The Venus-Rain-Maize Complex in the Mesoamerican World View: Part II

Šprajc Ivan , “The Venus-rain-maize complex in the Mesoamerican world view: Part I”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxiv (1993), 17–70.

Joralemon David Peter , A study of Olmec iconography (Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, no. 7; Washington, 1971), 13, 82, 90; idem, “The Olmec dragon: A study in pre-Columbian iconography”, in Origins of religious art and iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica, ed. by Nicholson H. B. (UCLA Latin American Studies Series, 31; Los Angeles, 1976), 27–71, pp. 33, 37. Also in the Preclassic art of Izapa the jaguar seems to be related with mountains and rain: Smith Virginia G. , Izapa relief carving: Form, content, rules for design, and role in Mesoamerican art history and archaeology (Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Technology, no. 27; Washington, 1984), 28.

See the whole argument in Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 43–45, Figs 4–7

Pasztory Esther , The iconography of the Teotihuacan Tlaloc (Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Technology, no. 15; Washington, 1974), 15f.

Armillas Pedro , Los dioses de Teotihuacán (Mendoza, 1945; orig. publ. in Anales del Instituto de Etnología Americana, vi (1945), 35–61), 17f.; Seler Eduard , Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprach- und Altertumskunde (5 vols, Graz, 1960–61; orig.: Berlin, 1902–23), v, 440.

Séjourné Laurette , “Teotihuacán, la ciudad sagrada de Quetzalcóatl”, Cuadernos americanos, lxxv (1954), no. 3, 177–205, p. 200, Fig. 15; Miller Arthur G. , The mural painting of Teotihuacán (Washington, 1973), 94f., 164f.; Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), Fig. 9b.

Miller , op. cit. (ref. 6), 146f.

Carlson John B. , Venus-regulated warfare and ritual sacrifice in Mesoamerica: Teotihuacan and the Cacaxtla “star wars” connection (Center for Archaeoastronomy Technical Publication, no. 7; College Park, Maryland, 1991), Figs 7 c and d, 13 g and h; Berlo Catherine Janet , “Early writing in central Mexico: In tlilli, in tlapalli before a.d. 1000”, in Mesoamerica after the decline of Teotihuacan: A.d. 700–900, ed. by Diehl R. A. and Berlo J. C. (Washington, D.C., 1989), 19–47, p. 26, Fig. 8.

Baird Ellen T. , “Stars and war at Cacaxtla”, in Mesoamerica after the decline of Teotihuacan, ed. by Diehl and Berlo (ref. 8), 105–22; Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8).

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), Fig. 3.

Sandoval Santana Andrés Verdejo Vergara Sergio de la L. and Torres Delgadillo Rosalba , “Cacaxtla, su arquitectura y pintura mural: Nuevos elementos para análisis”, in La época clásica: Nuevos hallazgos, nuevas ideas, ed. by de Méndez Cardós A. (Mexico City, 1990), 329–50, p. 334.

Baird , op. cit. (ref. 9).

Czitrom Baus Carolyn , “El culto a Venus en Cacaxtla”, in La época clásica, ed. by Cardós (ref. 11), 351–69, pp. 354ff. The modern Tzotzil in the Magdalenas region of Chiapas believe that the scorpion provokes lightning and rain: ibid., 355. The exhaustive argument offered by C. Baus in the cited article removes the last doubt concerning the Venus identity of the five-lobed sign appearing at Cacaxtla and, in later derived versions, all over central Mexico, in Oaxaca and Yucatán; see also the supportive argument of Virginia Miller E. , “Star warriors at Chichen Itza”, in Word and image in Maya culture: Explorations in language, writing, and representation, ed. by Hanks W. F. and Rice D. S. (Salt Lake City, 1989), 287–305, pp. 290ff. Additional evidence confirming the Venus-rain-war-sacrifice associations of the Cacaxtla Scorpion Man can be found in Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8), 19ff.

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8), 19ff., Figs 8 j and k.

Cf. McVicker Donald , “The ‘Mayanized’ Mexicans”, American antiquity, 1 (1985), 82–101.

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8), 25f.

Ibid., 38ff.

Baird , op. cit. (ref. 9), 115; Lounsbury Floyd G. , “Astronomical knowledge and its uses at Bonampak, Mexico”, in Archaeoastronomy in the New World, ed. by Aveni A. F. (Cambridge, 1982), 143–68, p. 153; Carlson John B. , “The Grolier Codex: A preliminary report on the content and authenticity of a 13th-century Maya Venus almanac”, in Calendars in Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American computations of time, ed. by Aveni A. F. and Brotherston G. (BAR International Series, 174; Oxford, 1983), 27–57, pp. 45ff.

