Vessel with mythological scene

Inscription: The most common texts on Classic Maya vessels are statements that artists used to name the type of vessel (e.g., "plate" vs. "drinking cup"), the material it originally held (e.g., "chocolate" vs. "tamales"), and the owner or giver of the gift. For more about drinking cups, see Now at the Met.

On this cup, eleven glyph blocks are found along the top rim and in empty spaces within the compositional field.

The date is given with the day and month, not fixed in the Maya Long Count of days:
• 7 Muluk (day sign)
• 10 Sak (month sign)

Maya vessels often have dates to anchor the depictions in broader cycles of historical time. In this case, however, the date is erroneous, i.e., the month prefix number is incorrect. If the artist meant to portray a real date (which, perhaps he or she did not, in the case of a mythological date), it could correspond to a 7 Muluk 12 Sak date, most likely in AD 689 (9.12.17.8.9) or AD 741 (9.15.10.3.9). Of note: the coefficient of the day sign has a hollow bar, but the bars in front of the month are filled in.

Surrounding the death god are three glyph blocks:
• sak-ha – “whitening," describing the pale color of the death god
• (damaged) – Perhaps proper name of death god, logogram deity head
• u-wahy – “it is his wahy”
• b’aku – “child” – perhaps the owner of the cup was a young lord or lady; alternatively, it could be spelling ba-TUUN-[ni], "head-stone," referring to another part of the image.

The owner of the vessel (and presumably the wahy spirit) is described in the following glyph blocks:
• k’uhul chatan winik – a royal title in use during the Classic Period
• yal – “mother’s son”[?], perhaps a parentage statement, common in vessel and monumental texts.
• 7-tzi-? – [undeciphered, first part of mother’s name?]
• ? – [undeciphered, second part of mother’s name?]

The final block describes the rain god character:
• yax-ha’al – “first rain [Chahk]”

(Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, May 10, 1980, no. 208)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art," November 14, 2022–April 2, 2023.

Kimbell Art Museum. "Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art," May 7–September 3, 2023.

Robicsek, Francis, and Donald Hales. The Maya Book of the Dead: The Ceramic Codex: The Corpus of Codex Style Ceramics of the Late Classic Period.. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Art Museum, 1981, pp. 24, 41–42; interior front cover.

Justin and Barbara Kerr. "Some Observations on Maya Vase Painters." In Maya Iconography, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, and Gillett G. Griffin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, ca. 1988, See fig. 7.11d, p. 251.

Robicsek, Francis, and Donald Hales. "The Sacrifice of Xbalanque." In Maya Iconography, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, and Gillett G. Griffin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, ca. 1988, See p. 269, fig. 8.11.

Scherer, Andrew K., and Stephen D. Houston. "Blood, fire, death: covenants and crises among the classic Maya." In Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican Ritual Practice. Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian symposia and colloquia. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2018, fig. 5.15.

Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo, James Doyle, and Joanne Pillsbury, eds. Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022, pp. 110–111, figs. 77A, 77B.