecture to symbolically recreate the universe with the pyramid acting as the sacred mountain (witz) surrounded by plazas, which represented the bodies of water (125).

Because the religious purpose of the pyramids was to lift humans closer to the gods in the heavens, the pyramids were built higher and higher as the centuries passed, reaching heights of 100 to 130 feet (58). Following the concept of performing ceremonies closer to the gods, Yaxchilan’s primary ceremonial area is located on a plaza high above the river.

70 Sir Alfred Maudslay, a British explorer, celebrated the site by declaring

Yaxchilan’s carved door lintels the most significant and had Lintels 24 and 25 shipped to the British Museum in 1882 and 1883, respectively (Miller and Martin 108). Temple 23, the Queens’s House, was built for and dedicated to Lady Xoc (ix k’ab’al xook; 99). In his report of two incised bones found in Structure 23, David Stuart (“Maya Decipherment”) states that the structure was Lady Xoc’s formal “house” and that Tomb 2 within Structure

23 was most likely her burial place. Stuart asserts that Lady Xoc was interred in Tomb 2 because blood letters inscribed as “the jaguar’s bone of Lady K’abal” were found there.

Mexican archaeologist Roberto Garcia Moll, who has done excavations at Temple 23, argues that the remains of a mature woman in Tomb 3 beneath Temple 23 are of Lady

Xoc (Miller and Martin 268). Temple 24, which is situated next to and west of the

Queen’s House, contains the record of Lady Xoc’s death.

Lintels 24, 25, and 26 of Structure 23 in Yaxchilan are examples of the visual narration of a story (Martin and Grube 125). As explained by David Stuart in the video

Breaking the Maya Code, when wanting to represent a mountain, the Maya did not paint or carve an image of a mountain; rather, they artistically represented the “spirit” of the mountain. The Yaxchilan lintels of Structure 23 give such a visual narration of the re- creation, as enacted by Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, not as a realistic and accurate picture of re-creation but as an artistic rendering of the spirit of the creation. The information conveyed by Maya art in representing ritual was not who was performing the ritual but what he or she was doing in performing the ritual (Schele and Miller 66). The performer was most often identified in the glyphs accompanying the artistic

71 representation. The figure’s clothing, accessories, and positioning are the elements that carry the symbolic information as to what is occurring: “Time, action, person and place are recorded in texts, and the subject of art is the depiction of the action” (66). The ceremonial objects and clothing of the Maya royalty in the artistic imagery were all related to the Maya understanding of the universe and the transmission of supernatural powers (66). Knowledge and understanding of Maya myth and symbolism are both essential for an understanding of Maya art. Although information delineated in the glyphic texts are now being translated with much certainty, the deciphering of the symbolic representations is more difficult and less certain.

The lintel was a dominant artistic format in Yaxchilan from the founding of the kingdom. Traditionally textual, in the eighth century, during the reign of Itzamnah Balam

II (Shield Jaguar II), who reigned from 681 to 742 CE, the lintels took on a

representational format (Miller 124). According to Miller and Martin, Lady Xoc

commissioned the lintels during a period of prosperity, growth, and artistic excellence in

Yaxchilan. The figural portion of each lintel faced downward in the front doorways of the three separate rooms of Structure 23, with the glyphic text visible on the façade (Miller and Martin 106–08). Anyone entering the structure would pass under the image of Lady

Xoc, Shield Jaguar’s principle wife and queen, and come face-to-face with Shield Jaguar before entering the dark chamber of the structure. The lintels were so arranged that Lady

Xoc was a major figure in the lintels of Structure 23 (said to be the yoto, “the house of

Lady K’ab’al Xook”) and in the patronage of their creation (Miller 124). Lintels 24, 25, and 26 show Lady Xoc performing rituals or ceremonies, positioned in the preferential

72 right side of the relief (106–07). Therefore, Lady Xoc not only owns the building but also most likely makes the decisions about the artistic subjects and representations in the building.

The relief of the carving is high, giving the impression that the observer is looking into a dark chamber or room. Because of the depth of the relief and the resulting open space, the carver was able to execute fine detail. The carving is so detailed that Lady

Xoc’s fingernails and even her cuticles are clearly discernable (fig. 12).

Fig. 12. Lintel 24, detailed Lady Xoc. Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE. Limestone 109 x 78 x 6 cm. The British Museum. 1886-317.