Schele Linda and Freidel David , A forest of kings: The untold story of the ancient Maya (New York, 1990), 130f., 147 and passim; Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8). Even if other planets were probably also involved in the timing of war events, Venus phenomena predominate; furthermore, the dates that can be related with the first evening star appearances seem to be the most accurate observational records: Aveni Anthony F. and Hotaling Lorren D. , “Monumental inscriptions and the observational basis of Mayan planetary astronomy”, paper presented at the 8th Mesa Redonda de Palenque (June 1993).

Baird , op. cit. (ref. 9), 111, 118.

Joralemon , “Olmec dragon” (ref. 2), 61.

Various similarities between Quetzalcoatl and Itzamna attest their generic relationship: Both were creators, incorporating the aspect of culture hero (inventor of arts, calendar and writing) and presiding over water and fertility, they both had a special connection with rulers, etc.; cf. Austin López Alfredo , Hombre-dios: Religión y política en el mundo náhuatl (México City, 1973); Eric J. Thompson S. , Maya history and religion (Norman, 1970), 209–33.

Hofling Charles A. , “Venus and the miscellaneous almanacs in the Dresden Codex”, Journal of Mayan linguistics, vi (1988), 79–102.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1). 38f.

Thompson J. E. S. , “Las llamadas ‘fachadas de Quetzalcouatl’”, in Vigesimoséptimo Congreso Internacional de Americanistas (Mexico City, 1943), i, 391–400, p. 398; Seler Eduard , Die Quetzalcouatl-Fassaden yukatekischer Bauten (Berlin, 1916). Schele and Freidel , op. cit. (ref. 19), 71f., 427, have recently argued that these façades represent the witz monster; the concept of the mountain (witz) is known to have been intimately related to water, and thus the former identification of the long-nosed images and zoomorphic façades with the rain god Chac and Itzamna is, again, not too mistaken, particularly if we consider that Itzamna “came near to incorporating most of the other major gods in his person as various of his aspects” (Thompson, Maya history (ref. 22), 210; see also Angulo Jorge V. , “Origen mitico de las fachadas zoomorphas de Rio Bec”, Cuadernos de arquitectura mesoamericana, no. 12 (1991), 23–33).

Armillas Pedro , “La serpiente emplumada, Quetzalcoatl y Tlaloc”, Cuadernos americanos, xxxi (1947), no. 1, 161–78, p. 163.

Ibid.; Chan Piña Román , Quetzalcóatl: Serpiente emplumada (Mexico City, 1977); Nicholson Henry B. , “Religion in pre-Hispanic Central Mexico”, in Handbook of Middle American Indians, x, ed. by Ekholm G. F. and Bernal I. (Austin, 1971), 395–446; idem, “Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl vs. Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl of Tollan: A problem in Mesoamerican religion and history”, in Actes du XLIIe Congrès International des Américanistes: Paris, 2–9 Septembre 1976 (Paris, 1979), vi, 35–47; Brundage Cartwright Burr , The fifth sun: Aztec gods, Aztec world (Austin, 1979), 102–28; idem, The phoenix of the western world: Quetzalcoatl and the sky religion (Norman, 1982); Davies Nigel , The Toltecs: Until the fall of Tula (Norman, 1977).

Joralemon , Olmec iconography (ref. 2), 82ff.

de Las Casas Bartolomé , Apologética historia sumaria… (2 vols, Mexico City, 1967), i, 646 — B. 3, ch. 122; de Sahagún Bernardino , Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, 6th edn (Mexico City, 1985), 654f — B. 11, ch. 6. These descriptions of a serpent with feathers on its head agree with some Preclassic Olmec style representations — See Joralemon , Olmec iconography (ref. 2), 82f., Figs 245, 247, 248.

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8), Fig. 11a; Miller A. , Teotihuacán (ref. 6), 165 — Figs 346, 349.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), Fig. 3.

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8), 30f., Fig. 11 d and e; Miller V. , op. cit. (ref. 13), 294.

Brundage , The fifth sun (ref. 27), 108; idem, The phoenix (ref. 27), 72; Ochoa Lorenzo , Historia prehispánica de la Huaxteca, 2nd edn (Mexico City, 1984), 144.

Angulo Jorge V. , “Los relieves del grupo ‘IA’ en la montaña sagrada de Chalcatzingo”, in Homenaje a Román Piña Chan (Mexico City, 1987), 191–228, p. 204, Fig. 9; Austin López Alfredo , Los mitos del tlacuache: Caminos de la mitología mesoamericana (Mexico City, 1990), 333.

