Madrid Codex Maya Gods Itzamna Nik Nah Kisin Bacabs Pauahtuns 1884

May Codex, Almanac: 75-76, Frames: 1 2 3 4 

Frame 1 top, Itzamna and an unidentified figure (possibly the flower god Nik) are seated facing each other. They are each seated in thatched structures, and between them is some type of container with a T506 glyph (representing a maize seed or tortilla), two obsidian bloodletters, and a large stingray spine.

Frame 2 right, The death god (Nah? Kimil) and the underworld god Kisin sit facing each other. Between them is a red-painted sacrificial prisoner who has been stretched over an altar. His chest has been pierced by a large ceremonial flint knife. Blood spurts from his chest, and he has a Kimi (death) eye. 

Frame 3 Bottom, Itzamna and his female counterpart (Chak Chel?) are seated facing each other. They both hold T506 glyphs (representing maize seeds or tortillas) from which flint blades emerge. Chak Chel(?) is seated within a thatched structure.

Frame 4 left side, Two deities are seated facing each other, with a red-painted bound and decapitated figure between them. The figure on the right is the god of flowers (K'uh/Ahaw? Nik), but the other has not been identified (his features are difficult to distinguish because of erosion). 

Scheme of the Mayan Calendar as presented in the Codex Tro-Cortesianus. In the center is Itzamna, the God of the Sky, and his spouse, under what has been called the celestial tree. The band of hieroglyphs that frames in this picture contains the twenty day signs of the Mayan month. The figures on the outside are arranged in four groups, according to the four directions of the compass. At the top or east we again see Itzamna and his mate. In the north, or right hand quarter, human sacrifice is shown and the Death God sits opposite the God of War. In the east and in the south are also shown pairs of divinities. A series of dots running from one day sign to another covers the tonalamatl or 260 day cycle of names and numbers.

Bacab (Mayan pronunciation: [ɓaˈkaɓ]) is the generic Yucatec Maya name for the four prehispanic aged deities of the interior of the earth and its water deposits. The Bacabs have more recent counterparts in the lecherous, drunken old thunder deities of the Gulf Coast regions. The Bacabs are also referred to as Pauahtuns. The Bacabs "were four brothers whom God placed, when he created the world, at the four points of it, holding up the sky so that it should not fall. [...] They escaped when the world was destroyed by the deluge." Their names were Hobnil, Cantzicnal, Saccimi, and Hosanek. The Bacabs played an important role in the cosmological upheaval associated with Katun 11 Ahau, when Oxlahuntiku 'Thirteen-god' was humbled by Bolontiku 'Nine-god'. According to the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, "then the sky would fall, it would fall down, it would fall down upon the earth, when the four gods, the four Bacabs, were set up, who brought about the destruction of the world."

135 year old original print from Third annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, by J. W. Powell, Director. Washington Government Printing Office 1884

Size of sheet: 11.5” X 7.5”, Image size 8” X 5”.

Condition: Very clean sheet. See photos.

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