The textiles worn by Lady Xoc are masterfully executed, with elaborate design in

the weaving as well as beading and fringe (fig. 13). Miller and Martin suggest that the cloth was highlighted because women would have woven the cloth and because the images are in a woman’s house. Also, textiles might have contributed to the wealth that

enabled Lady Xoc to build Structure 23 (101).

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Fig. 13. Lintel 24, detailed Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE. Limestone 109 x 78 x 6 cm. British Museum. 1886-317.

The three lintels might appear to be a single narrative of a sequential story; however, that is not the case. They were constructed over a long period of time, and not sequentially. Lintel 24 shows a 709 CE sacrificial ceremony. Lintel 25 shows Lady Xoc entering a trance in 681 CE, the time of Shield Jaguar’s inauguration. Lintel 26 represents events of 724 CE, with Lady Xoc offering battle dress to Shield Jaguar. The doorway was dedicated, according to text on Lintel 23, in 724 CE (100).

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Fig. 14. Lintel 24, Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE. Limestone 109 x 78 x 6 cm. The British Museum. 1886-317.

In Lintel 24 (fig. 14) Lady Xoc is seated or kneeling in the lower right-hand corner of the relief, pulling a thorn-encrusted rope through her tongue in an act of blood sacrifice. Paper slips sit in a small basket, called a lak, in front of her. In The Maya,

Michael Coe asserts that the basket holds screen-fold books (152). The paper strips are catching the blood from her tongue, and the blood from her mouth forms a line of dots around her lips and cheek (Stone and Zender 98; see fig. 15).

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Fig. 15. Lintel 24, detailed Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 725 CE. Limestone 109 x 78 x 6 cm. British Museum. 1886-317.

Lady Xoc’s dress indicates that she is involved in a bloodletting ceremony, and

symbols in her headdress reveal that the bloodletting is related to a war (Foster 192).

Royal women most often performed blood sacrifice by pulling a thorn-studded rope

through their tongue, whereas royal men most often performed the ritual by piercing their

genitalia (Miller and Martin 106). Lady Xoc wears a mosaic collar and matching cuffs. A

square-nosed serpent emerges from her jade ear flare. The serpent possesses a life force

that is expelled through the mouth, nose, or center of a flower and then sent into the

universe (Stone and Zender 99). Schele and Miller argue that the bloodletting released

endorphins, which produced fantastic visions that, to the Maya, signaled a crossing

beyond the threshold between the cosmic layers (Schele and Miller 177; MacGregor 329).

In Sven Gronemeyer’s reporting of his medical reevaluation of bloodletting, he concludes

that no evidence supports the assertion that bloodletting produced endorphins that

resulted in trances. Furthermore, he suspects that the trances resulted from a combination

of pharmacological and psychological stimulants (Gronemeyer 5). The queen’s hand

passing the rope through her tongue holds a strong resemblance to the glyph tzak, “the

76 fish-in-hand” glyph, which translates “to conjure” (Coe and Van Stone 65), an apt description of attempting to hold on to a dream or vision.

Much could be said of the beauty of the fabric of the queen’s dress; the depth of the relief, which allowed for layering and detail; the profiles of king and queen and their resemblance to the Maize God; the inordinately small feet of the king; the king’s costume; or the shrunken head of a sacrificial victim on his headband. However, the total composition demands note. Here is a king holding a torch, the light source, for his wife.

He is the torchbearer. In addition, his upper body, what identifies him as the king, is given less space in the picture than is given to the queen. The base of the torch cuts across his body, emphasizing the queen by seemingly extending her headdress into the upper right corner of the relief. The extension results in projecting the queen’s height as greater than that of the king. Although some sources say that the ceremony would have been a public outdoor ceremony in an open plaza (Schele and Miller 178), others assert that the ceremony would have been a private affair seen by a select few (Miller and Martin 100).

The argument for the scene taking place in an intimate setting seems more correct. One would certainly not expect the king to be a torchbearer in a public gathering. The need for a torch might imply that the metaphorical setting is the center of the mountain, from which maize first erupted. The lintels are located in the entrance to Structure 23, and the interior of the building could be construed as symbolic of the Mountain God, with an open mouth as the entrance into a cave, a sacred space in Maya belief. Because the bloodletting reenacts the creation and birth of humans, the dark mountain setting has some logic. Another reinforcing concept to the dark setting is the Maya belief that the

77 world dies every day with the setting sun (Breaking the Maya Code). In the darkness, the world has died and Lady Xoc, with her sacrifice, will accomplish a re-creation. For the present discussion, the more relevant question is, what does the king’s presence and supportive role say about the relationship, personal and hierarchical, between the king and queen that would allow for such an image? What purpose might the inclusive representation serve?

