Editing Votan (section)

==Origins of the Votan story==
The story of Votan in Mexico dates back to at least the late 17th century. It was first published in ''Constituciones diocesanas del obispado de Chiappa'' (1702) by [[Francisco Núñez de la Vega]], Bishop of [[Chiapas]]. According to [[Francisco Javier Clavijero]]:
<blockquote>
F. Núñez de la Vega, bishop of Chiapa, says, in the preface to his ''Synodal Constitutions'', that in the visit which he made to his diocese towards the end of the last century [i.e. the late 1600s], he found many ancient calendars of the Chiapanese, and an old manuscript in the language of that country, made by the Indians themselves, in which it was said, according to their ancient tradition, that a certain person named ''Votan'' was present at that great building, which was made by order of his uncle, in order to mount up to heaven; that then every people was given its language, and that Votan himself was charged by God to make the division of the lands of [[Anahuac (Aztec)|Anahuac]].  The prelate adds afterwards, that there was in his time in Teopixca a great settlement of that diocese, a family of the surname of Votan, who were the reputed descendants of that ancient populator.  We are not here endeavoring to give the antiquity to the populator of America on the faith of the Chiapanese, but merely to shew that the Americans conceived themselves the descendants of Noah.<ref name="Clavigero 1787, p. 204">Clavigero 1787, p. 204</ref>
</blockquote>

In his account, Bishop Núñez de Vega also states that Votan belonged to the royal lineage of "Cham" (probably "chan" or snake) and that he established a kingdom called "Na Chan" (Snake House) on the [[Usumacinta River]] that eventually extended across [[Chiapas]] and [[Soconusco]] to the Pacific Coast.<ref name="Megged 1996, p. 26">Megged 1996, p. 26</ref>  Additional information can be found in a 1786 publication by [[Antonio del Río]]<ref>Rio [1786] (1822)</ref> that cites the same sources as Clavijero and speculates at length on Votan's identity and travels to the Old World.

At a time when the origins of [[pre-Columbian]] cultures were poorly understood, these clerics associated Votan with the Biblical stories of the [[Tower of Babel]] and [[Noah]], speculating that he had come to Mexico from the [[Old World]]. This tradition has been perpetuated by additional fantastic speculations that have been sharply critiqued by subsequent scholarship. This includes the association of Votan with [[Palenque]] by Ramon de Ordoñez y Aguilar, a priest who had lived near the site and wrote one of the earliest descriptions of the ruins in 1773. Ordoñez apparently incorporated some of the information that had been collected earlier by Bishop Núñez de la Vega into a document called the ''Probanza de Votan''. "This strange work contained some fragments from Ximénez and a confused account of Votan, culture hero of the [[Tzeltal people]], who, according to Ordoñez, had built Palenque. Fantastic details described Votan's four trips back to the Middle East."<ref>Mace 1973, p. 300</ref> The [[Tzeltal people|Tzeltal]] are an ethnic group that occupies the region that includes Teopisca, Chiapas, about 113&nbsp;km southeast of Palenque. In the late 17th century, two hundred Tzeltal families "of Votan's ancestry" are said to have been living in Comitlan.<ref name="Megged 1996, p. 26"/>

Assertion of a relationship between Votan and Odin is found in the work of the distinguished geographer [[Alexander von Humboldt]], who wrote in ''Vues des Cordillères'' (1810):
<blockquote>We have fixed the special attention of our readers upon this Votan, or Wodan, an American who appears in the same family with the Wods or Odins of the Goths and of the people of Celtic origins.  Since, according to the learned researches of [[William Jones (philologist)|Sir William Jones]], Odin and Buddha are probably the same person, it is curious to see the names of ''Bondvar'', ''Wodansdag'', and ''Votan'' designating in India, Scandinavia, and in Mexico the day of a brief period.<ref>Humboldt 1810, p. 148</ref></blockquote>

In ''Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale'' (1857), [[Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg]] claimed Votan was an ancient [[Phoenicia]]n ''legislateur'' who had migrated from the Middle East to the Maya area, defeated a race called the Quiname, built the city of [[Palenque]], and established an empire called [[Xibalba]] that was postulated by Brasseur de Bourbourg to have once covered all of Mexico and part of the United States. Subsequent [[Mayanist]] scholarship has found little support for Phoenician contact with ancient Mesoamerica, and identifies Xibalba as a mythical place rather than a political entity.