Ixtab, from Dresden Codex This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
According to Diego de Landa, Ixtab 'Rope Woman' was the Mayan goddess of suicide. In Yucatec Mayan society, suicide, especially suicide by hanging, was under circumstances considered an honorable way to die. Ixtab would accompany such suicides to paradise (thus playing the role of a psychopomp). The picture of a dead woman with a rope around the neck in the Dresden Codex is often taken to represent the goddess. However, since it occurs in a section devoted to eclipses of sun and moon, it might as well symbolize a lunar eclipse and its dire consequences for women. No other pictures possibly representing Ixtab are known. Diego de Landa Calderón (1524 – 1579) was Bishop of Yucatán. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... Many sets of religious beliefs have a particular spirit, deity, demon or angel whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife, such as Heaven or Hell. ... Maya codices (singular codex) are books written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, using the Maya hieroglyphic script. ...
Sources
Landa's Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, ed. A.M. Tozzer (1941).
J.E.S. Thompson, A Commentary on the Dresden Codex. Philadelphia 1972.
This article relating to a myth or legend from Mesoamerica is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Ixtab was the Mayan goddess of suicide and wife of Chamer.
Ixtab, depicted as a corpse with a rope around her neck, would accompany the suicides to their eternal rest (psychopomp).
Some accounts contend that this belief in Ixtab among the peoples of Central America fostered a readiness to commit suicide rather than face disease or disgrace.
In Maya tradition, suicide, especially suicide by hanging, was considered an honorable way to die, comparable to the human victims of the sacrificial rite and slain warriors.
Ixtab, depicted as a corpse with a rope around her neck, would accompany the suicides to their eternal rest (a role called a psychopomp).
Feeds |
Contact