The Mayans believe that Mother Earth was a mammoth monster. It was an alligator, frog, and a polo-neck combined. Above her was a sky with a bed for each planet and domains of motion for the Sun and the Moon. Below her was the underworld where heavenly organic structures passed when out of sight. All around her were the liquors of rain and boom. The divinities of the nutrient workss and animate beings attended her. All nature was alive and it was invariably deceasing and being reborn ( Burland 1771 ).
The Mayans are American Indian people who lived in southern Mexico ( Miller “Maya” Grolier ) . The Yucatan was the centre of the Mayan civilisation from about the first century B.C. (” Yucantan” Grolier ) . They flourished in Mexico and cardinal America from 250 to 1600 A.D. (” History of Agriculture” Grolier ) . Their ascendants had crossed the Bering land Bridge from Asia ( Miller “Maya” Grolier ) . Honduras was one time a portion of the Mayan Empire. It had flourished between 250 and 950 A.D. ( Seligson “Honduras” Grolier ) . The Mayans besides had lived in Mexican provinces: Yucantan and Chiapas, British Honduras, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador ( Burland 1770 ).
By 1200 B.C. , they had dominated trade paths. The trade paths extended from the modern Mexico province of Guerrero to Costa Rica ( Miller “Maya” Grolier ) . The Mayans had changeless cultural and commercial contact from other folks such as the Aztecs. They were with the cardinal and coastal Mexican civilisation that had influenced them and influenced other civilizations ( Harrison “History of Latin America” Grolier ).
The Mayans worshiped peace divinities ( Matthews 45 ) . They besides worshiped a Godhead who lived beyond the sky, and believed it was male and female. Mayans besides believed that males were more of import ( Burland 1771 ) . They explain this with the fact that adult male came foremost ( Thompson Internet ) . They besides believe in fulfilling the Godheads and fear decease. The Mayans had similar beliefs of creative activity and similar and non similar Gods with the Greeks, had a belief in a Heaven and a Hell, four efforts at doing worlds and three different universes made.
The Greeks had believed there was nil, that the universe began with Chaos, which is similar to the Mayan belief that there was no Earth, no Sun and no Moon. The lone being was the house of Gucumatz, which is Heaven where the male parent and female parent of all animals lived. The other is the house of the Ahauab de Xibalba, which is Hell. In Hell, Hun Came and Vucub Caquix, Lords of Hell lived ( Eufraccio Internet ).
The Mayans had many Gods: Ah Puch, a God of decease; Akhushtal, the goddess of childbearing; Cit Bolon Tum and Ahau Chamahez, the Gods of medical specialty; Kan-u-Uayeyab, the God who guarded metropoliss; Kukucan, the air current God; Ekahau, the God of travellers and merchandisers ( The Mythical Encyclopedia Internet ); Ixtab, the goddess of the noose and the gallows. The Mayans believed that if a individual committed self-destruction by a noose, he or she would travel to her Eden.
And Izamna is the Sun and sky God, he regulations over the dark. They besides call him “God D.” His rubric is “Godhead of knowledge.” He was the laminitis of Mayan civilization. He taught them book, healing, and the usage of calenders and brought them his people maize, which is maize, and chocolate tree, a coca seed. Ixchel is the Earth and Moon goddess and patronne of pregnant adult females. She invented the art of weaving. They think that she was the consort of Itzamna. She had besides given birth to the Bacabs ( Eufraccio Internet ).
Bacabs, the kids of Izamna and Ixchel, are a group of four protective divinities. They are the canopic Gods. There are four Bacabs. They stand at the four corners of the universe, the central points. They besides supported the celestial spheres. The first one four of the Bacabs is Cauac. He is the South and his colour is ruddy. Next is Ix. He is the West and his colour is black. Following is Mulac. He stands for the North and his colour is white. Kan is the last one of the Bacabs. He is the E and his colour is xanthous ( The Encyclopedia Mythica Internet ).
