RESOURCE: Frogs and the rain god Chaac

‘Frogs and toads need water to reproduce. Both are visible and vocalise most loudly during the rainy season in Mesoamerica, and both, usually seen near water, symbolise moisture, earth, and agricultural fertility to Mesoamericans. Frogs that live in trees especially emphasise their association with vegetation.
’They’re also metaphors for regeneration: they shed their old skin and look fresh and new. A Classic Maya glyph meaning “birth” is based on a frog.’

Info from:-
• ‘Frogs and Toads’ by Elizabeth P. Benson, entry in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, Editor in Chief Davíd Carrasco, vol. 1, OUP, 2001
• Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya by Miguel León-Portilla, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

Image scanned with permission from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition of the Madrid Codex (Codex Tro-Cortesianus), Graz, Austria, 1967.