RESOURCE: A comparison of Aztec/Central Mexican and Maya Deities (1)

6th Oct 2022

Mexicolore contributors Dr. Christine Hernández and Gabrielle Vail

We are deeply indebted to Christine Hernández and Gabrielle Vail for writing specially for us this unique and important introductory study comparing Maya and Aztec pantheons. Dr. Hernández serves as Curator of Special Collections of The Latin American Library at Tulane University and has coordinated digitization initiatives at The Latin American Library since 2012. She has published widely on the archaeology of Mesoamerica, and prehispanic painted Maya and highland central Mexican codices. Dr. Vail is Research Collaborator, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Research Affiliate with InHerit: Indigenous Heritage Passed to Present, also at UNC, Chapel Hill.

This resource guide was developed to present some basic comparative information about deities from Late Postclassic Central Mexico and the Maya region for teachers exploring this topic with their students. The Late Postclassic period dates from the mid-13th to the early 16th century, which was marked by the arrival of Spanish missionaries and soldiers in what is today Mexico. Much of what we know about the beliefs and religious practices of Mesoamericans from that time comes from archaeological excavations, documentation created by the Spanish during the early colonial period of New Spain, and the pictorial codices that have survived to the present day. Most of the images we have selected come from screenfold books or codices associated with the Maya region (the Dresden, Madrid, and Paris codices, named for the cities where they are currently housed; an earlier codex, referred to as the Códice Maya de México, is not included, as it predates the Late Postclassic period)*, as well as the Borgia group manuscripts from highland Central Mexico, with its seven associated codices (the Codex Borgia being the best known). Images occasionally come from other sources, however, as noted in the image captions that follow.

During the Late Postclassic period and at the time of European contact, the communities and metropoles within the Basin of Mexico constituted the heart of a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic empire ruled by the Mexica. The members of that imperial society are called Aztec and the state language was Nahuatl. The scribes and readers of the Borgia Group codices lived in the Puebla-Tlaxcala region of the southern highlands, but the deities included in these screenfold books overlap considerably with those documented in later (post-contact) sources about the Mexica living in the imperial capital within the Basin of Mexico. They are designated according to the Nahuatl names currently used in the literature. Depictions of some of these deities are found earlier at sites in central Mexico, and even occasionally at Late Postclassic Maya sites and in the Maya codices, suggesting that there was a great deal of communication among scribes, merchants, and other members of central Mexican and Maya groups.

Maya deities were originally classified according to an arbitrary system of letters, leading to the designations “God A,” “God B,” “God C,” etc. Today, we can read the name glyphs of many of these deities, so the letter designations are much less commonly used. Nevertheless, we include this chart (picture 3) to allow for easier identification (only those deities that are represented in our comparisons are included). Notes:-
B: Composed of two syllables, /cha/ and /ki/, that combine to spell Chaak (also written Chahk)
CH: Xbalanque in the Popol Vuh. Also read as Yax B’olon
E: Previously read as Nal(?) (see mayacodices.org database)
G: Also spelled K’in Ajaw
H: Previously read as Nik(?) (see mayacodices.org database)
I: Also read as Ixik
K: Also spelled K’awiil
O: Chel may be spelled syllabically with the syllables /che/ and /le/ (here we see the /che/ but not the /le/), or it may be represented by the deity’s portrait glyph
S: Also spelled Jun Ajaw. Hunahpu (Junajpu) in the Popol Vuh.

Deity Comparisons
In order to make more meaningful comparisons, we have grouped deities according to the primary domain with which they are associated, which include categories such as “Creation and the Arts,” “Rain and Lightning,” and “Maize and Sustenance.” Below the images we have selected to illustrate the representatives of these domains are descriptions of their roles in the codices and more broadly in Late Postclassic Maya and Central Mexican society, as well as notes regarding their physical characteristics and how they may be identified. Additional examples of Maya deities falling in these domains may be found in the Maya Codices Database (mayacodices.org), which the authors developed through funding from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities.

NOTE: In the pairings that follow, we use colour coding to distinguish the two cultures:-
Maya and Highland Central Mexico

Creation and Arts
The aged Maya creator deities are only rarely pictured together in the Maya codices. This scene from page 75-76 of the Madrid Codex is only one of two examples; it shows the male creator Itzamna on the right and the female, likely Chak Chel, on the left. They may be identified as elderly by the lines around their mouths that portray wrinkles. They are pictured here in a scene that may allude to the creation of humans out of maize.
Itzamna is known as a diviner and is also associated with the scribal arts. The female member of the creator couple is associated with weaving and is also the patron deity of healing and childbirth.

Oxomoco (left) and Cipactonal (right): In the mythology of Nahuatl-speaking people in central Mexico, the first humans created were a male and female couple known as Cipactonal and Oxomoco. Because their creation took place so far back in antiquity, the couple is portrayed as aged persons akin to grandparents. Cipactonal is the deity patron of the ritual calendar and its first day, Cipactli (crocodile). Oxomoco is the patron of divination and curing. Together they are the creators of the scribal arts and the parents of all later mortal humans.
The image above from page 21 of the Codex Borbonicus shows the couple seated upon thrones. Their aged aspect is conveyed by the lines (wrinkles) on their faces, prominent teeth, and often by white hair (not seen in this example). Pictured also are elements of their equipment which include a bone perforator for autosacrifice, scribal tools (paper), maize kernels for divining, weaving tools, an incense bag, medicine jars, and an incense burner.

