MAYA COSMOLOGY

Itzam Ná
Lord of the Skies

Text by Beatriz Martí / Illustrations by Leonardo Berges / Digital art by José Luis Pagán

Alongside the development of sciences like astronomy and mathematics, and arts such as architecture, the Maya conceived the origin of the world, the shape of the universe and the deities living in it.

    Their interpretation of the cosmos included a plethora of gods: some benevolent, others malignant; some unattainable, others close at hand. Defining past, present and future, it concerned itself with death, the afterlife and reincarnation.

    Here we find a cosmology in which everything is attributed to divine intervention.