Mayan Deities
Deity Role
Ah Puch (Yum Cimil) god of death and destruction, brought disease and was associated with war
Chac rain god
Cizin (Kisin) god of death, linked with earthquakes
Hun-Hunahpú (Ah Mun) god of maize and vegetation
Hunahpú and Xbalanqúe twin sons of Hun-Hunahpú, tricked the lords of the underworld
Itzamná chief god, ruler of heaven, of night and day, and of the other deities
Ixchel goddess of fertility, pregnancy, and childbirth
Kinich Ahau sun god, sometimes considered an aspect of Itzamná
Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl) Feathered Serpent, god of learning and crafts
ball game, but it may have represented the movement of the heavenly bodies or a symbolic kind of warfare that ended in human sacrifice.
The Maya also shared the elaborate calendar system used across much of Mesoamerica. One part, called Haab by the Maya, was a 365-day calendar based on the sun's annual cycle. The other, called Tzolkin, was a 260-day sacred calendar. The two calendars meshed in a cycle known as the Calendar Round, which repeated every 52 years. The Maya used the calendar both for measuring worldly time and for sacred purposes, such as divination. Each day in the Calendar Round came under the influence of a unique combination of deities. According to the Maya, the combination that occurred on a person's date of birth would influence that person's fate.