Fig. 16. Lintel 25, Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 681 CE. Limestone 129.500 x 85.700 cm. The British Museum. 1886-316.

Lintel 25 (fig. 16), the next in the series of reliefs in Structure 23, has Lady Xoc conjuring a supernatural, two-headed creature. Kettunen and Davis contend that, although the unrealistically represented serpentine creatures in Maya art are usually referred to as snakes or centipedes, they would more correctly be called zoomorphs, monsters, centiserpents, or because close examination of the physical characters

78 demonstrate that they are neither centipedes nor snakes (1). In Lintel 25, Lady Xoc is presenting her left hand, in which she holds a bowl, while her right hand is outstretched.

At her feet is the bowl that presumably contains the papers, thorny spine, and blood from her bloodletting in Lintel 24. The “to conjure” or “fish-in-hand” glyph appears at the top of the relief, second from the right (Coe and Stone 65). The text on the lintel states that

Lady Xoc has conjured herself, and she emerges from the head of the centipede as the warrior-goddess Ixik Yohn, who has strong affiliations with Teotihuacan (Stone and

Zender 46). Others maintain that the queen has conjured a vision of a warrior masked as the Teotihuacan Storm God Tlaloc, most likely a manifestation of Shield Jaguar (Martin and Grube 125; Miller and Martin 100). The monster image dominates the entire space, with the body expanding to touch all four sides of the lintel, as well as Lady Xoc and the glyphic text. With the cacophony of images, Lintel 25’s relief gives a very different impression than Lintel 24. In Lintel 25, the queen retains her right-hand placement, but her physical appearance is diminutive. She appears to be cowering in the right corner as the vision manifestation points a menacing spear at her head. The king is not present, but the pattern from his belt in Lintel 24 is repeated in the design of the queen’s dress. The relief presents a very busy, chaotic impression in contrast to the serene impression of

Lintel 24. How is the queen able to conjure the vision making the supernatural and natural worlds commingle, seemingly accompanied by only the symbolism of the king’s belt?

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Fig. 17. Lintel 26, Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc, Yaxchilan, Mexico, 724 CE. Limestone 84 5/8 x33 ½ x 10 5/8 in. Museo Nacional de Antropologia—INAH, Mexico. 10-9790.

The general impression of Lintel 26 (fig. 17) is similar to that of Lintel 24. The king and queen’s solitary presence within the frame imparts calmness and tranquility.

They appear to be on equal footing; they appear to be peers, equals. They are of similar

size, with the king reaching out for the jaguar helmet and the queen offering the helmet to

him. Lady Xoc is assisting her husband, Shield Jaguar, as he prepares for battle. She

holds a water-lily jaguar helmet or headdress that she is presenting to her husband, Shield

Jaguar (Schele and Miller 211). The Water Lily Jaguar was a dweller in the underworld,

identifiable by the water lily that appears on his forehead. The jaguar symbolizes power

and relates to warfare. Also, the water lily, which seems to emerge from water as if by

magic, is associated with the creation of earth in Maya myth (Miller and Taube 184).

Royal women were responsible for preserving the war helmet and presenting it to the king

when he prepared for war. David Freidel reports, “to the Maya, war was more than just a

physical act; it was also an encounter between supernaturally charged beings. Women had

80 an active role in battle by conjuring up war gods and instilling sacred magical power in battle gear.” (Hardman 3).

A stream of blood on Lady Xoc’s cheek indicates that the bloodletting of Lintel 24

has just taken place. Weather erosion has obscured the imagery, but Lady Xoc also hands a shield to Lord Shield Jaguar. The imagery demonstrates that Lady Xoc has provided her husband, the jaguar, with power and strength in battle, the water lily of birth and creation for preservation of life, the shield to protect his physical body, and the all-important blood sacrifice to appease the needs of the gods. She has prepared him for his role in defending the community and bringing tribute to the gods through enemy captives. The husband and wife are each fulfilling a role needed to protect the community and to ensure balance in the universe.

Female Imagery

The lintels in the queen’s house are unusual in their inclusion of a woman, let alone a woman as the major player in the drama that is occurring in the relief. The scenes place her as the major player in the bloodletting, which reenacts the creation mythology.

