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The Image of Maize God in Classical Maya Art (Caroll, 2005)

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The Image of Maize God in Classical Maya Art (Caroll, 2005)

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“One of the most powerful ways of establishing this relationship between the royalty and the Maize God was to promote it through readily visible physical similarities. After the [Mayan] rulers established the physical ideal of the Maize God, it became requisite that the rulers identify themselves directly with these physical attributes and powers. As discussed earlier, the way in which the ruling class was viewed and depicted was rather important in establishing and maintaining social stratification. As the kings sought to perpetuate the ideal of perfect beauty and ruling power, they turned to the Maize God as the model of these ideal virtues. As a result of this close kinship, it is not uncommon to see rulers being represented in the guise of the Maize God.”

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Divinely sanctioned authority derived from the intimate relationship between maize agriculture and the rituals performed to ensure its abundance. The earliest kings were portrayed wearing the regalia of the Maize God, embodying sacred power that guaranteed abundant crops. This richly dressed figure of an Olmec lord is one of the earliest such portrayals. Above his headband he wears the cleft mask of the Olmec Maize God.

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Mayan representation of a feathered serpent (Kukulkan) 

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Mayan representation of a feathered serpent (Kukulkan) 

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Kukulkan at the base of the west face of the northern stairway of El Castillo, Chichen Itza.  Prior to the Spanish Conquest of the Yucatán, Kukulkan was worshipped by the Yucatec Maya peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula, in what is now Mexico.

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Aztec era stone sculptures of feathered serpents on display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

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Monument 19, from La Venta (1200–400 BC), the earliest known representation of a feathered serpent in Mesoamerica

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Over a hundred ritual caches or deposits containing thousands of objects have been found associated with the Aztec Templo Mayor. Many of these offerings contain objects from faraway places—likely places from which the Mexica collected tribute. Some offerings demonstrate the Mexica’s awareness of the historical and cultural traditions in Mesoamerica. For instance, they buried an Olmec mask made of jadeite, as well as others from Teotihuacan (a city northeast of modern-day Mexico City known for its huge monuments and dating roughly from the 1st century until the 7th century C.E.). The Olmec mask was made over a thousand years prior to the Mexica, and its burial in Templo Mayor suggests that the Mexica found it precious and perhaps historically significant.

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Olmec colossal head from La Venta with comparative size of an adult and child. The monument weighs almost 20 tons.

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Aztec jaguar warrior, tlahuahuanque of the ritual sacrificial combat named sacrificio gladiatorio in spanish and tlahuahuanaliztli o tlauauaniliztli in nahuatl, as portrayed in the folio 30r of the Codex Magliabechiano.

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Located at the Mayan site of Chichen Itza

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An Olmec transformation figure, believed to show the transformation of a shaman into a jaguar.

Source:  Jaguar-human transformation figure, basalt. Height: 7 inc. "Middle Preclassic, 1000-3000 B.C. Veracruz