Culture Heroes
The Maya “Hero Twins” are best known for their role in the highland Maya K’iche’ creation story, the Popol Vuh. They venture to the Underworld, where they defeat the Underworld lords after a series of ballgame contests. This frees maize and other seeds from the hands of the Underworld denizens, who were hoarding them for themselves, and allows the creator couple to fashion the first humans from maize and water. The twin boys, Hun Ahaw (Hunahpu in the Popol Vuh) and Yax B’alam(?) (Xbalanque in the Popol Vuh) then rise into the sky to become the sun and the moon.
Hun Ahaw may be identified by the black spots on his body and a single spot on his cheek. His name means ‘One Lord’, and he is sometimes depicted as a hunter and at others (see above) as a ballplayer. Xbalanque/Yax B’alam(?) has jaguar associations and is often shown with jaguar skin patches around his mouth or on his body.

These two gods are discussed here in their mythological role as culture heroes. They appear in Mexican creation mythology as the pair of creator gods chosen to create the current world anew after its destruction by flood. In one tale, they team up to form the earth and sky by tearing asunder a great crocodilian. Each carried out specific acts of creation by themselves. For example, Quetzalcoatl disguised himself as an ant to discover maize hidden in the Underworld and made it available to humanity; Tezcatlipoca drilled the first fire and made the technology available to humans. Quetzalcoatl is identified by his conical hat with sacrificial implements (bone awl and maguey thorn) and a cross-sectioned conch shell pendant. Tezcatlipoca is identified by a smoking obsidian mirror in place of his left foot and in his headdress and black and yellow striped face paint.

Maize and Sustenance
The Maya maize god, originally designated God E, is likely named Ajan (with the ‘j’ pronounced like an ‘h’). In the Maya codices, this deity is usually depicted with a line bisecting his face and a cranium shaped like an ear of maize. At times, the glyph for the maize seed appears at the top of his head, and maize foliage grows from that. We know from various sources that the maize god signified the maize plant in human form. This deity had both a masculine and feminine manifestation.
The maize deity is frequently colored blue to signify his association with the fertile forces of life (blue signifies sacred objects, including water). In the example pictured here, the maize deity holds a maize seed, represented by the glyph ik’, meaning ‘life, wind, and breath’.

Mesoamericans of the central Mexican highlands venerated a complex of deities (male and female) who embodied maize at various points along its life cycle. Centeotl, “Maize Lord,” is the most recognizable. He is god of maize in its maturity and secondarily of feasting. The image of Centeotl is distinguished by the presence of maize cobs and husks with little faces in his headdress or costume, a jeweled nose rod, and a crooked black line along the side of his face. His female consort (or alter ego) Chicomecoatl (7 Serpent; not pictured) is similarly distinguished by holding paired maize cobs in her hands. Both represented agricultural bounty and fertility.

Rain and Lightning
Chaak, identified by his long, downturned nose and often by the lightning axe he wields, is associated with the life-giving rains, but also with storms. In the Dresden Codex he is sometimes depicted as the Morning Star or Evening Star aspect of Venus. He may be pictured in the sky, or emerging from the watery underworld region where the rains are born, as is the case in the scene on the left, where an open-mouthed serpent represents the passage from the waters deep within the earth.
He is sometimes paired with K’awil, the personification of the lightning axe (and also a god associated with sustenance), and with the female creator Chak Chel as a rain bringer. The image on the right above shows Chaak assuming the powers of the god of lightning and sustenance K’awil by wearing his headdress.

Tlaloc is one of the most ancient and important of deities in the Aztec pantheon, second only to Huitzilopochtli, the patron god of the Aztec related to war and human sacrifice. Both gods had temples atop the principal pyramid or Templo Mayor at the center of the Aztec capital that is today Mexico City. Tlaloc was the lord of the rains, storms, and weather, especially with respect to agriculture, and thus was an essential deity for providing sustenance to humans. His consort was Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of all bodies of water on the earth.
Tlaloc is also one of the easiest of the gods to identify. He has goggle eyes, curved lips, a fanged mouth, vertical yellow and black face paint, a distinctive headdress, and wears rubber spattered paper. He is often shown wielding his axe (used to break water jars carried into the sky to release the rains) and a serpent that symbolizes lightning.

Wind
Current scholarship relates God H (pictured below in reference to the “Flowers and Fertility” domain) to the concepts of ‘wind’, ‘breath’, and ‘life’, all of which are meanings of the word ik’ which God H embodies. There is little evidence that God H serves as a wind god in the sense that the Highland Mexican deity Ehecatl does, however.
In some contexts in which the Postclassic Maya want to invoke the concept of wind in deity form, they employ a Maya variant of Ehecatl with the characteristic duck-like mask. In the example pictured here, Ehecatl is paired with the rain god Chaak. The two are holding a net and have captured a turkey (spelled glyphically) and a fish.

