Gods of the Maya: names and history

The ancient vanished Maya civilization left a large number of mysteries and secrets to the descendants. These tribes, who had extensive knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and cosmology, were among the most developed in the entire South American continent. But they actively practiced human sacrifices, and the Maya gods still seem to scientists a very complicated system of beliefs and ideas about the universe. Unfortunately, many written sources of the time were mercilessly destroyed by the conquistadors. Therefore, the names of the Maya gods reached the researchers in incomplete form, many of them for long decades have undergone serious changes by Catholic priests. And others have sunk into oblivion without ever revealing their secret to scientists. Despite this, the gods of the Aztecs and Mayans, as well as the cults of their praise, continue to be carefully studied and surprise researchers with their versatility.

The world in the view of the South American Indians

Before turning to the pantheon of these peoples, it is necessary to understand how their perceptions of the world around them were formed. After all, the gods of the Aztecs and Mayans were a direct consequence of the cosmology of the Indians.

A great difficulty for scientists who study the life of the Maya is the vast number of gods and their interconnection with similar and ordinary people. Maya endowed not only natural phenomena with divine power, but also celestial bodies, various crops and animals.

The South American Indians represented the world as a quadrangular plane, along the edges of which stood trees symbolizing the sides of the world. Each of them had its own color, and in the center was the most important tree of green color. It penetrated into all worlds and linked them together. Maya claimed that the heavens are made up of thirteen different worlds, each of which is inhabited by its deities and has a supreme god. Underground spheres, too, in the opinion of representatives of ancient civilization, had several levels. In nine worlds dwelt the gods of death, who arranged the most terrible trials for the souls of the dead. They could not be passed by all the souls, in the most sad case they remained forever in the realm of darkness and sorrow.

It is interesting that the origin of the world, like its structure, the Maya had several interpretations. For example, some nations believed that in the corners of the world are not trees, and bakabs - four deities, holding on their shoulders heavenly worlds. They also had different colors. For example, the bakaba in the east was painted in red, and in the south - in yellow. The center of the earth always corresponded to the green color.

The Maya had a very peculiar attitude towards death. It was considered a natural continuation of life and was considered in great detail in all its hypostases. Surprisingly, where the person gets after the end of the earthly path, it directly depended on how he would die. For example, women who died in childbirth, and warriors always fell into some kind of paradise. But the natural death from old age doomed the soul to wandering in the realm of darkness. There she was awaited by great trials, after which she could forever remain within the grim death gods. Suicide was not considered a weakness in South American Indians and something forbidden. Rather, on the contrary, he who himself took over himself fell into the gods of the Sun, and was eternally happy with his new afterlife.

Features of the Mayan pantheon of the gods

The Maya gods amaze scientists with their abundance. According to some sources, there are more than two hundred of them. And each of them has several incarnations and can appear in at least four different hypostases. Many of them have a wife who is also one of the incarnations. This dualism can also be traced among the gods of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is not known which of the religions was primary and influenced the other, but scientists know that some of their Maya gods were taken from an even more ancient culture, of which almost nothing is known today.

Surprising at the first acquaintance with the pantheon of deities and the fact that most of them are mortal. This is evidenced by the history and images of deities that have survived to this day. It was quite common to depict them in different periods of maturity, and old age symbolized not senility and infirmity, but wisdom. It was necessary to feed the gods with sacrifices, because the blood of the victims gave them longevity and energy.

The gods of heavenly bodies died more often than others, and before a new appearance in the sky they were to wander in the new incarnation in the realm of the dead. Then they again regained their former appearance and returned to their intended place.

The gods of the Maya peoples, depicted on bas-reliefs of temples and pyramids, at first examination scared scientists of their appearance and the complexity of perception. The fact is that in the culture of the South American Indians, symbolism was adopted, and each image was invested with a special meaning. Often the gods looked like beings with animal claws, coiled snake balls instead of eyes and oblong skulls. But their appearance did not scare the Maya, they saw in this a special meaning, and every object in the hands of a deity or on his suit was called upon to consolidate his power over people.

