Maya Creation Myths: Words and Worlds of the Chilam Balam

Figures & Acknowledgments

ix Figures 2.1. “Genesis and Darkness”: the chab akabil diphrastic kenning. Copan Stela 7 Back, A10. 23 2.2. Offering plate marked with T712 [T504] glyphs reading chab [akab]. Yaxchilan lintel 14. 25 2.3. Elite gift described as u bah u chab y akabil. K4113. 29 4.1. Ancient Maya bee-keeping ceremony framed cosmologically by glyphs of the four cardinal directions. Madrid Codex, page 106a. 56 4.2. God C named as Oxlahun Ku, Postclassic version of Oxlahun Ti Ku. Madrid Codex, page 101c. 58 4.3. Yucatec Maya maestro cantor working in his milpa. Xocén, Yucatán, 1999. 60 4.4. God K, or Kauil, the Classic Maya form of Bolon Dzacab. Unprovenanced painted capstone. 63 4.5. The “apocalyptic” flood scene of the Lower Water Table. Dresden Codex, page 74. 64 Figures  4.6. Postclassic depiction of the deity Kan Xib Chac (“Yellow Man Chac”). Dresden Codex, page 29c. 66 5.1. God N, a possible Postclassic depiction of the deity Pauahtun. Madrid Codex, page 104b. 91 5.2. The celestial spheres of the Ptolemaic-Christian cosmos as depicted in the Maya Book of Chilam Balam of Kaua. 93 5.3. Postclassic depiction of celestial Turtle constellation with three stones on its back. Madrid Codex, page 71a. 96 5.4. Traditional Mesoamerican threestone hearth. Xocén, Yucatán, 1999. 97 5.5. Detail from frontpiece of The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells. 98 5.6. Postclassic depiction of the deity Hun Ahau. Madrid Codex, page 39a. 115 6.1. Colonial period Maya anthropomorphic illustration of Death in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, page 57. 124 6.2. Postclassic Maya depiction of the death deity God A. Dresden Codex, page 5c. 125 6.3. Goddess O or Chac Chel, Postclassic version of the creator goddess Ix Chel. Madrid Codex, page 30b. 129 6.4. Chichén Itzá: The Temple of Kukulcan as seen from the Group of the Thousand Columns. 137 6.5. Aged creator couple seated beneath a tree at the center of a Postclassic Maya cosmogram. Detail from Madrid Codex, pages 75–76. 146 7.1. Postclassic representation of the Maya deity Chac “on a road” (ta bih) represented by footprints. Dresden Codex, page 65b. 157 7.2. Postclassic Maya cosmogram outlining in space the days of the 260-day tzolkin with footprints in the intercardinal directions. Madrid Codex, pages 75–76. 158 7.3. God G, a Postclassic depiction of the sun deity Ahau Kin. Madrid Codex, page 108b. 169 7.4a. Postclassic Maya Burner almanac. Dresden Codex, pages 30b–31b. 174 7.4b. Burner Almanac with European Sun ideogram used as glyph for the Maya word kin ‘sun’ and ‘day.’ The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, page 62. 175 xi Initial travel to conduct the research presented in this book was funded by grants from the Mesoamerican Ethnohistory Fund of Tulane University. Intermediate and final stages of research and writing were supported by a Dumbarton Oaks postdoctorate fellowship in spring 2006 and a faculty summer stipend from Berry College in summer 2008, respectively. The successful completion of my research would not have been possible without the generous assistance of the staffs of the Latin American Library at Tulane University in New Orleans, of the Ayer Collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago, and of the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City. I extend a warm thanks to Markus Eberl and Elissa Ferguson for preparing some of the line drawings included in this work. I also thank E. Wyllys Andrews of the Middle American Research Institute; David Zeidberg of the Huntington Library; Charles Greene, AnnaLee Pauls, and Ben Primer of the Princeton University Library; and Nuria Moreu Toloba and Carolina NotarioZubicoaoftheMuseodeAmérica(Madrid)forpermissiontoreproduce images from pre-Hispanic and Colonial Maya sources. Geneviève Le Fort generously facilitated permissions for reproducing some translations Acknowledgments Acknowledgments xii and arguments in Chapter 4 published elsewhere (Knowlton 2009). I am grateful to the staff of the University Press of Colorado, especially Darrin Pratt, Laura Furney, and Daniel Pratt, whose efforts and enthusiasm have enabled the manuscript to see the light of day. Throughout the process of research and writing, I have benefited greatly from discussions, comments , and suggestions from many wonderful people, including Anthony Aveni, Alfonso Lacadena, Judith Maxwell, Dennis Tedlock, Gabrielle Vail, Gretchen Whalen, and especially Victoria Bricker. Most importantly, I owe a deep debt of...