Cf. Caso Alfonso and Bernal Ignacio , Urnas de Oaxaca (Mexico City, 1952), 365, Figs 93, 284; Ochoa , op. cit. (ref. 33), pls. XLV: A, C, and XLVI: A; Brundage , The phoenix (ref. 27), 230, Fig. 31, and 266, Fig. 35. Also similar are the signs, possibly representing Venus, in the El Tajín reliefs: Delhalle Jean-Claude and Luykx Albert , “The nahuatl myth of the creation of humankind: A coastal connection?”, American antiquity, li (1986), 117–21, p. 118. The identification of these motifs on the Oaxaca urns as Venus symbols is suggested not only by their formal similarity to the Maya Lamat glyphs. Justeson showed that the Lamat day name is probably of Zapotec origin, having been diffused to Mayan languages during the Late Preclassic. Lexical diffusion, however, does not necessarily imply that the Lamat glyph came to the Maya area directly from the Zapotecs; iconographie evidence rather suggests a divergent development of Mayan and Zapotec signs from common earlier prototypes: Justeson John S. Norman William M. Campbell Lyle and Kaufman Terrence , The foreign impact on Lowland Mayan language and script (Middle American Research Institute, Publ. 53; New Orleans, 1985), 21, 50, 52, 66.

Chadwick R. E. L. , “The ‘Olmeca-Xicallanca’ of Teotihuacan: A preliminary study”, Mesoamerican notes, vii-viii (1966), 1–24; de Molina Foncerrada Marta , “Mural painting in Cacaxtla and Teotihuacán cosmopolitism” in Third Palenque Round Table, 1978: Part 2, ed. by Robertson Greene M. (Austin and London, 1980), 183–98, p. 186; Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 122; Pollock H. E. D. , Round structures of aboriginal Middle America (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publ. 471; Washington, 1936), 164.

Chadwick , op. cit. (ref. 36), 1.

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 163f.

Sahagún , op. cit. (ref. 29), 608f., 614 — B. 10, ch. 29.

Chadwick , op. cit. (ref. 36), 17; Saignes Acosta Miguel , “Los pochteca: Ubicación de los mercaderes en la estructura social tenochca”, in El comercio en el México prehispánico, ed. by Saignes Acosta M. (Mexico City, 1975), 15–61 (orig. publ. in Acta anthropologica, i (1945), no.7).

Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 52.

Ibid., 158, 177; Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 163. There is plenty of archaeological evidence supporting this general picture of central Mexican Epiclassic. Teotihuacan was well connected with the Atlantic coast, particularly with southern Veracruz; copious sea shells and other coastal symbols in iconography also indicate that Teotihuacan was, in a way, “Gulf-oriented”. Foreign ceramics found in certain Teotihuacan barrios is, especially in later periods, predominantly of the Gulf Coast origin, probably attesting the presence of merchants. Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 97; Rattray Childs Evelyn , “Los barrios foráneos de Teotihuacan”, in Teotihuacan: Nuevos datos, nuevas síntesis, nuevos problemas, ed. by de Tapia McClung E. and Rattray E. C. (Mexico City, 1987), 243–73, p. 261; eadem, “Nuevas interpretaciones en torno al Barrio de los Comerciantes”, Anales de antropología, xxv (1988), 165–80. It is also indicative that the most probable linguistic affiliation of the Teotihuacanos is Totonacan, and that the Postclassic Totonacs believed that their ancestors had built the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, before arriving at the Gulf Coast; even the Aztecs, according to Torquemada, attributed the construction of Teotihuacan to the Totonacs: Justeson , op. cit. (ref. 35), 68, 72 n. 5. Considering that Teotihuacan's links with the Gulf area are suggested by such a variety of data, it seems natural to suppose that after the city's fall a considerable part of the population migrated toward the southeast, where the bearers of the “Mexican” culture met and to a certain extent intermingled with the western Maya: Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 122, 220f.; Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 164. Other migrations at a later date probably took the opposite course, bringing to central Mexico “Mayoid” traits exhibited at sites such as Xochicalco and Cacaxtla. Some archaeological evidence from the Huaxtec region indicates contacts with the Maya area during the Late Classic; some central Mexican sources mention the arrival of the peoples from the Pánuco region, and it might be that they were coming from the zone between Tabasco and Campeche: Ochoa, op. cit. (ref. 33), 33ff., 112ff., 115.

Sáenz César A. , “Las estelas de Xochicalco”, in XXXV Congreso Internacional de Americanistas: México, 1962 (Mexico City, 1964), 69–100, pp. 71f., 77. Seler , Gesammelte Abhandlungen (ref. 5), i, 692f., seems to have been the first to relate the images at Chichén Itzá, representing a human face protruding from the serpent's mouth, with Kukulcan — Morning star.

Klein Cecelia F. , The face of the earth: Frontality in two-dimensional Mesoamerican art (New York and London, 1976), 85ff., 97.

