Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [218]
Governed by a council of nobles, Chichén Itzá dominated Yucatán with a combination of military strength and control over important trade routes until it declined around 1200. For the next two hundred years, the Yucatán was divided by civil wars, and the Mayas later merged with the Toltecs, a warrior group that moved in from northern Mexico. In the early 1500s, the Spanish invaded the Mayan territories, and by 1550 had overcome almost all the Mayas, enslaving those who survived on the large-scale plantations they began to build.
Which gods like a good ball game?
Finally, a myth that every red-blooded sports fan can love! It involves a ball game. Today, people often speak of the mythic accomplishments of certain athletes—like Babe Ruth’s prodigious home runs promised to a sick boy. But great athletes were actually a part of the Mayan mythology. Along with other Mesoamericans, the Mayas passionately played a sport that takes center court—literally—in the Popol Vuh.
The Mayan sport, simply called “the ball game,” was more than just a game. Combining ritual elements with Super Bowl–level excitement, the sport was played on a ball court with two walls. The largest such court found in the ancient Mayan world is at Chichén Itzá and measures 140 by 35 meters (approximately 153 by 38 yards, or longer and narrower than a typical international soccer field or American football field). The courts featured two steeply sloping parallel stone walls inset with round disks or rings set high on the walls at right angles. Two teams competed in a contest to pass a rubber ball through such a ring. Other versions of the game included markers that could also be hit to score points. The game was probably invented by the Olmecs, who were the first to cultivate the rubber tree and whose name came from Aztec and meant “the people who use rubber.”
Sounds easy—like basketball. But the tricky part was that the ball couldn’t touch the ground, and had to be hit off the walls, using only the elbows, knees, or hips. A single score—or the ball touching the ground—usually ended the match. So, winning must have been difficult—but losing was even harder. “Sudden death” in this ball game could be literal, since the leader of the losing team sometimes became a sacrificial victim. It didn’t happen at every ball game but often enough, as human sacrifice was essential in the Mesoamerican religions. And modern professional coaches think they are under a lot of pressure!
The central importance of the ball game is underscored in a story in part 3 of the Popol Vuh, in which two different sets of heroes are very good “ball players,” who play an “under-World Series” with the gods of death.
The first set of twins, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu (their names are actually dates from the elaborate Mayan calendar), are playing ball one day, but the noise of their game annoys the lords of Xibalba (hell), One Death and Seven Death, who invite the brothers to the underworld for a game. Among the other lords of the Mayan underworld are the charmingly named Scab Stripper, Blood Gatherer, Demon of Pus, and Demon of Jaundice. When the twins arrive and play the game, the lords of hell flat out cheat, kill the brothers, and decapitate them—losing heads is a recurring theme in the Popol Vuh.
One twin’s head is placed in a tree as a warning not to mess around with the lords of hell. But Blood Moon, the daughter of Blood Gatherer, is fascinated by the head and is even more surprised when it speaks to her. The head tells the girl to put out her hand, and then spits on it. This makes Blood Moon pregnant.