Chapter 4 Part 2, The Culture Hero Itzamna

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section fourteen, Chapter four, Part two of American Hero Myths.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Read by James Bleckley. American hero Myths,

(00:21):
A study in the Native religions of the Western Continent
by Daniel Garrison, Britain. Chapter four, Part two. The culture
hero it' zomna one. The culture hero, it's zomna. To
this ancient leader, it's Zomna. The nations alluded as their guide, instructor,

(00:41):
and civilizer. It was he who gave names to all
the rivers and divisions of the land. He was their
first priest, and taught them the proper rights wherewith to
please the gods and appease their ill will. He was
the patron of the healers and diviners, and had disclosed
to the them the mysterious virtues of plants. In the

(01:03):
month Ulloh, they assembled and made new fire and burned
to him incense, And, having cleansed their books with water
drawn from a fountain from which no woman had ever drunk,
the most learned of the sages opened the volumes to
forecast the character of the coming year. It was Izamna
who first invented the characters or letters in which the

(01:25):
Mayas wrote their numerous books, and which they carved in
such profusion on the stone and wood of their edifices.
He also devised their calendar, one more perfect even than
that of the Mexicans, though in a general way similar
to it. As city builder in king. His history is
intimately associated with the noble edifices of Izamal, which he

(01:48):
laid out and constructed, and over which he ruled, enacting
wise laws and extending the power and happiness of his
people for an indefinite period. Thus, Itzamna, regarded as ruler,
priest and teacher, was no doubt spoken of as an
historical personage, and is so put down by various historians,

(02:11):
even to the most recent footnote Crescentzio Carrillo, Historia Antigua
de Yucatan, page one forty four, Merida, eighteen eighty one.
Though obliged to differ on many points with this indefatigable archaeologist,
I must not omit to state my appreciation and respect

(02:32):
for his earnest interest in the language and antiquities of
his country. I know of no other Yucatecan who has
equal enthusiasm or so just an estimate of the antiquarian
riches of his native land and footnote. But another form
in which he appears proves him to have been an

(02:53):
incarnation of deity and carries his history from earth to heaven.
This is shown in the very earliest accounts we have
of the Maya mythology. For this account we're indebted to
the celebrated Las Casas, the Apostle of the Indians. In
fifteen forty five, he sent a certain priest, Francisco Hernandez

(03:16):
by name, into the peninsula as a missionary. Hernandez had
already traversed it as chaplain to Montejo's expedition in fifteen
twenty eight, and was to some degree familiar with the
Maya tongue. After nearly a year spent among the natives,
he forwarded a report to Las Casas in which, among

(03:36):
other matters, he noted a resemblance which seemed to exist
between the myths recounted by the Maya priests and the
Christian dogmas. They told him that the highest deity they
worshiped was Izona, who had made men and all things
to him was born a son named Baccab or Bacabab

(03:56):
by a virgin Chibilius, whose mother was ill. Bakab was
slain by a certain Eopuko on the day called Hemis,
but after three days rose from the dead and ascended
into heaven. The holy ghost was represented by Huak, who
furnished the world with all things necessary to conduct man's

(04:18):
life and comfort. Ask what Bakab meant, they replied, the
son of the Great Father and a Huac they translated
by the merchant. This is the story that a modern
writer says ought to be repudiated without question. But I
think not. It is not difficult to restore these names

(04:40):
to the correct forms, and then the fancied resemblance to
Christian theology disappears, while the character of the original myth
becomes apparent. Gogoludo long since justly construed Izona as a
misreading of Izamnam. Bakabab is the plural form of bah,

(05:00):
and shows that the sons were several. We are well
acquainted with the Bakabab. Bishop Blanda tells us all about them.
They were four in number, four gigantic brothers who supported
the four corners of the heavens, who blew the four
winds from the four cardinal points, and who presided over
the four dominical signs of the calendar. As each year

(05:23):
in the calendar was supposed to be under the influence
of one or the other of these brothers, one bakab
was said to die at the close of the year,
and after the nameless or intercalorie days had passed, the
next Bakab would live. And as each computation of the
year began on the day Immix, which was the third