Cf. Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 29f. Pasztory rejected Sáenz's identification and interpreted the personages of Stelae 1 and 3 as earth deities, connected with fertility and the night sun: Pasztory Esther , “The Xochicalco stelae and a Middle Classic deity triad in Mesoamerica”, in Actas del XXIII Congreso Internacional de Historia del Arte (Granada, 1973), i, 185–215, pp. 187ff. As it has been shown, the concept of the night sun often merged with Venus as evening star: Šprajc, op. cit. (ref. 1), 38.

Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 67.

Caso Alfonso , Los calendarios prehispánicos (Mexico City, 1967), 191. The glyph appearing at Xochicalco is, in fact, the so-called Reptile's Eye, but this was identified with the Mexica sign Ehecatl by Caso, ibid., 161, 164f. Prem's analysis of the dates carved on the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent at Xochicalco supports this identification: Prem Hanns J. , “Überlegungen zu den chronologischen Angaben auf der Pyramide der gefiederten Schlangen, Xochicalco, Morelos, México”, Ethnologische Zeitschrift, i (1974) (Festschrift Otto Zerries), 351–64, p. 358. The same author shows that the Venus cycle may be implicated by some of the dates on this structure, one of them being 9 Reptile's Eye: ibid., 359.

Morley Sylvanus G. and Brainerd George W. , revised by Sharer Robert J. , The ancient Maya, 4th edn (Stanford, 1983), 157; Thompson , Maya history (ref. 22), 3–47. Linguistic and epigraphic evidence suggests a significant Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic cultural diffusion from the Gulf Coast to the Maya area, involving speakers of Nahua, Zoque, Chontal and Yucatec languages: Justeson , op. cit. (ref. 35), 24f., 66, 68–70.

Miller V. , op. cit. (ref. 13), 288f.; some examples of these star warriors have, indeed, been found in the Gulf area: ibid., 299, Figs 20–31, 20–32. On specific relations between Seibal and Chichén Itzá, attested in iconographic details and epigraphic evidence, see Jeff Karl Kowalski, “Who am I among the Itza?: Links between northern Yucatan and the western Maya lowlands and highlands”, in Mesoamerica after the decline of Teotihuacan, ed. by Diehl and Berlo (ref. 8), 173–85.

Miller V. , op. cit. (ref. 13), 297.

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 163; Thompson J. E. S. , “Sky bearers, colors and directions in Maya and Mexican religion”, Contributions to American archaeology, no. 10 (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publ. 436; Washington, 1934).

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 163.

A clear distinction between the two figures is found, for example, in Durán Diego Fr. , Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e islas de la tierra firme (2 vols, Mexico City, 1967), i, 9–15, 61–69, in Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas, Histoyre du Mechique and Popol Vuh; Angel K. Garibay Ma. , Teogonia e historia de los mexicanos: Tres opúsculos del siglo VI, 3rd edn (Mexico City, 1979); Recinos Adrián , Popol Vuh: Las antiguas historias del Quiché (San José, 1976).

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 161.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 45–50.

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 136–73.

Cf. Ochoa , op. cit. (ref. 33), 56.

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 160. If these myths have, indeed, an historical background, referring to the bearers of the Quetzalcoatl cult rather than to the god himself, they may also support the opinion that Quetzalcoatl was a royal title or name adopted by the god's impersonators; cf. López A. , Hombre-dios (ref. 22); Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 224f. It is indicative, for example, that Cukulchan (= Kukulcan/Quetzalcoatl) is mentioned as the deity of the ruler of Itzamkanac, the capital of Acalan, and that the members of the Cocom dynasty of Mayapán and Sotuta considered themselves to be descendants of Quetzalcoatl: Scholes France V. and Roys Ralph L. , The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel: A contribution to the history and ethnography of the Yucatan peninsula, 2nd edn (Norman, 1968), 56f. Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 107, mentions, citing Krickeberg, that Gucumatz was considered among the Quiché as a god of the Gulf Coast, because one of his titles was Ahh'ol , “Lord of Rubber”.

Smith Ledyard A. , “Major architecture and caches”, in Excavations at Seibal, ed. by Willey G. R. (Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, xv, no. 1; Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 1–263, pp. 164ff., 239; Kowalski , op. cit. (ref. 49), 176f., 182.

Aveni Anthony F. Gibbs Sharon L. and Hartung Horst , “The Caracol tower at Chichen Itza: An ancient astronomical observatory?”, Science, clxxxviii (1975), 977–85, p. 979.

Pollock , op. cit. (ref. 36), 171; Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 204ff.; Proskouriakoff Tatiana , “Sculpture and major arts of the Maya lowlands”, in Handbook of Middle American Indians, ii, ed. by Willey G. R. (Archaeology of southern Mesoamerica: Part one; Austin, 1965), 469–97, p. 488.

