God K is the Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube designation of a codical Maya deity representing lightning. In earlier, especially Classic depictions, his main characteristics are a blade or torch running through his forehead, and a serpent for one of his legs. God K personifies the lightning axe of the rain deity, Chaac, which is also a stereotypical attribute of the king as represented on his steles.
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Names
From the correspondence between Landa's description of the New Year rituals and the depiction of these rituals in the Dresden Codex, it can be inferred that in 16th-century Yucatan, god K was called Bolon Dzacab 'Innumerable (bolon 'nine, innumerable') maternal generations" (see fig. 1). God K's name in the Classic period may have been the same, or similar, since the numeral 'nine' is repeatedly included in the deity's logogram.
However, another hypothesis has recently become popular. Hieroglyphically, the head of god K can substitute for the syllable k'a in k'awiil, a word possibly meaning 'powerful one', and attested as a generic deity title in Yucatec documents. This substitution has given rise to the idea that, inversely, the title k'awiil should be considered a name specifically referring to god K.[1]
Narratives and Scenes
Lightnings play a crucial role in tales dealing with the creation of the world and its preparation for the advent of mankind. In the cosmogony of the Popol Vuh, three Lightning deities identified with the 'Heart of the Sky' (among whom Huraqan 'One-Leg') create the earth out of the primordial sea, and people it with animals. Bolon Dzacab plays an important, if not very clear role in the cosmogonical myth related in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, where he is identified with wrapped-up seeds.[2] The rain gods or their lightnings once opened up the Maize Mountain, making the maize seeds available to mankind.
God K also figures in an enigmatic Classic scene known only from ceramics (see fig.2), showing an aged ancestor or deity emerging from the serpentine foot of the lightning god, apparently to mate with a nude young woman of decidedly aristocratic allure entwined by the serpent. Not impossibly, the meaning of the scene is ritual, rather than mythological. Perhaps related to this, stucco reliefs at Palenque show a noblewoman carrying the lightning deity as a baby in her arms.
Functions
The illustrated katun cycle of the Paris Codex suggests that the presentation of the head of god K - perhaps holding the promise of 'Innumerable Generations' - was part of the king's ritual inauguration and accession to the throne. God K not only embodied the king's war-like lightning power, but also his power to bring agricultural prosperity to his subjects: The Lightning deity was a god of agricultural abundance, and of the maize and cacao seeds in particular. Therefore, he is often depicted with a sack of grains, sometimes accompanied by the expression hun yax(al) hun k'an(al) 'abundance'.[3]
References
Bibliography
- Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, Karl Taube, The Memory of Bones 2006
- Martin, Simon, Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion
- Mayer, Karl Herbert, Gewölbesteine mit Dekor der Mayakultur
- Roys, Ralph, The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel 1967
- Schele, Linda, Maya Cosmos
- Stuart, David, Ten Phonetic Syllables 1987
- Taube, Karl, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan
- Thompson, J.E.S., Maya History and Religion
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