Re-Creating Primordial Time: Foundation Rituals and Mythology in the Postclassic Maya Codices

10. A Reconsideration of Maya Deities Associated with Creation

411 10 A Reconsideration of Maya Deities Associated with Creation Sip Deities in the Maya Codices God Y is depicted as a deer god on a number of occasions in the Maya codices (see, e.g., D. 13c, M. 45c, M. 50c, M. 51c, M. 68b; Figures 9.12, 10.1). Among the Yucatec Maya today, the spirits that guard the deer are called sip. The same name is given to the figure on D. 13c (Figure 10.2 and http://www .hieroglyphicresearch.org/Documentation/UPClink269 .html): prefixed by wuk (seven), the collocation reads si-pu, or Sip (Fox and Justeson 1984:39). In another context, God Y is named with T159, followed by T181, or ah (see Figure 10.3).Weinterpretthisasreadingahsip.Inthisexample,heis shown with his arms bound and with an unknown element emerging from his head, to which a bird is attached. God Y is also shown as a bound captive on M. 68b (http://www .hieroglyphicresearch.org/Documentation/UPClink270 .html). There, he wears a deer headdress and an incense bag; a stone rests on his back, and a stone in the shape of a bird appears in front of him. We discuss the significance of this scene below. The T159 grapheme also occurs in scenes picturing trapped animals (including deer, armadillos, and peccaries); in the Dresden Codex Venus table, where it is associated with the southern direction and the eight days Venus spends in the Underworld; and in the Dresden Mars table, where it is prefixed by a glyph reading k’ak’ ‘fire’. The phonetic spelling of sip occurs only twice: on D. 13c, as previously discussed, and on page 10 of the Paris k’atun pages (Figure 10.4), where it names a figure wearing a deer headdress who has the attributes of Yax Balam. It is likely that the term sip refers to a complex of deities of which both God Y and Yax Balam are members. The two share certain characteristics: both are associated with the hunt and also share an affiliation with the earth and its 270 269 DOI: 10.5876/9781607322214.c10 A Reconsideration of Maya Deities Associated with Creation 412 interior (Bill 1997; Taube 1992:64; Thompson 1950:76). Several of the depictions of God Y in the Madrid Codex may be related to the month Sip, when the hunters performed rituals in honor of their gods—the Acanum [Acantun?], Suhuysib , and Siptabai (Gates 1978:72).1 One of these hunt gods may be depicted on M. 39c, where we see God Y’s head within the open jaws of a deer or peccary (Figure 10.5 and http://www.hieroglyphicresearch.org/Documentation/UPClink271.html). Incense is being burned in a brazier in front of this figure; it is also important to note that God Y’s empty eye socket (seen in all examples of this figure) is here painted blue. These characteristics suggest a possible correspondence with the festival described by Landa for Sip: “Then with worship the hunters invoked the gods of the chase . . . ; they distributed the incense, which they then threw in the brazier; while it burned each one took an arrow and the skull of a deer, which the chacs anointed with the blue pitch; some then danced with these, as anointed, in their hands” (Gates 1978:72). As previous scholars have noted, an even closer correspondence to this ceremony is suggested by the almanacs on M. 50b and 51c (Figure 9.12 and http:// www.hieroglyphicresearch.org/Documentation/UPClink272.html), which feature God Y (Bill 1997; Vail 2005). In both almanacs, God Y may be seen with the arrow and skull (head) of a deer, thereby substituting for the hunters who Figure 10.1. God Y as a possible Sip on M. 45c in the context of a deer trapping almanac. After Brasseur de Bourbourg (1869–1870). 272 271 A Reconsideration of Maya Deities Associated with Creation 413 perform the ritual in Landa’s description. The blue paint used for the eye on M. 39c suggests a further connection to the Sip ceremony. Among many contemporary Maya groups, animals are under the protection of an earth lord, who may or may not be an aspect of Venus. Among the Q’eqchi’, for example, Lord Xulab is god of Venus as Morning Star and patron of the wild animals (Thompson 1970b:309). One of his names, Noh Ich or Nohoch Ich ‘Great Eye’, is of...