(05:43):
before the close of the Maya week, this was said
figuratively to be the day of death of the Bakab
of that year, and whereas three or four days later
a new year began with another Bakab, the one was
said to have died and risen again. The myth further
relates that the Bacabs were son of Ixchel. She was

(06:06):
the goddess of the rainbow, which her name signifies. She
was likewise believed to be the guardian of women in
childbirth and one of the patrons of the art of medicine.
The early historians Roman and Ilanda also associated her with Izomna,
thus verifying the legend recorded by Hernandez that the rainbow

(06:27):
should be personified as wife of the light god and
mother of the rain gods. Is an idea strictly in
accordance with the course of mythological thought in the Red Race,
and is founded on natural relations too evident to be misconstrued.
The rainbow is never seen but during a shower and
while the sun is shining. Hence it is always associated

(06:49):
with these two meteorological phenomena. I may quote in comparison
the rainbow myth of the Moxos of South America. They
held it to be the wife of Arama, their god
of light, and her duty was to pour the refreshing
rains on the soil parched by the glaring eye of
her mighty spouse. Hence they looked upon her as goddess

(07:11):
of waters, of trees and plants, and of fertility in general.
Or we may take the moiscas a cultivated and interesting
nation who dwelt on the lofty plateau where Bogataw is situated.
They worshiped the rainbow under the name Kuchaviva and personified
it as a goddess who took particular care of those

(07:34):
sick with fevers and of women in childbirth. She was
also closely associated in their myth with the culture hero Bochka,
the story being that on one occasion, when an ill
natured divinity had inundated the plains of Bogatah, Bochica appeared
to the distressed inhabitants in company with Kuchaviva, and cleaving

(07:55):
the mountains with a blow of his golden scepter, opened
a passage for the waters into the valley below. Footnote
e ricocea gramatica de la Lenguachibcha, Introduction, page twenty. The
similarity of these to the Biblical accounts is not to
be attributed to borrowing from the latter, but simply that it,

(08:18):
as they are both the mythological expressions of the same
natural phenomenon. In Norse mythology, Freya is the rainbow goddess.
She wears the bow as a necklace or a girdle.
It was hammered out for her by four dwarfs the
four winds from the cardinal points, and Odin seeks to
get it from her schwartz er sprung der Mythologie, Section

(08:41):
one seventeen and footnote. As the goddess of the fertilizing
showers of growth and life. It is easily seen how
Ixchel came to be the deity of both women in
childbirth and of the medical art a junosspita, as well
as a juno lukina. The statement is also significant that

(09:05):
the Bacabs were supposed to be the victims of ah Pucha,
the despoiler or destroyer, though the precise import of that
character in the mythical drama is left uncertain. Footnote. The
mother of the Bacabs is given in the myth as
Chibilias or Chibirias, but there is no r in the

(09:26):
Mayan alphabet. Kogoludo mentions a goddess ix chebal Yaks, one
of whose functions was to preside overdrawing and painting. The
name is from Chebel, the brush used in these arts,
but the connection is obscure. End footnote. The supposed holy

(09:47):
ghost Echuak, properly a Kiuk, master of the market, was
the god of the merchants and of the cocoa plantations.
He formed a triad with two other gods, Chak, one
of the rain gods, and Hobnell, also a god of
the food supply. To this triad, travelers, on stopping for

(10:10):
the night, set on end three stones, and placed in
front of them three flat stones on which incense was burned.
At their festival in the month one, precisely, three cups
of native wine mead were drained by each person present.
The description of some such rights as these is no

(10:30):
doubt what led the worthy Hernandez to suppose that the
Mayas had trinitarian doctrines. When they said that the god
of the merchants and planters supplied the wants of men
and furnished the world with desirable things, it was but
a slightly figurative way of stating a simple truth. The
four Bacabs are called by Cogoludo the gods of the winds.

