Vucub-Caquix (, , possibly meaning 'seven-Macaw') is the name of a bird demon defeated by the Hero Twins of an ancient Maya myth preserved in an 18th-century K'iche' document, entitled ʼ

Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, ...

ʼ. The episode of the demon's defeat was already known in the Late Preclassic Period, before the year 200 AD as represented in Stela 2 and Stela 25 of

Izapa Izapa is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas; it is best known for its occupation during the Late Formative period. The site is situated on the Izapa River, a tributary of the Suchiate River, ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

which is its earliest representation and the precedent of the story that was narrated in the Popol Vuh many centuries later. In his appearances, Vucub-Caquix is described as a demon bird and a false sun god with shining eyes that daily sat on a big tree to eat its fruits, he was also the father of Zipacna, an underworld demon deity, and Cabrakan, the Earthquake God.

The Kʼicheʼ Tale

Vucub-Caquix is described as a powerful bird pretending to be the sun and moon of the twilight world in between the former creation and the present one. According to modern Kʼicheʼ, his name refers to the seven stars of the

Big Dipper The Big Dipper (American English, US, Canadian English, Canada) or the Plough (British English, UK, Hiberno-English, Ireland) is an asterism (astronomy), asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them ar ...

asterism. The false sun-moon bird was shot out of his tree with a blowgun by Hun-Ahpu, one of the

Maya Hero Twins The Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial Kʼicheʼ document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Kʼ ...

, but still managed to sever the hero's arm. Finally, however, the demon was deprived of his teeth, his eyes, his riches, and his power. Together, the Twins were to become the true sun and moon of the present creation. The episode is only loosely connected to the main tale of the Twins, and is varied by other Mesoamerican hero myths. It is also akin to certain scenes in Maya art dating back to the 8th century and before.

The Twins Shooting Vucub-Caquix: Earlier Scenes

The 16th-century Popol Vuh episode has been used for interpreting certain early stone monuments as well as Classic-period pottery scenes. References to the episode are already present on the Late Preclassic stela 25 from

, near the Pacific coast, where a man with a mutilated arm looks upward towards a bird perched on a three, on a ceramic plate from Quintana Roo found near Chetumal known as the Blom Plate where a finely detailed painting makes a clear representation of the scene where the Hero Twins shot Vucub Caquix with their blowgun and on a facade of the Copan ballcourt, where a war-serpent head inserted between the legs of a large bird holds the severed arm of Hunahpu. The episode has also been connected to Izapa's stela 2, where two small figures assumed to be the Twin Heroes flank a large descending bird personifier (perhaps a royal ancestor).

Izapa stelae

Stela 25 from the Izapa archaeological site in Mexico contains the earliest representation of Vucub Caquix. This ancient monument, dating from around 300 to 250 BC, depicts the mythological scene in which Hunahpu, one of the Hero Twins, loses his arm while facing Vucub Caquix. On the stele, Hunahpu appears armed with a blowgun and with his arm mutilated looking at Vucub Caquix in the heights while he holds his severed arm. Stela 25 connects with Stela 2 from Izapa, this monument illustrates the confrontation between the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque with Vucub Caquix. This mythological scene dating from the pre-Classic Mesoamerican period is the antecedent of the narrative present in the Popol Vuh written several centuries later.

Blom Plate

A large ceramic plate known as the Blom Plate, dating to the Late Classic Maya period discovered in southern Quintana Roo, Mexico, features a unique and finely detailed painting considered a master piece of

Maya art Ancient Maya art comprises the visual arts of the Maya civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture made up of a great number of small kingdoms in what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Many regional artistic tradit ...

depicting the mythological scene of the legendary battlebetween the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque against Vucub-Caquix. The painting illustrated on the plate representes Vucub Caquix as a large bird in the center of the scene standing on a tree while on its sides the Hero Twins Hunahpu on the left and Xbalanque on the right aim and shoot at him with their blowguns to kill him. The Blom Plate was part of a burial and belonged to a local royal member with the title of ch'ok (prince), as recorded in a hieroglyphic inscription while the great iconographic quality indicates the importance of the myth.

Problems with the Vucub-Caquix Identifications

As to the Classic Maya scenes painted on pottery, they show Hun-Ahpu (or Hun-Ahau) aiming his blowgun at a steeply descending bird with the characteristics of the so-called 'Principal Bird Deity', an avian transformation of

Itzamna Itzamná () is, in Maya mythology, an upper god and creator deity thought to reside in the sky. Itzamná is one of the most important gods in the Classic and Postclassic Maya pantheon. Although little is known about him, scattered references a ...

. The solar affiliation of ( Kinich Ahau) Itzamna is part of the argument for identifying the Popol Vuh and the Classic episode, since the upper god's solar aspect seems to reflect the claim to solar status voiced by Vucub-Caquix. Leaving apart the representations on stone mentioned above, the identification of the Classic Maya bird-shooting scenes on pottery with the shooting of Vucub-Caquix causes problems.cf. Bassie-Sweet 2008:140 For one, the bird involved is usually the avian transformation of the creator god,

, and the concept of a generally venerated creator god seems to be at odds with the demonic nature of Vucub-Caquix. Secondly, the shooting of the Principal Bird Deity includes elements foreign to the Quichean tale. The bird is clearly not a macaw, and instead of being perched in a tree, it can even assume the (deceptive?) shape of a heron or cormorant-like bird seated on the waters. Thirdly, and more basically, there is no reason why the Twins, being bird-hunters, should not have been involved in more than one bird-shooting episode. As a matter of fact, at least one pottery scene has Hun-Ahpu shooting a vulture. Therefore, rather than referring to the Vucub-Caquix tale, the shooting of the Principal Bird Deity may well represent a now lost bird-shooting episode of Twin mythology. It seems clear that if a generalized Vucub-Caquix theory is to stand the test, important questions still need to be answered.

Notes

Literature

*Karen Bassie-Sweet, ''Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 2008. * *Julia Guernsey, ''Ritual and Power in Stone. The Performance of Rulership in Mesoamerican Izapa Style Art''. Austin: University of Texas Press 2006. *Nicholas Hellmuth, ''Monsters and Men in Maya Art''. *Karl Taube, ''Aztec and Maya Myths''. *Dennis Tedlock (tr.), ''Popol Vuh''. New York: Simon and Schuster 1996. {{Maya Characters from the Popol Vuh Maya deities Legendary birds