Thompson , Maya history (ref. 22), 10, 20f., 319; Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 208. Some sources report on sodomy in the Xicalangog region: Thompson , ibid., 21; Ochoa Lorenzo and Vargas Ernesto , “Xicalango, puerto chontal de intercambio: Mito y realidad”, Anales de antropología, xxiv (1987), 95–114, p. 109.

Folan W. J. , “Kukulkán y un culto fálico en Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, México”, Estudios de cultura maya, viii (1972), 77–82. Possible phallic associations of Venus among the Maya were discussed by Closs Michael P. , “The penis-headed manikin glyph”, American antiquity, liii (1988), 804–11.

Venus also seems to be implied in the numbers of architectonic and decorative elements of the Nunnery Quadrangle: Lamb Weldon , “The sun, moon and Venus at Uxmal”, American antiquity, xlv (1980), 79–86. A phallic aspect of the feathered serpent has been ethnographically documented in the Mixteca region: Monaghan John , “The feathered serpent in Oaxaca: An approach to the study of the Mixtec codices”, Expedition, xxxi (1989), no. 1, 12–18, pp. 17f.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 45–50.

Ibid., 45–50.

Ibid., 50–53.

Brundage , The phoenix (ref. 27), 49f., 63.

Taladoire Eric , Les terrains de jeu de balle (Mésoamérique et Sud-ouest des Etats-Unis) (Études Mésoaméricaines, série II, 4; Mexico City, 1981), 387f., 532f., 552f.; Pasztory Esther , “The historical and religious significance of the Middle Classic ball game”, in Religión en Mesoamérica, ed. by Litvak J. K. and Castillo N. T. (Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, XII Mesa Redonda; Mexico City, 1972), 441–55, pp. 441, 446f.

Carlson , op. cit. (ref. 8), 48ff., Figs 15 a, c, g, h and i. In fact, the ballgame may have played an important role in the Maya Tlaloc-Venus warfare ritual already in the Classic period: Carlson , ibid., 31ff.; Gutierrez Ellen Mary , “The Maya ballgame as a metaphor for warfare”, Mexicon, xii (1990), 105–8. Later, however, the Gulf Coast people further elaborated this ceremonial complex and carried it to other parts of Mesoamerica.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 24; Taladoire , op. cit. (ref. 69), 545; Pasztory , “Middle Classic ball game” (ref. 69), 445; Kowalski Karl Jeff , “Las deidades astrales y la fertilidad agrícola: Temas fundamentales en el simbolismo del juego de pelota mesoamericano en Copán, Chichén Itzá y Tenochtitlan”, in El juego de pelota en Mesoamerica: Raíces y supervivencia, ed. by Uriarte M. T. (Mexico City, 1992), 305–33. A certain role of Venus in the ballgame is sustained by iconographic evidence. In the ballgame scene represented on the Hieroglyphic Stairway 2 of Yaxchilan there are two figures with Venus glyphs on their bodies: Graham Ian , Corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions, iii, Part 3: Yaxchilan (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 160f. The same variant of the glyph is found on the inner doorway lintel of Temple A of the Great Ball Court at Chichén Itzá, in a scene representing the sun and the feathered serpent: Maudslay A. P. , Biologia Centrali-Americana: Archaeology (5 vols, London, 1889–1902), iii, pl. 35. Some symbols appearing on the El Tajin ball court reliefs were also interpreted as Venus glyphs: Jeffrey S. Wilkerson K. , “In search of the Mountain of Foam: Human sacrifice in eastern Mesoamerica”, in Ritual human sacrifice in Mesoamerica, ed. by Boone E. H. (Washington, 1984), 101–32, pp. 120ff.; Delhalle and Luykx , op. cit. (ref. 35). The iconography of the Vase of the Seven Gods refers to both Venus and the ballgame: Closs Michael P. , “Venus in the Maya world: Glyphs, gods and associated astronomical phenomena”, in Tercera Mesa Redonda de Palenque (iv), ed. by Robertson Greene M. and Jeffers Call D. (Monterey, Calif, 1979), 147–65; Gutierrez , op. cit. (ref. 70).

Sahagún , op. cit. (ref. 29), 900f. — B. 2, App. 6; Taladoire , op. cit. (ref. 69), 73; Chan Piña , op. cit. (ref. 27), 43f., 46, Figs 41, 46, 48.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 29f.; Brundage , The phoenix (ref. 27), 63; Pasztory , “Middle Classic ballgame” (ref. 69), 445; Códice Magliabechiano, p. 33v. A deformed deity, comparable to Xolotl or Nanahuatl of later times, is associated with the ballgame in the Teotihuacan mural painting: Pasztory , ibid., 449; Séjourné , op. cit. (ref. 6), 201, Fig. 16; cf. also Cohodas Marvin , “Ballgame imagery of the Maya lowlands: History and iconography”, in The Mesoamerican ballgame, ed. by Scarborough V. L. and Wilcox D. R. (Tucson, 1991), 251–88, particularly pp. 275ff.

