Feathered Serpent

This study explores the multifaceted Maya Deluge Myth, from its pre-Columbian origins to current fantasies about a great world-destroying flood at the 13 Baktun period ending of the Maya Long Count on 21 (or 23) December 2012. No such flood is prophesied in any Maya records for this date, and the famous scene on Dresden Codex page 74 is discussed in its context as a symbolic depiction of the annual world-renewing downpours at the onset of the rainy season in springtime in the Maya world. The presiding gods of warfare and blood sacrifice were the agents of fertility and the regeneration of nature, and not the agents for the destruction of the Maya in a world-ending deluge. The misinterpretation of Dresden page 74 has propagated, unchallenged, for over a century of Maya scholarship and found its way into “new age,” fringe, and popular culture. This research helps to set the record straight along with providing a history of the meme.

This Diplôme des Études Approfondies Thesis was presented in 2002 at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Religions et Systèmes de Pensée, under the direction of Dr. Michel Graulich.
It resumed investigations about the Feathered Serpent iconography in the Late Classic site of Chichen Itza. Thanks to a multi and interdisciplinary methodology, the author considered fertility aspects related to human sacrifice as well as to cosmovision.

Résumé : Face aux multiples représentations du serpent à plumes dans le site yucatèque de Chichén Itzá, l’auteur soumet une lecture de cette créature en mettant en évidence son rôle et sa symbolique dans les rituels sacrificiels. En confrontant ses images aux chroniques mayas et mexicaines et à d’autres sites, on peut supposer que l’une de ses plus anciennes valeurs est lié aux différentes formes de sacrifice : cardiectomie, décapitation et automutilation. L’auteur indique également que les quetzalcocoa sont présents dans les rituels préparatoires à ce genre de cérémonies, notamment dans les processions des guerriers vaincus et leur présentation humiliante au dirigeant vainqueur.

Abstract : Through the multiplicity of the feathered serpent’s representations in the Yucatecan site of Chichén Itza, the author provides a reading of this complex creature by pointing out his role and symbolic role in sacrifice rituals. Through maya and mexican chronicles and comparisons with other sites’ images, one may assume one of its most ancient values is linked with different ways of sacrifice: heart-excision decapitation and selfmutilation. The author also indicates that the quetzalcocoa are present in defeated warriors procession, their humiliating presentation to the winning chief.

This Diplôme des Études Approfondies Thesis was presented in 2002 at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Religions et Systèmes de Pensée, under the direction of Dr. Michel Graulich.
This second volume contains figures and tables related to the first volume of reflexions and analysis about the Feathered Serpent iconography at Chichen Itza.

Se estudia el caso de las serpientes emplumadas asociada a cuerpos de agua durante el final de la época prehispánica, su supervivencia y transformaciones hasta la época contemporánea. Desde la arqueología se definen sus características iconográficas y se complementan con datos etnográficos y etnohistóricos de la serpiente de los nublados para demostrar la existencia de una variante del culto a la serpiente emplumada en la zona de Chiapas, Guatemala y El Salvador desde el Clásico Terminal. Los ejemplos presentados incluyen iconografía y datos etnográficos de las lagunas Mensabak, Pethá, Miramar, Tintonixac y Chuquiyaca en Chiapas, laguna Peten Itzá y río Teculxeyá en Guatemala y laguna El Espino en El Salvador además de ejemplos en Chichén Itzá y Xochitécatl-Cacaxtla, México. Se concluye con miras a profundizar en el estudio de la serpiente de los nublados y su persistencia en el culto a los cuerpos de agua en el sur de Mesoamérica.