Mayan calendar

Almost every modern person knows the Mayan calendar, predicting the end of the world in 2012. He caused a lot of scientific disputes and hypotheses, but in fact was just another version of the calendar, which Maya, as told in the legends, learned from the gods. The gods of the Maya tribe taught them to count the ages as a time interval of about five thousand two hundred years. And representatives of the mysterious civilization were sure that the world had already lived and died before. The Maya gods told the priests that the world is now experiencing its fourth incarnation. Earlier it was already created and perished. For the first time, human civilization died from the sun, the second and third time - from wind and water. For the fourth time, death threatens the world from the god Jaguar, who will break free from the realm of the dead and destroy all life on the planet. But in place of the destroyed, a new world will reborn, rejecting all evil and mercantile. Maya considered this order of things natural and did not even think about preventing the death of mankind.

Sacrifices in honor of the gods

The gods of the ancient Mayas demanded constant sacrifices, and quite often they were human. Historians believe that almost every service to the deity was accompanied by a sea of blood. Depending on its amount, the deity was blessed or punished by the people. And the rituals of sacrifice were worked out by the priests to automaticity, at times they were distinguished by extreme cruelty and could strike a European.

The most beautiful young girls were appointed every year by the brides of the god of fertility - Yum-Kasha. After a certain ritual they were thrown alive into a deep stone well along with gold and jade, where they died long and painfully.

According to another ritual, a person was tied to the sculpture of a deity, and the priest ripped his stomach with a special knife. The whole idol was covered in blood, and then the body of the victim was painted in a bright blue color. White was applied to the heart area, where members of the tribe fired from the bow. No less bloody is the rite of extracting the heart from a still living person. At the top of the pyramid, the priest tied the victim to the altar and introduced it into a trance state. With one deft movement, the priest ripped open his chest and wrestled another beating heart from his body. Then the body dropped off, to the roaring crowd in ecstasy.

Another way to honor the gods was a ritual ball game. At the end of the game, the Maya gods necessarily received their long-awaited sacrifice. Usually the sites where two teams fought were located in a quadrangle closed on all sides. The walls were the sides of the temple pyramids. All the members of the losing team were severed their heads and planted them on spears on a special area of the Skulls.

In order to feed their gods among the great ritual sacrifices, the Maya priests constantly blew their blood, watering the altar. Several times a day they pierced their ears, tongues and other parts of the body. Such respect for the gods had to arrange the latter for the tribe and grant them well-being.

The main god of the Maya, the creator of all living things

God Itzamna was the most important deity in the Mayan pantheon. He was usually portrayed as an old man with a large nose and one tooth in his mouth. He was associated with a lizard or iguana and was often portrayed in the environment of these creatures.

The cult of Itzamna belongs to the most ancient, most likely, it appeared when the Mayans still revered totemic animals. Lizards in the culture of South American Indians were considered sacred creatures, which even before the advent of the gods kept their tails sky. The Mayans claimed that Itzamna created the earth, people, gods and all worlds. He taught the people to count, cultivate the earth and showed important stars in the night sky. Virtually everything that people could do, brought them the main god of the Maya Indians. He was also a deity of rain, harvest and earth.

His companion Itzamny

No less respectable for Maya was the wife of Itzamna - the goddess Ish-Chel. She was also the goddess of the moon, the rainbow and the mother of all the other deities of the Mayan pantheon. It is believed that all the gods came from this couple, so Ish-Chel is simultaneously patronizing women, girls, children and future mothers. She can help with childbirth, but sometimes she also takes the baby. The Maya had such a custom, according to which for the first time pregnant girls were sent alone to the island of Cosmel. There they had to appease the goddess with various victims, so that the birth would go off safely, and the baby would be born healthy and strong.