Was her inclusion acceptable because the scene is in her house, the yotot (“the house of

Lady K’ab’ al Xook”)? Was the political situation such that the ties that bound the larger community together required that the female family ties and allegiances be honored as never before? Or was the relationship between the king and queen, as one might interpret from the lintels, one of mutual respect and a sharing of power and authority?

Because the three lintels represent the first time in Yaxchilan that the lintel was given a representational presentation (Miller and Martin 108), another possibility might

81 be considered: the participation of both king and the queen was important in the rituals and ceremonies that reenacted the creation mythology. The act of bloodletting was required to communicate with the ancestors and deities, who, then, helped provide the king the power to maintain his authority and military prowess. Perhaps some members of the community were not literate and could not read the glyphs on the lintels that recorded and proclaimed the history and ceremony of previous kings. By providing images rather than only text, the message of the king and queen’s relationship with the gods and their vital role in protecting the community was conveyed to all who entered the chamber. This is similar to the stained glass windows of the great Christian cathedrals of Europe. The images on the glass told the Bible stories for the illiterate masses. Barnhart, who was a student of Linda Schele at the University of Texas, argues that Lady Xoc had royal blood and that Lord Shield Jaguar did not. He asserts, therefore, that Lady Xoc was the only one of the pair who would have been permitted to perform bloodletting because a direct line of ancestry from the creator gods was required. However, in The Blood of Kings, Schele and Miller state, “Shield Jaguar wears his hair in the style of penitents, for he, too, will draw blood as the rite continues” (186).

Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc—Male and Female Complementary Roles

The placement of a woman as the primary actor in the three highlighted lintels in

Yaxchilan can be explained by the concept of complementary nature of the sexes. To work backward in time, in contemporary Maya communities, a human is considered to be both male and female, and a person must be married to be complete (Bassie Smith 2).

82 Men and women are parts of a single unit, and life is only possible as part of a male- female pair (Vail and Stone 221). A husband and wife are to work together in complementary unison. Without his wife, a man is considered less powerful, and ancestors are called mother-father (Bassie-Sweet 2). The required ceremonies for civil- religious hierarchies, cargo systems, and cofradias have complementary roles.

Furthermore, ritual activity in parts of Mesoamerica requires male and female practitioners (Josserand 127). In some highland communities, “the position of mother- father is held by both a man and his wife, they are both called mother-father, and both share in the status and position of the office” (Bassie-Sweet 2). Although it is not always legitimate to transfer contemporary beliefs and practices to an ancient time, such a suggestion seems appropriate in this case because the practice of complementary roles originates in ancient myth. Specifically, the terms First Mother and First Father are used in the Popol Vuh, indicating the importance of both male and female in the first acts of creation. Also in the Popol Vuh, immediately after creating the first human, a wife was created for each man, thus completing the creation. The Maya refer to the husbands and wives of the first creation, who were the first lineage heads of the Quiche Maya, as “our first mother-father” (2). The Maize God and the life-sustaining maize have both male and female characteristics and qualities. Both contemporary and ancient Maya exhibit a positive opinion of the roles of males and females, and, even more so, the joining together of the two roles.

The three lintels at Yaxchilan give visual credence to the value of male-female complementarity. Lady Xoc is offering her sacrifice as her husband assists her by

83 illuminating the cave or mountain from which the re-creation will occur. Lord Shield

Jaguar is symbolically present in Lintel 25, in the pattern of Lady Xoc’s dress, as she conjures the vision serpent. With the bloodletting and conjuring, she is performing several

functions: bringing the positive favor and power of the gods; bringing balance to the

universe; and divining the future (Romey 2). In Lintel 26, the conclusion of the narrative

tells the viewer that the power and favor of the gods has been brought to Lord Shield

Jaguar through his wife’s sacrifice. As he goes into battle, the power of the gods is

embodied in his helmet and shield. In fulfilling their individual and complementary male

and female roles, the king and queen have ensured their community’s well-being. The

purpose of including Lady Xoc, a woman, in the lintels was to confirm to the community

the king and queen’s connection to the first mother-fathers of creation, the legitimacy of

their position because of their connection with the creation gods, and their willingness to

sacrifice themselves for the well-being of the community. Religions change,

circumstances, or relationships can bring to the fore alternative or improved ways of

communicating spiritual beliefs or requirements. By returning to the earliest configuration

of Maya creation—the coming together of male and female, mother and father, and

mother-father and father-mother—Lady Xoc and Lord Shield Jaguar are paying tribute to

the whole of their myth, not just the male half.