(10:55):
Each was identified with a particular color and a certain
cardinal point. The first was that of the south. He
was called Hobnil the belly. His color was yellow, which,
as that of the ripe ears, was regarded as a
favorable and promising hue. The augury of his year was propitious,
and it was said of him, referring to some myth

(11:17):
now lost, that he had never sinned, as had his brothers.
He answered to the day Khan, which was the first
of the Maya week of thirteen days. Footnote Landa Relacion,
pages two eight to two eleven, et cetera. Hobnil is
the ordinary word for belly stomach from hobo hollow. Figuratively,

(11:43):
in these dialects, it meant subsistence, life, as we use
in both these senses the word vitals. Among the Keeches
of Guatemala, a tribe of Maya stock, we find as
terms applied to their highest divinity upam u u upam kah,
literally belly of the earth, belly of the sky, meaning

(12:07):
that by which earth and sky exist Popol Vu, page
three point thirty two and footnote. The remaining Bacabs were
the red assigned to the east, the white to the north,
and the black to the west, and the winds and
rains from those directions were believed to be under the
charge of these giant caryatides. Their relation with Izamna is

(12:31):
evidenced not only in the fragmentary myth preserved by Hernandez,
but quite amply in the descriptions of the rites at
the close of each year and in the various festivals
during the year as narrated by Bishop Landa. Thus, at
the termination of the year. Along with the sacrifices to
the bacabre of the year, were others to Izomna, either

(12:53):
under his surname Khanil, which has various meanings footnote khan
of which the determinedive is Khanjiel may mean a serpent
or the yellow one or the strong one, or he
who gives gifts or the converser and footnote, or as
kinich Ahu lord of the eye of the day, Lord

(13:17):
of the eye of the day, or yach kok Ahmut
the first to know and hear of events, or finally
as uak mehtun Ahl, lord of the wheel of the months.
The word bakab means erected, set up footnote. The Disiario

(13:38):
Maya del Convento de motul Ms, the only dictionary in
which I find the exact word, translates bakab by Representante
hoogd Buffon. This is no doubt a late meaning taken
from the scenic representations of the supposed doings of the
gods in the ritual ceremonies. The proper form of the

(14:01):
word is wuacub or vacab, which the dictionary mentioned renders
costa Queesa and Pierre or enhiesta delante de otra. The
change from the initial V to B is quite common,
as may be seen by comparing the two letters in
Bio Perez's Di Scenario de la Lengua Maya e g.

(14:24):
Ballac the revolution of a wheel from huallac to turn
to revolve and footnote. It was applied to the Bacabs
because they were imagined to be enormous giants, standing like
pillars at the four corners of the earth, supporting the heavens.
In this sense, they were also called Chac, the giants

(14:46):
as the rain senders. They were also the gods of
fertility and abundance, who watered the crops and on whose
favor depended the return of harvests. They presided over the
streams and wells, and were the divinities whose might is
manifested in the thunder and lightning, gods of the storms,

(15:07):
as well as of the gentle showers. The festival to
these gods of the harvest was in the month Mak,
which occurred in the early spring. In this ceremony, Izamna
was also worshiped as the leader of the Bacabs, and
an important rite called the extinction of the Fire was
performed the object of these sacrifices, and this festival rites

(15:30):
Bishop Landa was to secure an abundance of water for
their crops. These four chak or Bacabab were worshiped under
the symbol of the cross, the four arms of which
represented the four cardinal points. Both in language and religious art,
this was regarded as a tree. In the Maya tongue.

(15:51):
It was called the tree of bread or the tree
of life. The celebrated cross of Palanka is one of
its representations, as I believe I was the first to
point out, and has now been generally acknowledged to be correct.
There was another such cross, about eight feet high in
a temple on the island of Cozumel. This was worshiped

(16:13):
as the god of rain, or more correctly, as the
symbol of the four rain gods, the Baccabs. In periods
of drought, offerings were made to it of birds symbols
of the winds, and it was sprinkled with water. When
this had been done, as to the historian, they felt
certain that the rains would promptly fall. Each of the

(16:35):
four bacabs was also called Akantun, which means a stone
set up such a stone being erected and painted of
the colors sacred to the cardinal point that the Bakab represented. Footnote.
The feasts of the Bacabs Ankantun are described in Landa's work.
The name he does not explain. I take it to

