Bacab is the generic Yucatec name for each of the four aged deities of the interior of the earth and its water deposits. Seated in a turtle carapace or a conch, the Bacab is one of the most conspicuous of all Mayan deities.

Yucatec traditions

The Bacabs "were four brothers whom God placed, when he created the world, at the four points of it, holding up the sky so that it should not fall. [...] They escaped when the world was destroyed by the deluge" (Landa, in Tozzer 1941: 135-136). They were called Hobnil, Cantzicnal, Saccimi, and Hosanek. Each ruled one of the directions and the associated Year Bearer day (one of four New Year days). The four brothers were intimately associated with the four Chaacs, or rain deities, and the Pauahtuns, or wind deities, who were equally associated with the four directions. The Maya of Chan Kom referred to the four skybearers as the four Chacs (Redfield and Villa Rojas). Chaac (also rendered as Chaak or Chac) is the originally Yucatec name of the Maya rain deity. ...

According to Francisco Hernández (quoted by Las Casas and Cogolludo), Bacab was the son of the creator god, Itzamna, and of the goddess Ixchebelyax; he had once been humbled, killed and revived. The Bacabs played an important role in the cosmological upheaval associated with Katun 11 Ahau, when Oxlahuntiku 'Thirteen-god' was humbled by Bolontiku 'Nine-god'. According to the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, "then the sky would fall, it would fall down, it would fall down upon the earth, when the four gods, the four Bacabs, were set up, who brought about the destruction of the world" (Roys 1967: 99-100). In Yucatec Maya mythology, Itzamna was the name of an upper god and creator deity thought to be residing in the sky. ... The Chilam Balam (literally Balam [Jaguar] oracle priest) manuscripts stem from Yucatec towns such as Chumayel, Kaua, Mani and Tizimin, and date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. ...

Since they were Year Bearer patrons, the Bacabs were important in divination ceremonies, being approached with questions about crops, weather, or the health of bees (Landa). The world with its four trees and four Bacabs seems also to have been the theatre of shamanic curing sessions, since "the four Bacabs" were often addressed to assist the curer in his struggle with disease-causing demons. (Therefore, the most important early-colonial collection of Yucatec curing texts, the "Ritual of the Bacabs", has been named after them.)

Earlier representations

In earlier representations (which are not restricted to the Yucatan) the Bacabs who carry the sky are represented by old men who carry the sky-dragon. They may have the attribute of a conch or a turtle. In the rain almanacs of the Post-Classic Dresden Codex, the old man with the conch and the turtle is put on a par with Chaac. This old man corresponds to god N in the Schellhas-Zimmermann-Taube classification, a god of thunder, mountains, and the interior of the earth. He has a counterpart in the lecherous, drunken old thunder deities of the Gulf Coast regions (Taube).

In Classic Maya iconography, the Bacab occurs in various stereotypical situations. Fourfold, the Bacabs (or their impersonators) are repeatedly shown carrying the slab of a throne or the roof of a building. A Bacab inhabiting the Earth Turtle is part of the scenes with the resurrection of the Maya maize god. Still unexplained is a recurring scene in which the Bacab, half-hidden in his conch, is held by his wrist, about to be sacrificed with a knife. Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the traditional Mayas recognize in the maize a vital force with which they strongly identify. ...

The Bacab has a peculiar netted element as a distinguishing attribute serving as a headdress, which might conceivably belong to the sphere of the hunt or of beekeeping. It recurs as a superfix in his hieroglyphical names; its reading is uncertain.

References

• Ralph L. Roys, The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Ralph L. Roys, Ritual of the Bacabs. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Karl Taube, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan.
• J.E.S. Thompson, The Bacabs: Their Portraits and Their Glyphs.
• A.M. Tozzer, Landa's Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan. A Translation.