Lehmann Walter , “Ergebnisse einer mit Unterstützung der Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft in den Jahren 1925/1926 ausgeführten Forschungsreise nach Mexiko und Guatemala: 1. Mixe-Mythen”, Anthropos, xxiii (1928), 749–91, pp. 775ff.

Cf. Eliade Mircea , Tratado de historia de las religiones (Mexico City, 1972; transl. by Segovia T. ; orig.: Traité d'histoire des religions (Paris, 1964)), 150; Marshack Alexander , “The Chamula calendar board: An internal and comparative analysis”, in Mesoamerican archaeology: New approaches, ed. by Hammond N. (Austin, 1974), 255–70, p. 268; Stewart Joe D. , “Structural evidence of a luni-solar calendar in ancient Mesoamerica”, Estudios de cultura náhuatl, xvii (1984), 171–91, p. 186.

Caso , op. cit. (ref. 47), 85; Spinden Herbert J. , The reduction of Mayan dates (Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, vi, no. 4; Cambridge, Mass., 1924), 158; Coe Michael D. , “Early steps in the evolution of Maya writing”, in Origins of religious art and iconography in Preclassic Mesoamerica, ed. by Nicholson H. B. (UCLA Latin American Studies Series, 31; Los Angeles, 1976), 107–22, p. 111; Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 75).

Neugebauer Otto , A history of ancient mathematical astronomy (New York, Heidelberg and Berlin, 1975), 1067.

Eric J. Thompson S. , Maya hieroglyphic writing: An introduction, 3rd edn (Norman, 1971), 102; La Farge Oliver , “Post-Columbian dates and the Mayan correlation problem”, Maya research, i, no. 2 (1934), 109–24, p. 115; Rojas Villa Alfonso , “Los conceptos de espacio y tiempo entre los grupos mayances contemporáneos”, in Tiempo y realidad en el pensamiento maya: Ensayo de acercamiento, ed. by León-Portilla M. (Mexico City, 1968), 119–67, pp. 147ff.

Cf. Coe Michael D. , The Maya scribe and his world (New York, 1973), 8.

Aveni Anthony F. , “The moon and the Venus table: An example of commensuration in the Maya calendar”, in The sky in Mayan literature, ed. by Aveni A. F. (New York and Oxford, 1992), 87–101; Closs Michael P. , “Cognitive aspects of ancient Maya eclipse theory”, in World archaeoastronomy, ed. by Aveni A. F. (Cambridge, 1989), 389–415.

Cf. Köhler Ulrich , “Conceptos acerca del ciclo lunar y su impacto en la vida diaria de indígenas mesoamericanos”, in Arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomía en Mesoamérica, ed. by Broda J. Iwaniszewski S. and Maupomé L. (Mexico City, 1991), 235–48, p. 235.

Lehmann , op. cit. (ref. 74), 773f., 777. Since each synodic period of the Venus table in the Dresden Codex ends with Venus's heliacal rise in the east, the morning star may have been considered “old”, as among the present-day Mixe-Popoluca; see Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 35–38. Interestingly, Thompson , Maya hieroglyphic writing (ref. 78), 227, mentioned that originally each cycle may have begun with the heliacal setting in the west.

See also the data presented in Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), particularly Summary, pp. 53f.

It should be recalled, however, that even Quetzalcoatl's association with the morning star is neither exclusive nor unambiguous; see Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 28f.

Nicholson , “Religion” (ref. 27), 426f.; idem, “Ehecatl Quetzalcoatl” (ref. 27), 42; Brundage , The fifth sun (ref. 27), 133f.; Davies , op. cit. (ref. 27), 64, 126.

Nicholson , “Religion” (ref. 27), 426.

