STAR GODS OF THE MAYA THE LINDA SCHELE SERIES IN MAYA AND PRE-COLUMBIAN STUDIES This series was made possible through the generosity of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the following donors: Elliot M. Abrams and AnnCorinne Freter Judith M. Maxwell Anthony Alofsin Joseph Orr Joseph W. Ball and Jennifer T. Taschek The Patterson Foundation William A. Bartlett John M. D. Pohl Elizabeth P. Benson Mary Anna Prentice Boeing Gift Matching Program Philip Ray William W. Bottorff Louise L. Saxon Victoria Bricker David M. and Linda R. Schele Robert S. Carlsen Richard Shiff Frank N. Carroll Ralph E. Smith Roger J. Cooper Barbara L. Stark Susan Glenn Penny J. Steinbach John F. Harris Carolyn Tate Peter D. Harrison Barbara and Dennis Tedlock Joan A. Holladay Nancy Troike Marianne J. Huber Donald W. Tuff JaÅnis Indrikis Javier Urcid The Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Barbara Voorhies Anna Lee Kahn E. Michael Whittington Rex and Daniela Koontz Sally F. Wiseley, M.D. Christopher and Sally Lutz Judson Wood, Jr. STAR GODS OF THE MAYA Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars Susan Milbrath University of Texas Press Austin Copyright q 1999 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 1999 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819. j` The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesÐPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Milbrath, Susan. Star gods of the Maya : astronomy in art, folklore, and calendars / Susan Milbrath. Ð 1st ed. p. cm. Ð (The Linda Schele series in Maya and pre-Columbian studies) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-292-75225-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 0-292-75226-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Maya astronomy. 2. MayasÐReligion. 3. Maya calendar. I. Title. II. Series. F1435.3C14 M55 1999 5208.972Ðddc21 99-6136 TO MY PARENTS, MARIANO, AND MARK CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 2. NAKED-EYE ASTRONOMY 44 The Mesoamerican Calendar 2 Tracking the Solar Seasons 44 Decipherment of Maya Glyphs 8 Lunar Positions and Phases 47 Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy 8 Eclipses 48 Overview of Contents 9 The Planets 50 The Stars and the Seasons 55 1. CONTEMPORARY MAYA IMAGES OF THE HEAVENS 12 3. PRECOLUMBIAN AND COLONIAL The Seasonal Cycle 12 PERIOD MAYA SOLAR IMAGES 58 The Solar Calendar 15 The Seasonal Cycle and the Solar Calendar 59 Modern Maya Cosmic Diagrams 17 Solar Orientations in Architecture 65 How the Sun Moves and Transforms 21 The Sun in Precolumbian Maya Cosmic The Sun God 23 Diagrams 70 Images of Eclipses 25 Concepts of the Sun's Motion 74 The Lunar Rhythms 27 The Precolumbian Kin Glyph 78 Lunar Agriculture 30 The Sun God in the Colonial and Postclassic The Celestial Pair 31 Periods 79 The Moon Goddess 31 The Sun God at ChicheÂn ItzaÂ82 Venus among the Contemporary Maya 34 The Sun King 83 The Planets among the Contemporary Maya 36 Classic Maya Images of the Sun God and Earlier Prototypes 87 Stars and Constellations 37 The Monkey's Sun 92 The Milky Way 40 Solar Birds and Solar Fire 94 Other Celestial Phenomena 41 The Sun and Felines 95 Contemporary Maya Astronomy in Cultural Context 42 Hunahpu and Hun Ahau 96 GIII: The Sun as the Middle Brother 100 The Sun in the Precolumbian Maya Worldview 103 CONTENTS vii 4. PRECOLUMBIAN AND COLONIAL 5. VENUS AND MERCURY: PERIOD LUNAR IMAGES AND THE BODY DOUBLES 157 DEITIES 105 Venus Observations among the Precolumbian Lunar Calendars 106 Maya 157 Colonial and Postclassic Eclipse Imagery 111 Venus in the Popol Vuh 159 The Dresden Codex Eclipse Table 113 Colonial and Postclassic Images of Venus 160 Classic Period Eclipse Imagery and Events 115 The Dresden Codex Venus Pages 163 Maya Moon Glyphs and Symbols 117 The Layout of Pages 46 ±50 170 Lunar Symbolism of Fish, Frogs, Toads, and The Seasonal Aspects of Venus 173 Shells 119 Regents and Victims in the Venus Pages 174 The Moon and Rabbits 119 Quetzalcoatl-Kukulcan: The Venus God from The Water-lily Jaguar 120 Central Mexico 177 The Jaguar War God 124 Central Mexican Venus Symbols in the Maya Area 186 The Jaguar Paddler: The Moon Paired with the Sun 126 Maya Glyphs and Symbols Representing Venus 187 The Lunar Twin: Xbalanque 130 Venus Warfare 193 The Classic Period Moon God in Monumental Art 135 Lineage Founders and the Venus Cult 196 The Young Moon Goddess in Colonial and Tlaloc and the Storm God 197 Postclassic Times 138 Chac and God B in Colonial and Postclassic The Aged Moon Goddess in Colonial and YucataÂn 199 Postclassic Times 141 Classic Period Images of Chac 204 The Moon in the Postclassic Murals at Chac and GI in the Classic Period 205 Tulum 147 The Sidereal