Editing Maya mythology (section)

==Important Late-Preclassic and Classic narrative themes==

Mythological representations run from the Late-Preclassic murals of [[San Bartolo (Maya site)|San Bartolo]] up to the Late-Postclassic codices. The following is an overview of ancient myths that connect, in grand part, to the broad narrative themes of early-colonial and more recent oral traditions outlined above.

===Cosmogony: Defeat of the Great Crocodile===
In an early description of a Yucatec fire ritual (Relación de Mérida), a crocodile symbolizes the deluge and the earth; such a crocodile, called [[Itzamna|Itzam Cab Ain]], was instrumental in causing a flood and was defeated by having its throat cut (Books of [[Chilam Balam]] of Maní and Tizimín).<ref>Taube 1993: 69-70; Velásquez García 2006: 5-6; García Barrios 2015</ref> Pre-Spanish data are suggestive of these events. A water-spewing, deer-hooved celestial [[dragon]] on page 74 of the Dresden Codex is generally believed to be causing a deluge. A Postclassic mural from Mayapan shows a tied crocodile in the water,<ref>Taube 2010: Fig. 1</ref> whereas a Classic inscription from Palenque (Temple XIX) mentions the decapitation of a crocodile.<ref>Velásquez García 2006: 1-2</ref>

===Creation of Humankind: Monkey Brothers===
On several vases, the Monkey Brothers of the ''Popol Vuh'', Hun-Batz ('One Howler Monkey') and Hun-Choven, are shown as [[Howler monkey gods]] writing books and sculpting human heads.<ref>Coe 1977</ref> Hieroglyphically<ref>Beliaev and Davletshin 2014</ref> and metaphorically,<ref>Braakhuis 1987</ref> the acts of writing and sculpting can refer to the creation of human beings.<ref>see the K717 vase</ref> A myth transmitted by [[Bartolomé de las Casas|Las Casas]] puts these acts in their proper, transcendent perspective by describing how previous efforts at creation failed, until two artisan brothers, Hun-Ahan and Hun-Cheven, received permission to create humankind and, indeed, the present universe, through their artifice.<ref>Braakhuis 1987; cf. Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 162</ref>

===Actions of the Heroes===
====Hero Twins====
Tales about the [[Maya Hero Twins|Hero Brothers]] whom the ''Popol Vuh'' calls Hunahpu and Xbalanque (the iconographical 'Headband Gods') already circulated in the Classic Period,<ref>Coe 1989</ref> albeit in versions only partially coinciding with the sixteenth-century narrative. It is, for example, not at all common to find them as ball players. Two or three other episodes stand out instead. The first one, corresponding to the isolated [[Vucub Caquix]] tale in the ''Popol Vuh'', is the defeat of a bird demon already illustrated in Late-Preclassic [[Izapa]] and the earliest ball court of Copan, and found all over Mesoamerica.<ref>Guernsey 2006: 91-117; Nielsen and Helmke 2015; Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 130-157</ref> The second episode, not represented in the ''Popol Vuh'', has the hero brothers tend to a dying deer covered by a shroud with crossed bones,<ref>E.g., K2785 (the Calcehtok vase)</ref> in a scene that may represent the transformation of the heroes' father into a deer. In both Maya and non-Maya hero tales, such a transformation is equivalent to the origin of death.<ref>Chinchilla 2017: 224-233</ref> The San Bartolo west wall murals may show still another episode, namely, Hunahpu bringing the first sacrifices in the four quarters of the world.<ref>Taube et al. 2010: 23</ref> Finally, the Headband Gods often participate in the mythology of the [[Maya maize god|Tonsured Maize God]], the Maize Hero.