Moreno Jiménez Wigberto , “Estratigrafía y tipología religiosas”, in Religión en Mesoamérica, ed. by Litvak and Castillo (ref. 69), 31–36, p. 33. Since the ultimate origin of the newcomers is to be searched for towards the north, the following analogies found among North American Indians may not be fortuitous. In a Mandan ceremony described by George Catlin in the nineteenth century, two men painted with red and white stripes, like Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli in codices, were called “the morning rays”: Hall Robert L. , “A Plains Indian perspective on Mexican cosmovision”, in Arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomía, ed. by Broda (ref. 81), 557–74, p. 558. The Pawnee identify their god of war with Venus as morning star: Von Chamberlain Del , When stars came down to Earth: Cosmology of the Skidi Pawnee Indians of North America (Los Altos and College Park, 1982), 55ff.; O'Brien Patricia J. , “Prehistoric evidence for Pawnee cosmology”, American anthropologist, lxxxviii (1986), 939–46, p. 943. Parallelisms between the Pawnee and Mesoamerican cultures were also mentioned by Eric J. Thompson S. , “The moon goddess in Middle America: With notes on related deities”, Contributions to American anthropology and history, no. 29 (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publ. 509; Washington, 1939), 149.

Kelley David H. , Deciphering the Maya script (Austin and London, 1976), 96, Fig. 33; Sáenz , op. cit. (ref. 43), 71. Kelley's hypothesis is supported by the now widely accepted opinion, first proposed by George Kubler, that the impact of Chichén Itzá and the Epiclassic Maya culture on Tula was much stronger than in the reverse direction: Miller V. , op. cit. (ref. 13), 287, 301. In fact, the focus of influences must have been, again, the Gulf Coast area, where examples of the motif of human head in serpent jaws have, indeed, been found: ibid., 301, Fig. 20–31; Alvarez Carlos A. and Casasola Luis , Las figurillas de Jonuta, Tabasco (Mexico City, 1985), pl. 36; Kowalski , “Who am I among the Itza?” (ref. 49), 179.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 39.

Klein , op. cit. (ref. 44), 85ff., 97; Pasztory , “The Xochicalco stelae” (ref. 45).

Kelley David H. , “Quetzalcoatl and his coyote origins”, El México antiguo, viii (1955), 397–416.

Brundage , The fifth sun (ref. 27), 112, observed: “… it is evident that the two forms of Quetzalcoatl, Ce Acatl and Chiucnahui Ehecatl, were originally unconnected.” Significantly, the year 1 Acatl seems to have been of foremost importance for the Chichimecs: López A. , Los mitos del tlacuache (ref. 34), 440, n. 47.

Perhaps the ancient concepts are reflected in the gods' connections with sides of the universe: Both Quetzalcoatl and Cinteotl were associated with the West: Thompson , “Sky bearers” (ref. 51). Some confusions may have been due to the fact that, after all, only one celestial body is involved. Even if Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli's name and the contexts in which he appears indicate his primary association with Venus as morning star, he is occasionally related with both manifestations of the planet: Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 29.

Cf. Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 54.

Eric J. Thompson S. , Ethnology of the Mayas of southern and central British Honduras (Field Museum of Natural History, Publ. 274, Anthropological Series, xvii, no. 2; Chicago, 1930), 63.

Seler Eduard , Codex Fejérváry-Mayer: Eine altmexikanische Bilderhandschrift der Free Public Museums in Liverpool, auf Kosten Seiner Excellenz des Herzogs von Loubat (Berlin, 1901), 71. These associations may be explained by the appropriateness of the early morning time for hunting: Thompson , Maya history (ref. 22), 250.

Brundage , The phoenix (ref. 27), 94f.

Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 28.

Comparative evidence from other cultures shows that similar functions of the morning star, as opposed to those of the evening star, are common all over the world. Venus as morning star is normally associated with hunting, war, light, fire and technological innovations, whereas the evening star has attributes related with fertility, rain and agriculture. The symbolisms characteristic of the evening star probably originated in agricultural societies, since among hunters and gatherers the evening star has little importance: Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, “Venus in the East and West”, paper presented in the First International Conference on Ethnoastronomy: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World, Washington, 1983.

Robertson Donald , “The Tulum murals: The international style of the late post-classic”, in Verhandlungen des XXXVIII. Internationalen Amerikanistenkongresses: Stuttgart-München, 12. bis 18. August 1968, ii (Munich, 1970), 77–88.

Miller Arthur G. , On the edge of the sea: Mural painting at Tancah-Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico (Washington, 1982), 71ff.; Robertson , op. cit. (ref. 100), 86, n. 22.

Miller , On the edge of the sea (ref. 101), 71ff.

Navarrete Carlos , “Algunas influencias mexicanas en el área maya meridional durante el Postclásico Tardío”, Estudios de cultura náhuatl, xii (1976), 345–82, p. 373.

Navarrete , op. cit. (ref. 103), 376 (my translation).

Aveni Anthony , “The real Venus-Kukulcan in the Maya inscriptions and alignments”, in Sixth Palenque Round Table, 1986, ed. by Fields V. M. (Norman and London, 1991), 309–21, p. 309.

