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The Early Classic Name of GI The Early Classic Name of GI: First Dawn Lord Shines Michael J. Grofe, Ph.D. February 20, 2008 University of California, Davis and American River College The Name of GI The portrait glyph of GI, the first born of the Palenque Triad deities first identified by Heinrich Berlin (1963), consistently appears with the same attributive glyph collocation in Palenque, whereas a different series of glyphs form the title of GI in several examples from the Early Classic Period. Thus far, both of the names of GI have remained insufficiently translated. However, a comparison of the Early Classic name with the established function of GI as a deity of Venus may provide a semantically consistent reading. Figure 1: Early Classic Title of GI a) TIK, Stela 31, A24 – B24 b) PAL, Oval Palace Tablet, A1 a) b) Lord of the Dawn Looking at several examples of the Early Classic version of GI’s name, we find a collocation that includes an upraised hand (T217c), along with a na (T4), and an AJAW glyph (T533), followed by the portrait of GI (fig. 1a). Examples of this title can be found much later on the Oval Palace Tablet in Palenque (fig. 1b), suggesting that multiple titles of GI were not necessarily mutually exclusive at this site, where we see the more frequently used alternate name used in the Palenque Triad. A closer look at the hand glyph reveals similarities with another hand found in the collocation known to substitute for ‘dawn’ as PÄS. Next to the hand in most examples of the ‘dawn’ variant glyph appears a clear depiction of a leaf (fig.2a). In fact, some examples of this ‘dawn’ collocation depict a form of a palm leaf thatch glyph in 1 place of the leaf (fig.2b,c). In Yucatecan languages, le means ‘leaf’ (Bricker et al. 1998:165; Hofling and Tesucún 1997:411). If we take this leaf as a syllabic le, this collocation may read PÄS-el päsel, attested as ‘dawn’ and ‘sprout’ in Ch’ol (Aulie and Aulie 1978:88). Figure 2: PÄS (T222) ‘dawn’ a) CPN, Stela 11, B7 b) PAL, T. Sun Ballustrade, H1 c) PAL, House A, Pier C, M29 a) b) c) Taking the upraised hand as PÄS would then provide a reading of this name of GI as partially Nah Päs ‘First Dawn’. David Stuart noticed another example of the Early Classic title of GI from a Uaxactun vessel in which the portrait glyph of GI is replaced with another AJAW sign surrounded by a ring of dots (Stuart 2006:120–123). Stuart found a corresponding example of this dotted AJAW sign incorporated into an iconographic representation of GI in the form of a water bird headdress found in Palenque’s Temple XIX (fig. 3a). I suggest that an identical dotted ring appears around another Palenque glyph for Yax Päs, also ‘First Dawn’ (fig. 3b), and it appears that this dotted symbol relates to dawning and the rays of the sun. This reinforces the above reading of the name of GI as ‘First Dawn’. Figure 3: a) GI headdress. PAL, Temple XIX b) YÄX PÄS. PAL, T. Inscr. fragment 2 Figure 4: GI substituting for day ‘Ajaw’. YAX, Hieroglyphic Stairway 5, 92 GI, Hunahpu, and Quetzalcoatl The association between GI and the AJAW glyph found in his Early Classic name may make sense in that GI is known to substitute for this glyph in the day cartouche for AJAW on in Yaxchilan Hieroglyphic Stairway 5 (fig. 4). He is likewise able to substitute for the head variant of the personified sun, representing the number four on Quirigua Stela D. GI has clear associations with the rising sun, yet he is also known to be associated with the planet Venus, which often precedes the sun in the east as morning star. 1 David Kelly first observed that both Palenque’s GI and the Central Mexican Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl share the birthday, 9-Wind, and both are associated with the planet Venus (Kelly 1965). Furthermore, the text from Temple XIX in Palenque repeatedly mentions the day 9-Wind (9-Ik’) in association with GI (Stuart 2006:168). Ehecatl, meaning ‘Wind’, appears in the Central Mexican codices with a cut conch shell pendant (fig. 5a), representing the power of wind and the conch horn Quetzalcoatl successfully blows in the watery underworld, outsmarting Mictlantecuhtli and retrieving the bones of the people of the previous world who had turned into fish 1 See Lounsbury (1985), Schele and Miller (1986:48–51), Tedlock (1992), and Aldana (2001). 