Hun Came and Vucub Caquix were the swayers of the underworld, called Xibalaba. The steep route that leads to the underworld is really unsafe. There are downpours; it is flanked by the abysms, and it is covered with irritants. Vucub Caquix had two kids. Kabrakan causes temblors and the disappearing of mountains. His brother Zipakna makes’ mountains rise through temblors ( Eufraccio Internet ).
Hun Came and Vucub Caquix invited Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu to a ball game. When Hun Hunahpu and Hunahpu arrived, Hun Came and Vucub Caquix killed them. Hun Hunahpu’s caput was placed on a dead tree that came to life. Ixquic, a virgin, wanted a fruit. Hun Hunahpu told her to open her manus, where he ptyalize. She immediately became pregnant. She gave birth to Hunahpu and Ixbalanque. Hunahpu and Ixbalanque killed Hun Came and Vucub Caquix to revenge their male parent’s decease ( Eufraccio Internet ).
There are some Mayan Gods that have similar maps with the Grecian Gods. Hunab Ku is the God of Gods, as Zeus is the God of Gods. He besides is a Godhead. Nacon is the God of war, as Aries is the God of war. Ah Kinchil is the Sun God, as Apollo is the Sun God. Kinich Kakmo is besides a Sun God whom the Macaw symbolizes. Ahmakiq is the God of agribusiness, as Demeter is the goddess of agribusiness.
Hun Hunahpu is a birthrate God. His boy is Hunahpu. He besides is a Godhead God. Him and his brother, Ixbalanque became swayers after their male parent’s decease. Hunahpu became the Sun God and Ixbalanque a female Moon divinity. They are the parents of the first brace of worlds ( The Encyclopedia Mythica Internet ).
The Godheads made four efforts to make animals. The Godheads wanted animals to idolize and praise them. All efforts failed but the last effort. The last effort was with maize. The maize is of import to the Mayans. The Godheads called them the “First Fathers.” The four animate beings that found the maize were a mountain cat, a prairie wolf, a crow, and a parrot. They were to look for suited edifice stuffs ( Cotterell Internet ) . The first animals consisted of wood. They displeased the Godheads with them, so they created a great inundation. The inundation knocked them over. Eagles would pick out their eyes while some chiropterans chopped off their caputs and panthers broke and mangled their castanetss. What was left of them had climbed to the roofs. After mounting to the top, the house collapsed. The animate beings so killed the subsisters ( Thompson Internet ).
Hunab Ku rebuilt the universe after three floods that poured from the oral cavity of a sky snake. Dwarfs, the builders of the metropoliss, lived in the first universe. An vague race, Dzolob or “the wrongdoers,” had lived in the 2nd universe. The 3rd and concluding universe was for the Mayans ( Eufraccio Internet ).
As in any myth, the Mayans believed in many things that started the creative activity of their clip. They believed that there were four efforts at making adult male, there was a Heaven and Hell-like most beliefs, there were three different universes created, and that there were different Gods for about everything.
References
- Bray, Warwick. “Quetzalcoatl.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Connecticut: Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
- Burland, C.A. “Maya.” Man, Myth, and Magic. 1983 erectile dysfunction.
- Cotterell, Maurice, and Adrian Gilbert. The Mayan Prophecies. ( 1995 ) . Online. Internet. 4 February 1997.
- Eurfraccio, Particio. “Hunahpu and Ixbalanque.” The Encyclopedia Mythica. ( 1995 ) . Online. Internet. 4 February 1997.
- Faron, Louis C. “Lacandon.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Conneticut: Grolier Electroni Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
- Harrison, John P. “History of Latin America.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD- ROM. Connecticut: Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
- “History of Agriculture.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Connecticut: Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
- Saint matthews, Warren. World Religions. Gopher state: West Printing Company. 1995
- Miller, Mary Ellen. “Maya.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Connecticut: Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
- The Encyclopedia Mythica. ( 1995 ) . Online. Internet. 4 February 1997.
- Seligson, Mitchell A. “Honduras.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD- ROM. Connecticut: Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
- Thompson, Suzzane. In The Beginning. Online. Internet. 4 February 1997.
- “Yucantan Peninsula.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Connecticut: Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc. , 1995.