Dütting Dieter , “Aspects of Classic Maya religion and world view”, Tribus, xxix (1980), 107–67, pp. 156f.; Graulich Michel , “Mythes et rites des vingtaines du Mexique central préhispanique”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Bruxelles, 1979–80, 410; idem, “Ochpaniztli, la fête des semailles des anciens Mexicains”, Anales de antropologia, xviii, part 2 (1981), 59–100, p. 83.

Aveni , “The moon and the Venus table” (ref. 80), 89, 97.

Thompson , Maya hieroglyphic writing (ref. 78), 134f., 137.

The awareness of this commensurability is attested in the Dresden Venus table, and probably also in the 8-year intervals at which the Aztec Atamalcualiztli festival of the rejuvenation of maize was celebrated; see Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 24 and ref. 136.

Gibbs Sharon L. , “Mesoamerican calendrics as evidence of astronomical activity”, in Native American astronomy, ed. by Aveni A. F. (Austin, 1977), 21–35, p. 33.

Both the periods of Venus visibility and the length of the agricultural cycle may have a causal relationship with the Mesoamerican sacred cycle of 260 days: Motolinia attributes the origin of this almanac to Venus visibility periods; on the other hand, the 260-day count is still used for scheduling agricultural works in some Guatemalan communities: de Motolinia Toribio Fray , Memoriales, Manuscritos de la colección del Sr. Don J. García Icazbalceta (Mexico, Paris and Madrid, 1903), 54; Tedlock Barbara , “Earth rites and moon cycles: Mayan synodic and sidereal lunar reckoning”, paper presented in the First International Conference on Ethnoastronomy: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World, Washington, 1983.

Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 99).

Eliade , op. cit. (ref. 75), 150–77; Seler , Gesammelte Abhandlungen (ref. 5), iii, 336; Thompson , “The moon goddess” (ref. 87); Köhler , op. cit. (ref. 81).

Lehmann , op. cit. (ref. 74), 772; Preuss Theodor Konrad , Die Nayarit-Expedition, i: Die Religion der Cora-Indianer (Leipzig, 1912), LVII. The Maya must have had similar concepts, as the moon glyphs are normally placed in the western part of celestial bands; see Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 39.

Thompson , “Sky bearers” (ref. 51), 225f.; Preuss , op. cit. (ref. 114), XXXVII.

See Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 38.

E.g. iconography of the Governor's Palace at Uxmal, and ethnographic evidence: Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 26f., 33–35, 37, 47.

See Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 45–50.

Wisdom Charles , The Chorti Indians of Guatemala (Chicago, 1940), 437ff.; Enciclopedia Yucatanense, 2nd edn (Mexico City, 1977), vi, 203. Another phenomenon that may have called attention is that Venus, moving along the western horizon, is always ahead of the sun: The evening star attains its extremes before the sun does, i.e. before the solstices. In a way, it anticipates the annual movement of the sun along the western horizon (on the eastern horizon the reverse is true: Venus as morning star follows the sun in its annual movement). The phenomenon may be alluded to in Motolinia , op. cit. (ref. 111), 53f. (quoted in Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 34f.). Was it for that, too, that the evening star was considered particularly powerful?.

In the Peruvian Andes the evening star extremes also delimit the rainy season, which starts in October and ends in April: Zuidema R. T. , “The Inca calendar”, in Native American astronomy, ed. by Aveni A. F. (Austin and London, 1977), 219–59, pp. 228ff.; Camino Alejandro D. C. , “Tiempo y espacio en la estrategia de subsistencia andina: Un caso en las vertientes orientales sudperuanas”, SENRI Ethnological studies, x (1982), 11–38. Interestingly, the ceremonies for the Thunder God, identified with Venus, were performed in April: Tom Zuidema, pers. com., 1988. In Mesopotamia, where the fertility goddess Ishtar was related with Venus as evening star ( Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 99)), the period of rising rivers and floods lasts from November to May. More comparative research would be required, however.

The differentiation of ancient Roman deities probably underwent similar processes; cf. Frazer George James , The golden bough: A study in magic and religion (London, 1922), chap. 16.

Moreno Jiménez , op. cit. (ref. 87), 33.

Cf. Šprajc , op. cit. (ref. 1), 30–35. On diverse manifestations and functional polyvalence of Mesoamerican gods see López A. , Los mitos del tlacuache (ref. 34), 207ff.

Thompson , Maya history (ref. 22), 250.

Cf. Köhler , op. cit. (ref. 81).

Broda Johanna , “Astronomy, cosmovisión, and ideology in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica”, in Ethnoastronomy and archaeoastronomy in the American tropics, ed. by Aveni A. F. and Urton G. (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, ccclxxxv (1982)), 81–110, p. 105.

Hunt Eva , The transformation of the hummingbird: Cultural roots of a Zinacantecan mythical poem (Ithaca and London, 1977), 269.