Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts | Page 7

is pictured six times
and each time in connection with a serpent.
The accounts we have received concerning the mythology of the Maya
peoples are very meagre and owing to the uncertainty respecting the
origin of the Maya manuscripts, it cannot even be determined which of
these accounts are applicable to the Maya manuscripts, or, indeed,
whether they are applicable at all. For it is by no means positively
proved that these manuscripts did not originate in regions of Maya
culture, regarding which we have received no accounts at all. As our
present purpose is purely that of description and determination, it
remains quite unimportant which of these recorded figures of gods shall
be regarded as god B.
God B is nearly allied to, but in no wise identical with, the deity with
the large ornamented nose, designated by K, who will be discussed
farther on. God K is an independent deity designated by a special
hieroglyph, but like C he stands in an unknown relation to God B (for
details see K).
Finally it should be mentioned, that god B never appears with death
symbols. He is clearly a deity of life and creation, in contrast to the
powers of death and destruction.
His day seems to be Ik (aspiration, breath, life). (Compare Förstemann,

Die Tagegötter der Mayas, Globus, Vol. 73, No. 10).
C. The God with the Ornamented Face.
[Illustration: Figs. 11-16]
This is one of the most remarkable and most difficult figures of the
Maya manuscripts, and shows, at the same time, how imperfect must be
the information we have received in regard to the Maya mythology,
since from the frequency of his representations he is obviously one of
the most important deities and yet can be identified with none of the
representations of gods handed down to us. His hieroglyph is definitely
determined (Figs. 11, 12). The circular design in front of the forehead
of the hieroglyph head seems, as a variant from the Codex Tro. (Fig. 12)
leads us to suppose, to denote the ideographic representation of pouring
out or emptying a vessel, the contents of which flow into the mouth of
the god. Another variant of this prefix occurs in Tro. 13*b; Fig. 15, the
symbol of the sacrificial knife, and instead of the prefix the numeral 13
occurs in one instance! (Tro. 12*c). The head alone, without any
accessory symbol whatever, is also found a few times, not in the text,
however, but only in the pictures, for example Cort. 10 (bottom) and
Tro. 13* (bottom). This deity does not occur very often in the Dresden
manuscript, the places where it is depicted are: Dr. 5a, 6c, 13b, 35a, 68a,
and as a subordinate figure on 8c, 42a. His hieroglyph occurs alone a
few times, as in Dr. 4; it is more frequent in the Madrid manuscript. It
appears on pp. 15 to 18 of the Paris manuscript.
In regard to the significance of this deity, he doubtless represents the
personification of a heavenly body of astronomic importance, probably
the polar star. In Codex Cort. 10 (bottom), his head is represented
surrounded by a nimbus of rays, which can only mean a star (see Fig.
13). On the lower part of the same page, the third picture from the left,
we again see the deity hanging from the sky in a kind of rope.
Furthermore it appears in Codex Tro. 20, 22 and 23 (centre) Fig. 14, in
the familiar rectangular planet signs. Tro. 17* (at the top) the head
surmounts the cross-shaped tree of god B, which denotes the lofty,
celestial abode. Indeed, these passages prove positively that a heavenly
body underlies the idea of this deity.

Furthermore, the head of this god recurs in entire rows in the calendric
group of tabular form on the so-called initial page of the Codex Tro. 36,
with its continuation in the Cort. p. 22, and in exactly the same manner
in the allied passage of Tro. 14 (middle and bottom). In addition, his
head is contained in the symbol for the north (Fig. 16); the head
contained in this sign is in fact nothing else than the head of god C.
Brinton also accepts this interpretation of god C. According to
Förstemann (Die Mayahieroglyphen, Globus, Vol. 71, No. 5), the fact
that the figure of god C in the Tonalamatl in Dr. 4a-10a occurs on the
day Chuen of the Maya calendar, which corresponds to the day
Ozomatli, the ape, in the Aztec calendar, seems to indicate that the
singular head of C is that of an ape, whose lateral nasal cavity (peculiar
to the American ape or monkey) is occasionally represented plainly in
the hieroglyph picture. Hence it might further be assumed that god C
symbolizes not the polar star alone, but rather the entire