Existing comment:
Gods of Earth and Sky:
The gods of the Maya were present in all aspects of nature and daily life. They represented a unity of opposing aspects: good and evil, celestial and underworld, age and youth, male and female, human and animal, day and night.
There were different patron gods for the months and the days of the ritual calendar. There were gods for each of the thirteen levels of heaven and the nine levels of the Underworld. There were gods for the four directions of the cosmos. A single god might assume various aspects -- sometimes as many as four -- and often had an animal alter ego.
Rulers and priests interpreted the actions and wishes of the gods through visions and auguries. In religious ceremony, blood, incense, and other sacred substances were often offered to insure rebirth of life and regeneration of the seasons and agriculture.
Only a limited amount of detailed information about the Maya gods exists today. The hieroglyphic inscriptions and pictorial ceramic vessels offer knowledge from the Classic Period (AD 250-900). Just four Maya Codices (folding screen books on bark), written between the 13th and the 16th centuries, survived the burning of Maya books by the Spanish after the Conquest. These illustrate ritual and astronomical events involving the gods and priestly divinations. A long epic account of mythology, creation, and the role of the gods, the Popol Vuh, was written by Maya priests in the 16th century and translated from Maya into Spanish in the 17th century. |