(16:57):
be Akhan pasted participles of actal to erect and tun stone,
but it may have another meeting. The word Acan meant wine,
or rather mead, the intoxicating hydromel the natives manufactured. The
god of this drink also bore the name acan Acan

(17:18):
el dios del vino ke s Baco di scenario del
convento de motul m s. It would be quite appropriate
for the Baccabs to be gods of wine and footnote.
Some of these stones are still found among the ruins
of Yucatecan cities and are to this day connected by

(17:41):
the natives with reproductive signs. It's probable, however, that actual
phallic worship was not customary in Yucatan. The Baccabs and
Izamna were closely related to ideas of fertility and reproduction. Indeed,
but it appears to have been especially as god odds
of the rains, the harvests, and the food supply generally,

(18:04):
the Spanish writers were eager to discover all the depravity
possible in the religion of the natives, and they certainly
would not have missed such an opportunity for their tirades
had it existed. As it is, the references to it
are not many and not clear. From what I have
now presented, we see that Itzamna came from the distant east,

(18:27):
beyond the ocean, marge that he was the teacher of
arts and agriculture, that he, moreover, as a divinity, ruled
the winds and rains, and sent at his will harvests
and prosperity. Can we identify him further with that personification
of light, which, as we've already seen, was the dominant

(18:47):
figure in other American mythologies. This seems indicated by his
names and titles. They were many, some of which I've
already analyzed. That by which he was best known was Izamnam,
a word of contested meaning which contains the same radicals
as the word for the morning and the dawn, and

(19:09):
points to his identification with the grand central fact at
the basis of all these mythologies, the welcome advent of
the light in the eastern horizon after the gloom of
the night. Footnote. Some have derived i zamua from I
grandson by a son used only by a female, Zamal

(19:29):
morning morrow from zam before early related to yam first
whence also zamalzam the dawn, the aurora, and Na mother.
Without the accent, Na means house Crescentzio carrillio prefers the
derivation from its meaning anything that trickles and drops as

(19:51):
gum from a tree, rain or do from the sky,
milk from TETs and seamen leche de amour dixona de motoms.
He says itzamna esto s rossio diario or sustincia quotidiana
del silios l s MIAs mo nombre del fundador de

(20:15):
izamal Historia Antigua de Jugtan, page one forty five, Merida,
eighteen eighty one. This does not explain the last syllable Na,
which is always strongly accented. It is said that Zamna
spoke of himself only in the words it's en ka'an
i am that which trickles from the sky. It's en

(20:39):
muyal i am that which trickles from the clouds. This
plainly refers to his character as a rain god. Lizana
Historia de Jucatan, book one, chapter four. If a compound
of it's amal Na, the name could be translated the
milk of the Mother of the mourning or of the

(21:01):
dawn I e the dew, while e zamal Na would
be son of the Mother of the Morning and footnote.
His next most frequent title was kin ich Ahul, which
may be translated either Lord of the Son's face or
Lord the Eye of the Day. As such, he was

(21:22):
the deity who presided in the sun's disc and shot
forth his scorching rays. There was a temple at zamal
consecrated to him as kin ich Cacmon, the eye of
the Day, the bird of Fire. In a time of pestilence,
the people resorted to this temple, and at high noon
a sacrifice was spread upon the altar. The moment the

(21:46):
sun reached the zenith, a bird of brilliant plumage, but
which in fact was nothing else than a fiery flame
shot from the sun, descended and consumed the offering in
the sight of all. At Campeachy, he had a temple
as kin ich ahu Haban, the Lord of the Son's face,

(22:07):
the hunter, where the rites were sanguinary. Another temple, Izamal,
was consecrated to him under one of his names, Kambil,
he of the lucky hand, and the sick were brought there,
as it was said that he had cured many by
merely touching him. This fine was extremely popular, and to

(22:27):
it pilgrimages were made from even such remote regions as Tabasco, Guatemala,
and Chiapas. To accommodate the pilgrim's, four paved roads had
been constructed to the north, southeast, and west, straight towards
the quarters of the four winds. End of Chapter four,
Part two,