Jaguars

This jaguar image comes from the USFWS National Digital Library. It was
created by Gary M. Stolz.

Panthera onca, or the jaguar as it is commonly called, is a large cat that you can find from South America up into Mexico and even the United States' South West. Though they are large (Males can be 200 pounds) and are carnivores, they like to stay away from people -- though they will attack if upset.

The ancient Maya had a lot of cultural connections to this beautiful animal. They thought it was sacred and they looked at it as a symbol connected to royalty. Jaguars were also mixed into the ancient Maya's religious beliefs: among the supernatural beings they believed to exist, there were ones that had jaguar features.

Supernatural Beings
One supernatural being that had features of a jaguar was the Unen Balam -- the Baby Jaguar --, the Water Lily Jaguar, and possibly the Jaguar God of the Underworld. The Baby Jaguar is a being that was drawn on codex style vessels. The Waterlily Jaguar was an underworld god as was the Jaguar God of the Underworld, who may have been an aspect of the sun.

With Royalty

Also from the USFWS National Digital Library. Created by
John and Karen Hollingsworth. 

At least with what ancient Maya art shows, looks like among royalty, it was cool to wear jaguar skins - it was a way of saying "I'm royal and can wear this skin because of that fact." It was a symbol of their right to rule, their power over everything.

And royalty didn't just wear jaguar skins. The art shows that it was common for royal thrones in art to have jaguar pelts on them. Royalty also took jaguar skins to the grave. Based on the fact that jaguar foot bones (phalanges) have been found in royal tombs, it looks like royal people's bodies were laid down on jaguar pelt mats. (Other kinds of mats were also used.)

As an Art Design
Speaking of art, the ancient Maya liked to include the jaguar in different items, including items made of ceramic as well as jade items and in structures like temples and stelae. Artists started to put jaguars into their works as far back as 1,000 BC.

One kind of pottery painted design artists would create was this: they would paint a jaguar skin on their pots, so that it looked like a real skin had been put on it. This style became notably popular in the 600s AD. The artists would include "loops" that may be representing how the skin pulls when being dried on the drying board. They would also draw the edge of the skin either with a flat edge or a ragged edge.

Wahy
A type of spirit being that the ancient Maya believed in was the wahy. Wahys could look like different things, including animals. In fact, one way to draw the glyph for wahy is a face that is half person and half jaguar pelt.

References
Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015

Google Books: "The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence"; Stephen Houston; 2014

Google Books: "The Maya Tropical Forest: People, Parks, and Ancient Cities"; James D. Nations; 2010

UMFA: Pre-columbian Art: Utah Museum of Fine Arts Evening for Educators; 10 March, 2004

The Free Dictionary: Encyclopedia: Jaguar

The Free Dictionary: Phalanx


Image Credits:
USFWS National Digital Library: Images: Jaguar; Gary M. Stolz

USFWS National Digital Library: Images: Jaguar; John and Karen Hollingsworth; April 18, 2008

The Water Lily Jaguar

In the middle of this rollout image is the Water Lily Jaguar. It is on a witz (a living mountain) in between a wahy on the left and Chaak on the right. (There's also a serpent that is coming out of the witz.) The vessel was made between 600s AD and 700s AD, either in Mexico or Guatemala. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Known today as the Water Lily Jaguar, this underworld (or Xibalbá) god was one of the more major ones the ancient Maya worshiped. It was associated with royalty and libation (pouring liquid as a sacrifice.) The Water Lily Jaguar is still a puzzle for archaeologists, and there are different theories about what the ancient Maya believed about it.

Appearance

This vessel was made between the 600s AD to the
700s AD, in Guatemala. It's style is the Chamá style.
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Water Lily Jaguar looks like a jaguar that has water lilies on it or next to it and a collar of eyeballs, which could mean the god was connected to sacrifice.

As for the water lilies' placement, sometimes they're on the god, sometimes there's just one flower on its head (and its ears are water lily leaves,) and sometimes they're around it. (One description -- in a paper by J. Andrew McDonald and Brian Stross -- also says that you can find images of the god with a water lily "blade" is on its head, instead of a water lily flower.)

When the flowers are around or all over the Water Lily Jaguar, there are also symbols for Venus, but not just any Venus symbols. These were drawn so they look kind of like water lilies.

There's another notable feature of the Water Lily Jaguar: its teeth. The ancient Maya drew supernatural jaguars' teeth two ways. One way was to draw a fang in the middle of the mouth. The other way was to draw them with a tooth shaped like an ik' sign. But not the Water Lily Jaguar -- the ancient Maya drew it with regular canines.

Connection with Royalty
It looks like the ancient Maya believed the Water Lily Jaguar protected royalty. Another theory about this god's connection to royalty says it might have been a god of male lines of royalty. (Speaking of royalty, there's a burial at Tikal called Burial 196 that had a jade figurine of the Water Lily Jaguar  -- it weighs 3.5 pounds!)

Connection with Libation
Images of elites making libations show them with certain features. One feature is that the elites wear water lilies in their hair. The second feature is that they have jaguar spots on their skin.

Other Connections
One theory about the Water Lily Jaguar says that the god may have been connected to the rainy season. (Because water lilies bloom in the rainy season.) Another theory says that it was a god of plants as well as fertility. Meanwhile, the same theory that suggests the Water Lily Jaguar was a god of male lines of royalty also suggests that it was connected to fire.