3 following a great flood (Miller and Taube 1993:142; Taube 1993:38). Likewise, GI is usually depicted with a similar cut shell in his ear flare (fig. 5b). Figure 5: a) Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl form the Codex Borgia, with buccal mask and shell pendant b) GI portrait (T1011), showing cut shell ear flare. PAL Palace Tablet, I6. c) GI portrait, showing water bird headdress. PAL Creation Stone, E2 Additionally, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl appears wearing a red mask with the elongated beak of some kind of water bird (O’Mack 1991). In several examples of his name, GI is similarly conflated with a water bird headdress (fig. 5c), often with a fish appearing in its beak, as in the example from Temple XIX in Palenque. In several examples from Classic period ceramics, the face of GI, with his diagnostic fish barbels, emerges from the breasts of a pair of fishing water birds (fig. 6a). Some of these vessels also include EK’ star signs on these birds (fig. 6b), a known sign for Venus. I suggest that, as a fishing water bird, GI is a direct parallel of Quetzalcoatl and the retrieval of the bones of the people of the previous world, who had turned into fish. 4 Figure 6: a) Top. Fishing GI transforming into waterbird pair. K3536 © Kerr December 29, 1998; b) Bottom. Similar GI pair with EK’ Venus signs on their wings. K6181 © Kerr, November 27, 1999 In Central Mexico, Quetzalcoatl is understood to be a conflation of a quetzal bird and a serpent, and this serpent-bird imagery is also evident in the sinuous, snake-like neck of many predatory water birds. Indeed, this comparison also exists in English in 5 one of the common names for the anhinga as a ‘snake bird’. One unique image from a Teotihuacan style stucco vase, K2027, appears to demonstrate this association between the neck of water birds and a serpent, with four unique portrayals of the aged deity Itzamnah, whose faces each emerge from the breast of a water bird. The neck and face of each of these water birds is clearly that of a snake, with serpent and feather markings (fig. 7). Figure 7: Teotihuacan style stuccoed vase with serpent-bird imagery and deity transformation. Inset of K2027 © Kerr March 30, 2002. Figure 8: GI spear-fishing with his water bird headdress at right. Maize God at left. K1391 © Kerr June 19, 1998. 6 Figure 9: Spearing GI. Verb JUL-aj ‘is speared’ is the third glyph from left in the secondary inscription. Above GI is also the PSS initial glyph using the GI portrait substitution. K595 © Kerr June 4,1998 The fishing behavior of GI is likewise associated with spearing, an occupation of Venus deities in the Postclassic. An interesting incised image (K1391) shows GI with his water bird headdress spear-fishing in a canoe (fig. 8). In the next scene, the Maize God appears in a canoe that emerges from the mouth of a serpent. A smaller fish-serpent appears speared in front of him. This image compares to another image of GI spear- fishing in K595 (fig. 9), in which the verb JUL (T584v) ‘spear’ is clearly visible. This same verb is found together with spear-wielding deities and their victims in the Postclassic Dresden Codex, where they are associated with numerical tables concerning the reappearance of the planet Venus as the morning star following inferior conjunction with the sun (Milbrath 1999:163–87). Throughout Mesoamerica, the first appearance of the heliacal rising of Venus at dawn was considered to be significant. Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is the Postclassic name of Venus from Central Mexico, and this translates in Nahuatl as ‘Lord of the Dawn’. This 7 deity is likewise named as a spearer within the Venus table of the Dresden Codex (Taube and Bade1991:18). Indeed, a new reading of Nah Päs Ajaw appears to provide a similar name for GI as ‘First Dawn Lord’. This name also invites a comparison with Hunahpu from the Popol Vuh, and his classic name Hun Ajaw, whose day name is used to represent the helical rise of Venus as morning star in the Dresden Venus almanac. Several authors have suggested an association between Hun Ajaw and GI 2 and the name ‘First Dawn Ajaw’ reinforces these proposals. Elsewhere (Grofe in press), I have suggested that there is a direct association between the appearance of GI as an anthropomorphic fish and the rebirth of Hunahpu and Xbalanque as fish-men five days after their self-immolation in the underworld. With his catfish barbels, GI recalls the description of the transformed Hero Twins in the Popol Vuh as winaq kar ‘person-fish’, and also a term for ‘catfish’ in Cakchiquel (Tedlock 1996:280). Furthermore, this episode of the Hero Twins closely parallels a story of Quetzalcoatl, who journeys to the edge of the water to the east and performs his own self-immolation. After four days, his heart rises to become the planet Venus (Anales de Cuauhtitlan 1975:16–22). Quetzalcoatl spends a total of eight days in Mictlan, and this pattern is likewise clearly recognizable as the average period of invisibility during the inferior conjunction of Venus (Iwaniszewski 1995).
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