Conclusion

A warning was given early in this thesis that anything suggested as a motive for

an action or creation of an image during an ancient time and by an ancient people must be

suspect. We cannot know what exactly was done or why an act might have been done by

84 ancient peoples. We can research the context of images, study the texts when available, and articulate reasonable theories, but always with the knowledge that something has been or will be discovered that will prove the theory inaccurate.

To repeat a quote from chapter 4, in Myth and Reality, Mircea Eliade contends that the “foremost function of myth is to reveal the exemplary model for all human rites and all significant human activities” (8). The Popol Vuh, the primary resource available to modern scholars to study the myth of the Maya, clearly delineates the rites and activities expected of humans in their relationship with the gods. Humans are to honor the gods by performing certain rites and by sacrificing to nourish the gods. In their renderings, Maya

artists demonstrated how required rites and sacrificial offerings were performed. The

difficulty in interpretation comes when the modern observer attempts to understand the

meaning of the artistic renderings and the narrative behind the art.

When I first studied the three Yaxchilan lintels, I thought that the inclusion of

Lady Xoc was related to a need to strengthen the authority of the king. My conjecture was that there were, undoubtedly, women within the royal entourage who were not literate and could not read the glyphs on the lintels that recorded and proclaimed the history and ceremony of previous kings. Because this was a time of some disruption in the region and given that the kings tended to seek increased power and authority, it would seem reasonable to infer that the gods needed to be pacified by increased tribute and sacrifice.

Because Maya artists graphically represented the rituals and the importance of women— not just men—in performing those rituals, the women were probably more likely to take

85 an active role in the sacred rituals and, thereby, strengthen their relationship with the gods and bring about balance between the mortal and divine.

Neil MacGregor of the British Museum, where Lintels 24 and 25 reside, maintains that Shield Jaguar married Lady Xoc because she came from a powerful family. Their union solidified alliances that raised Yaxchilan’s position to that of a major regional power (330). The inclusion of Lady Xoc in the lintels might have been a means to solidify

Shield Jaguar’s regional power base. By elevating Lady Xoc’s position through this unique visual narrative, he could have gained additional political favor from her family.

Miller and Martin contend that the lintels were commissioned during a period of prosperity and artistic renaissance (106). The lintels are unique not only in the drama of their narrative but also in the exactness of their execution (108). For many years after their completion, sculptors attempted to emulate the lintels, but with limited success. As stated earlier, the three lintels were the first to include figures and a narrative that effectively tell a sequential story (108). Additionally, the sculptors signed their work, and one sculptor was a foreigner. This excellence in sculpting, narrative structure, and inclusion of figures give evidence of an artistic renaissance. If that was the case, perhaps the inclusion of a female figure was an artistic innovation. Might the artists have concluded that, if they were to include a male figure, why not a female figure? Given that the building was Lady Xoc’s house, she would have been the logical female subject.

If one puts together wealth and prosperity, political power and authority, and artistic innovation, it is easy to imagine invention occurring in other areas. It is reasonable to conclude that, when people are comfortable and not required to spend their time

86 defending their territory or hunting for scarce resources, they have time to think, ponder, and reflect. Might it be that the ruling class of Yaxchilan experienced such a combination of good fortune during the time the lintels were being planned and executed? Because their lives evolved so extensively around their divine rites and rituals, perhaps their thoughts led them to innovations in their religious thought. They might have reflected on their myth and creation story and considered the complementarity of the male and female creators. In considering the androgyny of the Maize God, perhaps they determined that the female presence was required in the visual narrative, just as it was in the oral narrative of the myth.

The Maya mythology delineated the ritualistic and sacrificial requirements for the

Maya to keep the universe in balance. The Maya royalty memorialized the rituals in ceramics, sculptures, and paintings. Over time, regional styles and innovations occurred in the art, as Spinden stated at the beginning of the last century. The motivations, strategies, and goals behind the artistic renderings are open to conjecture. The beauty of the Yaxchilan lintels has been appreciated since Maudsley first admired them and had them shipped to the British Museum. I have come to conclude that Lady Xoc is present in the lintels because of an innovation in religious and artistic thought and practice that necessitated the inclusion of the female in the re-creation ritual. My research on and development of the complementary nature of the relationship of the sexes in Maya myth supports that conclusion. Regardless of the reason for her presence, the artistic skill and creativity in the execution of the lintels is enough to occupy one’s thoughts and garner aesthetic appreciation.

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