Open To Interpretation
Witz Monster
quotes
Chac was believed to dwell in caves, where he created water and thunder and his looping lip and brow are symbols of the sacred mountain4. This creates a strong association with the primordial cave entrance to the underworld, but also blurs the image of Chac with another primordial beast known as the Witz’ Monster – whose symbolism also includes curling facial features and whose name, Witz’, was the Maya word for mountain.
W0490CC: Witz Monster The Witz’ Monster typically features the Kawak glyph on its forehead (a triangle of 6 circles), which represents drops of water (the beast was formerly called the Cauac Monster on account of this glyph3, but it is now known as the Witz monster on account of the word Witz being found written in its eye). The Witz’ Monster is frequently depicted with divine rulers emerging from its jaws or standing on its head to indicate their divine reincarnation as the Maize God – either posthumously or as part of their accession rites. The Witz monster that is depicted in the Temple of the Foliated Cross at Palenque (fig. W0490CC) exhibits clear similarities with Chicanna Structure II, including a dual or triple perspective design with a front-facing portrait flanked by left and right profile images. Emanating from a cleft in its brow are the precious crops of corn, which then fall around the monster’s head. This cleft is just about visible on the façade of Chicanna Structure II and symbolises the crack in the mountain/earth from which the maize god arose – which is likely to be an analogy for the sun rising on the winter solstice between peaks on the horizon (ancient observers used features on the horizon to record the special days of the year). What is clear from the Palenque example, is that the corn plants curling from the crack create the appearance of a looping brow on the two profile images of the Witz Monster. Therefore, we can be fairly certain that the curled brows on the profile-monsters and Chac Masks of Chicanna Structure II are intended to associate them with maize and agriculture – and quite possibly with the Witz monster itself.
https://uncoveredhistory.com/mexico/chicanna/chicanna-structure-ii-monster-temple/
Fig. 4. Drawing of witz monster Bonampak Stela 1, by Linda Schele. © David Schele. The mountain deity's eyes are in light blue, the eyelids and brows are in dark blue, the snout is in teal, the teeth in violet, and the jade ear flares worn by the mountain are in green. The Maya maize god emerges from the stepped cleft in the mountains head (see "The Drinking Cup of a Classic Maya Noble" for another example of maize god emergence).
https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2014/mountains-eyebrow
end quotes
Notes: game on...on the radio...Redsox at Angels...Angels 5-4...top of eighth...Angels go ahead, then Boston catches up...tough game...Walsh with two home runs...Ohtani with his 32nd..."too much", I say, when overwhelmed, or underwhelmed by my own musings...and lament, "I live in a cave."...Fletch saves the inning with great play...to bottom of eighth...the Mayan Witz monster lives in a cave...and, and, as it happens, the "fret step fret" represents its cave!...this ties everything together!...my lament for a long while was I couldn't find the step fret triangle in Mayan motifs...now I have them all over...the path to this led from the Zapotec/Puuc motifs/step fret triangle, which are distinctly lifted from Peru/Andean motifs/step fret triangle..."lifted" by trade, war prizes, telepathy, aliens...I dunno...see previous posts...123...to top of ninth...hang on Angels!...K...now, to review, frets can be represented by dragon/serpent heads (or lobster claws!), and the steps represent mountain/cave (mouth/head/skull)...K...and this is a graphic representation of the travels of the sun, through a year solstice to solstice/sunset to sunrise...K...123...Angels 5-4..."Mark, you can put a halo over this one!"-Terry...too much...more tomorrowmorrow!
:)
DavidDavid
No comments:
Post a Comment