Position of Venus 209 Lunar Deities at ChicheÂn Itza 148 Venus and the Moon 211 The Classic Maya Moon Goddess 150 Mercury in Maya Imagery and Calendrics 214 The Ever-changing Moon 155 The Inferior Planets in the Maya Worldview 216 viii CONTENTS 6. THE CELESTIAL WANDERERS 218 APPENDIX 1. Guide to Astronomical Identities 295 Colonial Period Images of the Superior Planets 218 Mars among the Precolumbian Maya 219 APPENDIX 2. Table of Classic Period Dates, Monkey Deities and the Planets 223 Monuments, and Associated Astronomical Events 296 God K in the Colonial and Postclassic Periods 227 The Classic Period God K and GII 231 APPENDIX 3. Table for Calculating the Jupiter Events and God K on Classic Maya Tzolkin Intervals 306 Monuments 233 Classic Period Calendar Records Relating to the GLOSSARY 309 Superior Planets 240 Assembly of the Gods 244 BIBLIOGRAPHY 313 The Celestial Wanderers as Planetary Gods 247 INDEX 339 7. STARS, THE MILKY WAY, COMETS, AND METEORS 249 PLATES following page 348 Comets, Meteors, and Supernovas 250 Images of Stars 251 The Maya Zodiac 254 The Pleiades 258 The Scorpion and Skeletal Snake Constellations 264 Orion and Gemini 266 The Peccary Constellation 268 Bird Constellations 269 Cross Constellations and Stellar Trees 270 The North Star and the ``Dippers'' 273 Central Mexican Images of the Milky Way 274 The Cosmic Monster and the Milky Way 275 Serpent Forms of the Milky Way 282 Four Roads in the Sky and Four Itzamnas 283 Classic Period Monuments with Images of the Milky Way 285 Rotating the Milky Way 288 The Maya in the History of World Astronomy 291 STAR GODS OF THE MAYA THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK INTRODUCTION Astronomy in ancient Mesoamerica was not an abstract science; indeed, it was an integral part of daily life, and so it remains today in the more traditional Maya communities. In Precolumbian times, astronomy played a central role in calendars and religious imagery. Art images and companion texts provide keys to understand- ing the thought processes of the ancient Maya. Rather than focusing on scienti®c accuracy, many of the best documented astronomical images seem primarily con- cerned with divination. Maya astronomy is really astrology (Thompson 1972:77), but not in the sense of personal horoscopes. The astrological texts in the codices often deal with cycles of illness, the fate of crops, and weather. We may dismiss them as fanciful, but there is a similar folk tradition in our Old Farmer's Almanac. People today often cannot appreciate why astronomy played such an important role in ancient civilizations. For many of us, supplying our own food means cashing a paycheck and going to the grocery store. Our indoor environments insulate us from the more profound effects of the seasonal cycle. Our calendars tell us when the seasons will change, and we feel no need to watch the sun and stars as they follow their seasonal course. Indeed, it is often dif®cult to see the night sky. Light pollution follows electricity, dimming the spectacular beauty of the stars. Astronomical gods form the core of the Precolumbian Maya pantheon. In the past, some Mayanists have suggested that the Maya did not worship gods; rather they believed in spiritual forces. Karl Taube (1992b:7±8) refutes this position in his study of the Maya pantheon. Stephen Houston and David Stuart (1996:295) point out that Classic period Maya rulers claimed divine status by using the names of gods as their personal names. And Patricia McAnany (1995a) shows that posthumous royal portraits depict rulers merged with gods. As the most highly developed ancient civilization in all of the Americas, the Maya had a sophisticated astronomy that was integrated with their religion. Like the an- cient Greeks, Romans, Hindus, Chinese, Mesopotamians, and Egyptians, the Maya believed that the celestial luminaries were gods who in¯uenced human destiny and controlled events on earth. Whether Maya artworks show rulers dressed up as gods or the gods themselves is sometimes debatable, but there is no question that the star gods were invoked in Maya art for more than a thousand years. Precolumbian art, calendric cycles, and modern folklore can be integrated to tell the story of Maya astronomy, placing the Maya in their proper position as one of the great civilizations of antiquity. The Maya live in an area bounded by the YucataÂn Peninsula to the north, the 2 INTRODUCTION state of Chiapas to the west, and the area bordering The 260-day calendar was used to prognosticate hu- El Salvador and Honduras to the southeast (Pl. 1). man destiny according to the day of birth and to pre- Numerous Maya language groups exist today, as in dict the appropriate days for the planting cycle.