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Post by KittyLane on Feb 16, 2007 11:02:40 GMT -5
O. A Goddess with the Features of an Old Woman. This goddess occurs only in the Madrid manuscript and is distinguished by the solitary tooth in the under jaw, as a sign of age, the invariable characteristic of aged persons in the manuscripts. She is pictured in the following places: Tro. 5*c, 6*b, and 11*b, c and d, Cort. 10b, 11a, 38a. In Tro. 11* she is represented working at a loom. She does not appear at all in the Dresden and Paris manuscripts. The figures of women mentioned under I with the serpent on their heads, are especially not to be regarded as identical with goddess O, for she never wears the serpent, but a tuft of hair bound high up on her head and running out in two locks. Her hieroglyph is Fig. 52; it is distinguished by the wrinkles of age about the eye. Owing to the limited number of her pictures, there is little to be said concerning the significance of this goddess. www.gutenberg.org/files/18013/18013-h/18013-h.htm
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Post by KittyLane on Feb 16, 2007 11:04:26 GMT -5
P. The Frog-God. We call him the frog-god because in the Codex Tro. 31, he is pictured in the first and second lines with the club-shaped fingers of a frog, which occur only on this figure. The blue background, which is his attribute twice in the same passage, likewise points to a connection with water, and that the god also has something to do with agriculture may be deduced from the fact that he is pictured sowing seed and making furrows with the planting-stick. The two black parallel stripes at the corner of the eye seem to be folds of skin or marks on the skin, which may represent a peculiarity of this particular species of frog. His head ornament is very characteristic and contains the sign for the year of 360 days. He therefore bears some unknown relation also to the computation of time. It should be recalled in this connection that one of the Maya months is called Uo, frog. The god is pictured again in Tro. 30a and b, Tro. 22 (top, scattering seed) and Cort. 5 (at the very bottom, the figure lying down). Finally his neck ornament must be mentioned, which, as a rule, consists of a neck-chain with pointed, oblong or pronged objects, probably shells. In the Dresden manuscript he occurs but once, Dr. 4a (first figure), with some variations it is true. The text at this place contains H’s hieroglyph. God P does not occur in the Peresianus. His hieroglyph is Fig. 53. It occurs in Tro. 31 (top) and can be unerringly recognized by the two black parallel stripes at the corner of the eye; which correspond exactly to the same marks on the face of the picture of the god himself. This is all that can be said respecting this deity from the pictures in the manuscripts. Its meaning is obscure. Seler’s assumption that god P is Kukulcan (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1898, p. 403) has certainly very slight foundation, and in view of the material from the manuscripts described in the preceding pages, it is in the highest degree improbable. www.gutenberg.org/files/18013/18013-h/18013-h.htm
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Post by KittyLane on Feb 16, 2007 11:05:06 GMT -5
The foregoing is an almost complete enumeration of the god-figures proper in the Maya manuscripts. Whatever other figures of gods occur in the manuscripts are details of slight importance. This is especially true of the Dresden manuscript, which is well nigh exhausted by the types enumerated here; there may be, I think, a few figures still undescribed in the Madrid manuscript, the careless drawing of which renders the identification very difficult. An isolated figure of the Dresden manuscript still remains to be mentioned, concerning which it is doubtful whether it is intended to represent a deity or only a human personage. This is the figure characterized by a peculiar head ornament in Dr. 20b. It is designated in the text by two hieroglyphs, which belong together, Figs. 54 and 55, the latter occurring once with K (Dr. 7a). It seems to represent blowing from the mouth, screaming or speaking. www.gutenberg.org/files/18013/18013-h/images/img19.jpg[/img]
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Post by KittyLane on Feb 16, 2007 11:08:07 GMT -5
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. www.gutenberg.org/files/18013/18013-h/18013-h.htm
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Post by Senbecc on Feb 16, 2007 19:58:10 GMT -5
Now this was interesting...Should it be in the N/A boards though?
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Post by KittyLane on Feb 16, 2007 20:07:54 GMT -5
well maybe. i didnt really know where to put them, they are pretty unique. and they are not N/A so... any suggestions?
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