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The Maya Pantheon: Some Principal Gods of the Ancient Maya

There are hundreds of gods in the crowded Mayan pantheon, a situation made even more confusing by gaps in our knowledge resulting from the loss of all but four of the thousands of ancient Mayan manuscripts and by the tendency of the gods to take different forms for each of the cardinal directions, for dualisms such as young-old, male-female, benevolent-malevolent, and so on. Certain major figures recur frequently in tales and artworks, and they can often be identified by their attributes; they can also be identified by their name glyphs (some of which I have not yet added).

Click on a god for more information:


Chak

Itzamna

Death God

Maize God

Hunahpu

Xbalanque

Young Moon Goddess

Ix Chel

Monkey-Man Scribe

Ahaw K'in

The Merchant God