Gods and ritual

Gods, kings, and offerings, as the carvings and books show them.

Blood for the gods

In the Popol Vuh the first people are asked for blood from their bodies, and the K’iche’ ancestors are called penitents and sacrificers, aj k’ixb’ and aj k’ajb’ (Chinchilla Mazariegos, 2017, p. 70). On Lintels 13 and 14 at Yaxchilán, Bird Jaguar IV and Lady Chahk Skull appear with bloodletting tools at the birth of their son (Chinchilla Mazariegos, 2017, p. 123).

God S and the ball game

God S draws blood with a perforator and is linked with the Hero Twins. He appears in the murals of San Bartolo, as a ball player in the cave of Naj Tunich, and on a ball court marker at Copán, where King Waxaklahuun Ubah K’awiil is named as his impersonator (Chinchilla Mazariegos, 2017, p. 175).

Death and rebirth

The lid of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal’s sarcophagus at Palenque shows the king in the jaws of a skeletal centipede, a scene read as rebirth (Chinchilla Mazariegos, 2017, p. 123).

Sections to come

• The maize god.
• Itzamnaaj and the gods of the sky.
• God L and the merchants.
• Caves and the underworld.

Sources

• Chinchilla Mazariegos, O. (2017). Art and myth of the ancient Maya. Yale University Press.
• Moholy-Nagy, H. (1997). Middens, construction fill, and offerings: Evidence for the organization of Classic period craft production at Tikal, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology, 24(3), 293–313. https://doi.org/10.2307/530686
• Moholy-Nagy, H. (2003). The hiatus at Tikal, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica, 14(1), 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536103141065
• Román Ramírez, E., Paiz Aragón, L., Bass, A., Garrison, T. G., Houston, S., Hurst, H., Stuart, D., Corado Ochoa, A., García Leal, C., Scherer, A., & Piedrasanta Castellanos, R. E. (2025). A Teotihuacan altar at Tikal, Guatemala: Central Mexican ritual and elite interaction in the Maya Lowlands. Antiquity, 99(404), 462–480. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.3

Every source the site uses is also on the Sources page. Links checked November 6, 2026.