page_title: Maya jaguar gods
section_title: The Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire and War ('Night Sun')
hierarchical_section_title: Maya jaguar gods / The Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire and War ('Night Sun')
caption_attribution_description: English: Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire on a cinerary urn, Late-Classic period
context_page_description: The pre-Columbian Maya religion knew various jaguar gods, in addition to jaguar demi-gods, protectors, and transformers. The main jaguar deities are discussed below. Their associated narratives are still largely to be reconstructed. Lacandon and Tzotzil-Tzeltal oral tradition are particularly rich in jaguar lore.
  The Maya people saw the jaguar's attributes as a strong and powerful creature, as well as its easily recognizable coat, and incorporated it into their mythology. Many gods were portrayed as jaguars, or at least had characteristics not unlike jaguars, due to their powerful nature.
context_section_description: The Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire is recognizable by a 'cruller' around the eyes (making a loop over the nose), jaguar ears, and fangs. He personifies the number seven, which is associated with the day Akʼbʼal ('Night'). Usually called 'Jaguar God of the Underworld', he has been assumed to be the 'Night Sun' - the shape supposedly taken by the sun (Kinich Ahau) during his nightly journey through the underworld - by reason of having the large eyes and filed incisors that also occur with the sun deity, and of sometimes evincing a k 'in infix. The deity's hypothetical aspect of a nocturnal sun (that is, a subterranean fire) should perhaps be connected to his proven association with terrestrial fire. He is often represented on incense burners and connected to fire rituals, while his 'cruller' may represent a cord used in making fire with a stick (Taube). Moreover, vases in codical style show him, captured, about to be burnt with torches. The nocturnal sun hypothesis is complicated by this very incident, and even more so by the fact that the fiery jaguar deity is identified with a star (or perhaps a constellation or planet). The god's other sphere of influence is war, witness for example the stereotypical presence of his face on war shields.
caption: Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire on a cinerary urn, Late-Classic period
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