Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts

SUMMARY.

An enumeration of the most important deities in the manuscripts gives the following results, in connection with which it is to be noted that, of course, the numbers cannot be absolutely correct, because one or another of the pictures occasionally remains doubtful. As far as possible, however, only the positively determined representations have been considered.

The deity occurring most frequently in the Dresden manuscript is god B, who is pictured there 141 times. Following him in point of number in the same manuscript are the death-god A pictured 33 times, god D 19 times, and gods C and E 17 and 14 times respectively.

In the Madrid manuscript, god D, with 84 pictures, is of most frequent occurrence. He is followed by the maize-god E with 76 pictures, god B with 71, god A with 53, C with 38 and M with 37 pictures.

In the Paris manuscript, god E’s picture can be verified 8 times, those of C and B 6 times each and that of god A twice; N and K are also frequently represented.

An enumeration of all the pictures in all the manuscripts shows that the following deities occur most frequently and are therefore to be considered the most important:

1.	God	B:	pictured	218	times.
2.	”	D:	”	103	”
3.	”	E:	”	98	”
4.	”	A:	”	88	”
5.	”	C:	”	61	”
6.	”	M:	”	40	”
7.	”	F:	”	33	”

Furthermore, interesting conclusions can be arrived at, by means of a list of those deities, who occur in the representations of the manuscripts, so united or grouped together as to make it evident that they must stand in some relation to one another. Mythologic combinations of this kind occur among the following deities and mythological animals:

1. In the Dresden manuscript: D and C, B and C, dog and vulture, bird and serpent, B and K.

2. In the Madrid manuscript: F and M, B and M, C and M, E and M, A and E, A and D, A and F, B and C, D and C, D and E.

3. In the Paris manuscript: N and K, B and K.

The most common of these combinations are those of the deities A and F, M and F, A and E, D and C. These groups are entirely intelligible, consisting of death-god and war-god, god of the travelling merchants and war-god, death-god and maize-god (as adversaries: meaning famine), night-god and deity of the polar star.

I. Gods and II. Mythological Animals
Plate 1

Transcriber’sNote

The following errors and inconsistencies have been maintained.

Misspelled words and typographical errors:

Page	Error
10(40)	Footnote 1 missing final period (the footnote has been moved to page 40 in this version of the text)
17	serpent-and rain-deity should read serpent-and-rain-deity
23	Sentence ending with “and 13*^c)” does not have a period
29	manuuscripts should read manuscripts
32	repsented should read represented
33	pp 215-221 should read pp. 215-221
42	comma missing following 37^b
42	comma missing following 65^c

Inconsistencies:

The placement of punctuation at the end of a word or phrase surrounded by quotation marks is inconsistent, usually it is placed outside the final close quotation mark but occasionally is found inside the mark.

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