Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts - Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 4, No. 1 by Paul Schellhas
page 12 of 53 (22%)
page 12 of 53 (22%)
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to the death-god is proved by the fact that on Dr. 9a it wears the
Cimi-sign on the middle piece of the chain around its neck. Furthermore it should be emphasized that the Aztec sin-god, Itztlacoliuhqui, likewise appears with symbols of death. 5. An isolated figure, Dr. 50a (the sitting figure at the right). This wears the skull as head ornament, which is represented in exactly the same way as in the Aztec manuscripts (see Fig. 6). 6. Another isolated figure is twice represented combined with the death-god in Dr. 22c. This picture is so effaced that it is impossible to tell what it means. The hieroglyph represents a variant of the death's-head, Cimi. It seems to signify an ape, which also in the pictures of the Mexican codices was sometimes used in relation to the death-god. The symbols of the death-god are also found with the figure without a head on Dr. 2 (45)a, clearly the picture of a beheaded prisoner. Death symbols occur, too, with the curious picture of a hanged woman on Dr. 53b, a picture which is interesting from the fact that it recalls vividly a communication of Bishop Landa. Landa tells us, the Mayas believed that whoever hanged himself did not go to the underworld, but to "paradise," and as a result of this belief, suicide by hanging was very common and was chosen on the slightest pretext. Such suicides were received in paradise by the goddess of the hanged, Ixtab. Ix is the feminine prefix; tab, taab, tabil mean, according to Perez' Lexicon of the Maya Language, "cuerda destinada para algun uso exclusivo". The name of this strange goddess is, therefore, the "Goddess of the Halter" or, as Landa says, "The Goddess of the Gallows". Now compare Dr. 53. On the upper half of the page is the death-god represented with hand raised |
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