This page groups deities by the domain or function myth assigns them, the area of life, craft or natural force a god is called on to govern. Wikipedia's overview of deities gives a clear example in the Yoruba god Ogun, described as "the primordial masculine deity as well as the archdivinity and guardian of occupations such as tools making and use, metal working, hunting, war, protection and ascertaining equity and justice." Browsing by domain lets a visitor find every god of, for example, war or the harvest, across many different pantheons at once.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe gods of the Maya, reconstructed from hieroglyphic inscriptions, painted pottery and monumental art of the Classic period, from the four surviving Postclassic codices, and from colonial-period books written in Maya languages. Maya deities are unstable by design - they split, pair, age and change aspect with the calendar - and the reconstruction is uneven across regions and centuries. 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredKiche and the highland Maya, source of the Popol Vuh and of the continuously kept 260-day calendar 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredThe Classic-period lowland cities, whose gods are known from their own inscriptions and art 2 Peoples and Traditions CoveredYucatec Maya, source of the surviving codices and of the colonial Books of Chilam Balam 2 Attestation
Era of AttestationDeity images appear in Late Preclassic murals around the first century BCE and deity names in Classic inscriptions. The Postclassic codices and the colonial Kiche Popol Vuh carry the fullest narrative, and the last independent Maya kingdom fell in 1697. 2 Veneration TodayThe Maya are a living people of several million. Highland communities have kept the 260-day count and its day-lords continuously, and older powers persist within a Christianised framework. 2 Veneration TodayThe pre-conquest state cults of these gods did not survive the conquest as continuous public worship. 2 Learn More
The gods of the Maya
This group gathers the deities of the Maya civilisation of Mesoamerica, reconstructed from surviving hieroglyphic texts, the painted codices, monumental art, and the colonial-era Popol Vuh of the Kiche Maya. Maya gods are often shifting and multiple, associated with directions, colours, calendar cycles and the maize on which life depended.
The browser will find the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh, the maize god, the rain-god Chaac, the creator Itzamna, and death-gods of the underworld Xibalba. The atlas notes that much Maya religion was lost in the conquest and that reconstruction depends heavily on the few surviving books and on continuing Maya tradition.
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Belongs to Tradition
The deities of the Maya tradition.
Source The Maya (9th edition)Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. The Maya (9th edition)
Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston, Thames and Hudson, 2015chs. 1-2View the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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