Functions of The Tonsured Maize God
Iconographically, various functions can be discerned:
- The Tonsured Maize God personifies precious substances: maize, jade, and also cacao. The Popol Vuh has Xquic imploring a 'Cacao Woman', but the Classical Mayas preferred to depict the cacao god as a male. The Tonsured Maize God doubles as a Tonsured Cacao God, wicacao pods growing from his body. More directly, the Tonsured Cacao God's body can be shown as a tree, with his head representing the cacao pod growing on its stem. A Classical Mayan vase in the Popol Vuh Museum seems to show a trophy head suspended in such a personified cacao tree.
- The Tonsured Maize God is intrinsically connected to the lightning deities and can therefore evince a lightning celt or torch stuck in the forehead.
- In addition to being the deity of maize and cacao, the Tonsured Maize God is also a patron of dancing and feasting. As a ceremonial dancer, he often carries a specific 'totemic' animal in his backrack.
- Along with the Howler Monkey Gods, he is a patron of the scribal arts (see fig. 1). In this, as in some other respects, the Tonsured Maize God is a juvenile form of the upper god, God D (Itzamna).
- In his life as in his death and resurrection, the Tonsured Maize God serves as a model for the king.
- In the San Bartolo murals, the Maize God is connected to a fifth world tree probably representing the central tree of life; in Palenque, a maize tree serves as such a tree of life.
Read more about this topic: Maya Maize God
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