There are legends about the fact that young and young virgins and babies were often sacrificed on the island. Surprisingly, even the patroness of women, who was supposed to be tremulous and tender, recognized human sacrifices and was nourished with fresh blood, like all the other Maya deities.

Kukulkan, the god of the Maya

One of the most famous and revered Maya gods was Kukulkan. His cult was widespread throughout Yucatán. The very name of God is translated as a "feathered serpent" and he often appeared before his people in various incarnations. Most often it was portrayed in the form of a creature resembling a winged serpent and with a human head. In other bas-reliefs, he looked like a god with a bird's head and a snake's body. Kukulkan controlled four elements and often symbolized a fire.

In fact, the most important god of the Maya was not associated with any of the elements, but he skillfully controlled them, using as a special gift. Priests of the cult were considered the main spokesmen of the will of Kukulkan, they could communicate directly with God and knew his will. Moreover, he defended the royal dynasties and always advocated for their strengthening.

In honor of Kukulkan the most magnificent pyramid in Yucatan was built. It is so amazing that on the day of the summer solstice, the shadow from the structure takes the form of a winged serpent. This symbolizes the coming of the god to his people. Many people say that there is a very special acoustics in the pyramid - even in complete silence it seems that birds are shouting nearby.

The most terrible of the pantheon of the Maya gods

The God of Maya death, Ah-Puig, was the lord of the lowest tier of the underworld. He invented monstrous bloody trials for the lost souls and often liked to observe the ritual game in the match between the souls of the Indians and the gods of the kingdom of the dead. Most often it was depicted as a skeleton or a creature covered with cadaveric black spots.

In order to get out of the realm of the dead, it was necessary to outwit the deity, but the Mayans claimed that for the entire existence of the worlds, only a few brave souls could do it.

Bright deity of the firmament

Maya were excellent astronomers, they paid much attention to the Sun and the Moon. From the daylight depended on how productive the year would be. But observations of the Moon and the stars allowed the Indians to keep a calendar and celebrate the days of rituals, sacrifices and sowing. Therefore it is not surprising that the gods of these heavenly bodies were one of the most revered.

The May sun god of the Sun was named Kinich Ahau. He was also the patron of the warriors who, dying, fed their god with their blood. Maya believed that Kinich Ahau at night should gain strength, so fuel it with blood every day. Otherwise, he will not be able to rise from the darkness and illuminate a new day.

Most often God appeared as a young boy with a skin of red color. He was depicted sitting with a sun disk in his hands. According to the Mayan calendar, it was his era that began after 2012. After all, the fifth era entirely belongs to Kinich Ahau.

God of rain Chuck

Since Maya was mainly engaged in agriculture, it is not surprising that the gods of the sun and rain belonged to the supreme pantheon of deities. Chuck's God was feared and revered. After all, he could bestow a good and timely irrigation of crops, and could also punish a drought. In such years he received sacrifices, counted by hundreds of human lives. Altars did not have time to dry out from the sea of spilled blood.

Most often, Chuck was depicted in a lazy half-reclining pose with a large sacrificial bowl on his knees. Sometimes he looked like a terrible creature with an ax, which could cause a shower and lightning, considered a companion of a good harvest.

God of fertility

Yum-Kash was simultaneously the god of fertility and corn. Since this culture was the main thing in the life of the Indians, the fate of the entire city depended on its yield. God was always portrayed as a young man with an extended head that turned into a cob. Sometimes his headdress looked like corn. According to legend, corn was given to Maya by the gods, they brought seeds from heaven and taught to cultivate corn fields. Surprisingly, until now, scientists have not found the wild ancestor of corn, from which modern cultivated varieties of this popular species today were to occur.

Be that as it may, the culture of the Maya people and its religious beliefs have not yet been fully studied by modern scholars. They believe that the knowledge gained with great difficulty about the life of the South American Indians is just the upper part of the iceberg, but the real achievements of this civilization that will lead to an understanding of its way of life have been irretrievably destroyed by the conquistadors.