The wind god, Ehecatl, is an important aspect of Quetzalcoatl. As lord of the winds, Ehecatl was commonly described as the “sweeper” of the roads prior to the arrival of the rains. He is a god with aspects associated with each of the four cardinal directions. Ehecatl is another god easily identified by his bright red buccal (duck-billed) mask and double fangs. In all other facets, his costume is identical to that of Quetzalcoatl. As an expression of Quetzalcoatl, Ehecatl also appears in creation mythology as a participant who helped to re-create the current world by lifting the sky.

Sun
K’in Ahaw is the daytime sun, represented in masculine form, whereas the nighttime sun was thought of as a jaguar. He is associated with the eastern direction and with negative prophecies involving drought and fire (possibly wildfires?). Like Tonatiuh, it was sometimes necessary to provide him with offerings of blood, which might be obtained through ritual bloodletting, although incense could at times be used as a substitute. K’in Ahaw is occasionally portrayed as a warrior figure, and he was involved in constant struggles with Venus, who is described in some stories as his older brother.
K’in Ahaw may be identified by the k’in ‘sun’ glyphs found on his body (in the example here, one occurs on his forehead, another on his upper arm, and a third on his back). His facial features are similar to those of Itzamna, although he is usually depicted as younger (without the wrinkles) and may have a hooked element projecting from his nose, as in the example illustrated. Additionally, he may sometimes have a beard.

The supreme god for central Mexicans was Tonatiuh, the Sun god. During the Late Postclassic, inhabitants of highland Mexico believed that the Sun required human blood to energize its movement across the sky. Without it, the Sun would stop moving and the world of humans would descend into darkness and be destroyed by Underworld gods. Thus, Tonatiuh was a solar god associated closely with warfare and human sacrifice. Tonatiuh is identified by his red color, jeweled nose rod, yellow-colored hair, and sun disk. He presides over a complex of youthful solar deities recognized as such by the same characteristics: red bodies, yellow hair, and jeweled nose rod.
Depictions of a youthful god depicted in a sun disk at the Maya site of Chichén Itza pre-dating the Aztec Empire may have influenced the form of the Central Mexican deity.

Fertility and Flowers
This youthful god is closely linked to the maize deity and other deities with positive, life-giving associations. Depictions in the codices show both masculine and feminine forms. The flower symbolism frequently depicted with this figure suggests both breath and the life force, but also the fertility of the natural world. In this depiction we see a female manifestation of the deity with a flower emerging from the face (indicating ‘breath’), an incense bag worn around the neck, and a quetzal with jade jewels in its beak at the top of the figure’s head. These elements reference a realm filled with precious objects (such as jade) and beautiful beings (flowers and quetzals).

Xochipilli, or “Flower Prince,” is one of several youthful solar gods who were known for their generative powers and association with activities related to feasting, gaming, and agricultural fertility and bounty. Xochipilli is at once god of flowers but also of immature maize and agricultural bounty in general. His consort is Xochiquetzal who is a flower and maize goddess in her own right. Xochipilli is identified by those elements common to solar deities: red body color, yellow hair, and a jewel nose rod. He sometimes appears with a red parrot helmet and flowers in his costume. His most distinguishing feature is the painted white butterfly motif around the mouth.

Earth, Fertility, and Childbirth
Several Maya deities embody these themes, including Chak Chel and a youthful goddess (Goddess I). Chak Chel is shown as a rain-bringer in the Maya codices, where she is associated with both the life-giving rains and with storms and floodwaters. She is commonly paired with Chaak in this role, and the two are shown in cave and underworld contexts, highlighting her role as an earth goddess. She is also paired with Itzamna as a creator deity and may be pictured weaving or wearing spindles wound with thread in her hair. Some highland Maya cultures today believe that the world was woven into existence by a grandmother figure like Chak Chel. She is also the patron of medicine and of childbirth. Like Itzamna, she is depicted as elderly. She sometimes has a serpent headdress - another link to weaving - and may have bones decorating her clothes which indicate her link her to the earth/underworld realm.
A young deity (Goddess I) is also commonly represented in the Maya codices in connection with the earth, and perhaps also the moon. Researchers decipher her name glyph as Ixik, meaning ‘woman’ or Ix Kab’ ‘Lady Earth’.

Read Part Two...* Learn more from Dr. Vail about the Maya codices...The Maya Hieroglyphic Codices, Version 5.0. A website and database available here...

Comments (1)

Chicuace-Quiahuitl

14th Jan 2024

I thought twin brothers in Popol Vuh were the Aztec twins Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl. Both groups of gods traveled the underworld. But maybe I haven’t noticed the jaguar figures of Xbalanque and Tezcatlipoca in the past.
--from a Taiwanese fan

Mexicolore

Thanks for writing from Taiwan!
Twins feature in different mythological contexts, and it certainly can be confusing. Miller & Taube pick up on your point as follows: ‘Xolotl and Quetzalcoatl are often paired, although probably not twins... In the Codex Borgia, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl are twins as they journey through the underworld...’ (‘The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya’, p.175).

Mexicolore contributors Dr. Christine Hernández and Gabrielle Vail