====Maize Hero====
The [[Maya maize god|Tonsured Maize God]] is the subject of many episodes, only part of which has been explained. Often he is accompanied by the Hero Twins. Some scholars consider him the Classic form of the Hero Twins' father, the failed hero Hun-Hunahpu, and accordingly view the maize god's head attached to a cacao tree as the severed head of Hun-Hunahpu suspended in a calabash tree.<ref>Taube 1985, 1993</ref> However, there is also a tendency to treat the Tonsured Maize God as an agent in his own right. Scholars have compared him to the maize hero of the Gulf Coast peoples and identified several episodes from this deity's mythology in Maya art, such as his aquatic birth and rebirth, his musical challenge to the deities of water and rain (on [[San Bartolo (Maya site)|San Bartolo]]'s west wall) and his victorious emergence from the latter's turtle abode.<ref>Braakhuis 2014; Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 218-223</ref> Others, however, prefer to view the 'musical challenge' as a rainmaking ritual and the emergence from the turtle abode as the Opening of the Maize Mountain.<ref>Taube 2009</ref> Another frequent scene, the maize god surrounded by nude women, may relate to the fact that the Tonsured Maize God also functions as a moon god; for in many Mesoamerican sun and moon tales, a playful young man becomes moon rather than sun after giving in to the lures of young women.<ref>Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 164-168, 202-207</ref> Other scholars, however, view the women as 'corn maidens', or even as the maize deity's 'harem',<ref>Coe and Houston 2015: 89</ref> a concept not otherwise attested.

====Jaguar Slayers====
According to a concept prevalent among Maya groups of Chiapas, in the dim past jaguars presented a continuous threat to humankind. In their myths and rituals, Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Ch'ol Mayas have therefore highlighted the deeds of jaguar-slaying heroes, deeds such as killing jaguars transfixed to their stone seats; catching jaguars in a 'stone trap'; and burning them on a certain rock. All of these jaguars represent the power of hostile social groups.<ref>Braakhuis 2009</ref> Codical vases show similar feats but appear to ascribe them to four men. A down-lying [[Maya jaguar gods|jaguar deity]] associated with war and terrestrial fire has a boulder thrown onto his belly, perhaps belonging to a trap; alternatively, he is tied and put to the torch, in one scene while being seated on a boulder-like altar. Probably because jaguars can also symbolize hostile rulers and their warriors, the latter episode is referred to in certain monumental inscriptions at [[Naranjo]],<ref>Schele and Mathews 1998: 148-149</ref> as well as in the art of [[Toniná|Tonina]] (bound captive with jaguar god attributes). The same inscriptions connect the Classic Jaguar Slayer theme to that of the enigmatic [[Maya jaguar gods#Jaguar Baby|Jaguar Baby]].

===Marriage with the Earth=== 
====Hummingbird Suitor====
As mentioned earlier, 'Hummingbird' is the hero of a widespread narrative about the wooing and abduction of the daughter of the principal mountain deity. Since the daughter represents the 'bride-wealth' of the earth, this tale was also recited as part of the procedures for asking the hand of a girl. Accordingly, a famous Classic vase<ref>K504</ref> shows a suitor with a hummingbird mask presenting a vase to the upper god and what appears to be his daughter, the moon. In the same context belongs the well-known figurine of a bird perched on a loom and observing a young woman weaving.<ref>Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 82-93</ref>

====Abduction Episode====
A number of codical vases show antlered young men together with young women and amazons mounting a deer, all of them surrounding a wounded or dying old man who is the patron deity of the deer (Sip).<ref>E.g., K1182, K2794</ref> Additional scenes have the upper god, Itzamna, riding a deer and the hero brothers hunting a boar with [[Itzamna|the upper god]] clinging to it.<ref>K1991</ref> The group with the wounded old man has been explained by concepts and tales relating to the hunt,<ref>Braakhuis 2001; 2010: 172-174</ref> but also by the abduction episode of Hummingbird myth, in a reconstructed Classic version. One such version runs like this:<ref>Beliaev and Davletshin 2006: 32</ref>  

“The aged god Huk Siʼp [the Lord of the Deer] fell ill. One of the Twins changes to a deer in order to abduct his wife. The wife of Huk Siʼp flees with the Twins. The aged god asks [[Itzamna]]aj that he brings back his wife. Riding on a deer Itzamnaaj pursues the Twins. The Twins attack Itzamnaaj and wound him. Itzamnaaj saves himself from them by riding a peccary [wild boar]. The Twins reconcile with Itzamnaaj and bring him gifts.”

Another reconstruction,<ref>Looper 2019: 73-88</ref> however, casts an antlered maize deity ('Maize-Deer God') in the role of the presumed abductor. Much is still speculative here.