References:
Google Books: "Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of the Body and Soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015

San Francisco State University: Mark C. Griffin Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology San Francisco State University: "Jaguar Manifestation in Mesoamerica and Peru"; Amandine Dorian Castex; August 2014

Journal of Ethnobiology": "Water Lily and Cosmic Serpent: Equivalent Conduits of the Maya Spirit Realm"; J. Andrew McDonald, Brian Stross; Spring/Summer 2012

Britannica: Libation

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Mythological Scene

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Throne Scene

Image Credit:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Mythological Scene (Second additional image)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vessel, Throne Scene (Fourth additional image)

K'awiil (God K)

A ceramic box made between 450 AD and 550 AD (and therefore from the Early Classic.)
K'awiil is on the left side. From LACMA.

K'awiil or K'awil was a god connected to several things: royalty, flint, and like Chaak, lightning -- and you may also see it said that he was connected to rain as well. (It seems he was perhaps also worshiped at Palenque as a patron god.) Other names you might see him called include the scepter god and god K.

Features

K'awiil has a snout that turns up, big eyes that have spirals for pupils, a fang coming out of his mouth, and one or both of his legs is a snake, with a snake's head where a foot should be. K'awiil's forehead has a smoking item stuck to it -- a smoking ax head seems to be a common item the Maya would draw on his forehead, though they would draw other items sometimes, like a cigar or a torch. (In a definition of K'awiil on the Metropolitan Museum's website, K'awiil's forehead is also described as being high and having a cartouche on it -- and it is this cartouche that the item is stuck into.)

Connection to Royalty

This artifact may have been a leg from a K'awiil
scepter. It was made between the 600s to 800s AD,
and came from either Guatemala or Mexico.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The ancient Maya connected K'awiil with protection of royal lines as well as coronation -- that is, rulers officially becoming their city-state's ruler. There are drawings of rulers becoming their city'state's ruler while holding a scepter that looks like K'awiil. Inscriptions would have a phrase for when a new ruler took power, a phrase that translates as "he took the K'awiil."

But it went further than that in some city-states like Dos Pilas and Copan. Rulers of these city-states would use the name "K'awiil" as one of their own, as a title. It's possible that because rulers did this -- and also would use Chaak and Yopaat as names -- that it may have been that the ancient Maya thought their rulers had "co-essences" that were lightning.

On a related note, it's possible that people with dwarfism were also connected with K'awiil. They may have been thought to somehow actually be K'awiil.

Connection to Flint/Chert

This eccentric flint came from
Guatemala. It was made between the 
600s AD and 700s AD. From 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The ancient Maya would create items that are now called eccentric flints. These artifacts are pieces of flint/chert or obsidian that the ancient Maya sculpted into different shapes. Some were meant to look like real things, some were meant to look like gods, and some were just shapes. Among these various designs, they would make K'awiil-shaped eccentric flints. (And on a related note, the ancient Maya either may have thought or really did think that flint/chert happened when lightning hit the ground.)

It's also been found that, at the site of Piedras Negras, there are flakes of flint that had been painted with different gods's image, including K'awiil's image. In fact, K'awiil's image was the one that got painted the most.

Connection to Chaak

Speaking of stone, K'awiil was sometimes drawn as a hammer -- but not just any hammer. In his hammer form, drawings show him being used by Chaak.

This vessel was made between 800
AD and 1200 AD, in Mexico. From
the Yale University Art Gallery.

Patron God at Palenque

You may find it said that K'awiil was one of three patron gods of Palenque. He is seen as being the same as a god worshiped there that was called "Baby K'awiil" or "Unen K'awiil. (Archaeologists also call this god GII.)

Consideration: Astronomy Connection?

In the Late Classic, it was common for references to K'awiil -- inscriptions that include his name, or images of him -- to also talk about either Saturn or Jupiter when in retrograde. (Retrograde is the part of an object's orbit when it looks like it is moving west to east in comparison with the stars.)

There is a theory that has a lot of ideas about what this meant. Two ideas in it wonder if K'awiil was connected somehow to Jupiter -- or perhaps to Saturn and Jupiter's retrograde part of their orbits.

References:

Google Books: "The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2015

Google Books: "The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence"; Stephen Houston; 2014

Google Books: "The Maya and their Central American Neighbors: Settlement Patterns, Architecture, Hieroglyphic Texts, and Ceramics"; Geoffrey E. Braswell (editor); 2014

Google Books: "Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica"; Walter R.T. Witschey, Clifford T. Brown; 2012

Google Books: "The First Maya Civilization: Ritual and Power before the Classic Period"; Francisco Estrada Belli; 2011

Mesoweb: Maya Archaeology: Reports: "Painted Lithic Artifacts from PiedrasNegras,Guatemala"; Zachary X. Hruby; Gene Ware; 2009

Google Books: "Daily Life in Maya Civilization" second edition; Robert J. Sharer; 2009

Google Books: "Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2008

ResearchGate: "Archaeoastronomy: Journal of Astronomy in Culture": "The Maya Katun Cycle and the Retrograde Periods of Jupiter and Saturn"; Susan Milbrath; January 1, 2005

The University of Texas at Austin: Department of Astronomy: college of Natural Sciences: AST 301: Introduction to Astronomy

LACMA: Carved Box with Deities

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Scepter with Profile Figures

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Grasping the Foot of Lightning in a Maya Scepter Fragment

Image Credits:

LACMA: Carved Box with Deities

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ceremonial Handle (?)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Scepter with Profile Figures

Yale University Art Gallery: Pedestal Vase Depicting K’awiil, God of Lightning