It depicts K’inich Janaab’ Pakal falling into the jaws of the earth monster, a stylized tree of life (i want to say a ceiba tree, to be exact), rising in the background. The SCUBA apparatus is the consequence of an unfortunate tangent between a leaf of the tree and Pakal’s nose.
I never saw the spaceship thing myself, but Maya iconography is not exactly widely understood
Oh it’s Maya! Sorry Egyptologists, false alarm.
Oh good! My just awake brain sat there for 5 minutes thinking “I’ve never seen Horus do that before”
I wrote a paper on this exact sarcophagus lid for an art history class
A = the world tree/axis mundi type deal. it is indeed a ceiba tree (often combined with imagery of caimans, which may be the heads spouting from the branches of tree?). it connects the realms of the cosmos, of earth, and of the underworld all together.
B = “Principal Bird Deity”. it’s a macaw perched on top of the ceiba. it’s meant to symbolize accession. macaws are often associated with accession. as Pakal dies, his son succeeds him, an event significant enough to warrant such a major deity to oversee it.
C = “Vision Serpent” maybe, given that the heads of people (ancestors? gods?) are coming out of their mouths. if they are gods, it’s probably the unnamed “Jester God” associated with rulership and K’awiil associated with royal lineage. they’re seeing Pakal off as he passes.
D = skeletal jaws of the underworld swallowing Pakal as he dies. you can see the teeth. they’re similar in imagery to the way jaguar jaws are drawn actually, and that’s probably on purpose given the associations between jaguars and royalty and divinity. the sides of the jaws morph into serpents. pretty cool. the serpent jaws here act as a portal, placing Pakal as either emerging from the portal or slipping into it. this is sorta like a rebirth deal.
E = “Cosmic Monster”, as my professor put it. when the Milky Way passes across the sky from Guatemala and Mexico it looks like a serpent turning into a tree and back (connecting serpents and the world tree concepts). this is as close as any extraterrestial shit can get to Pakal since it is based on a celestial body. The glyph for “sun” (k’in) is on its forehead, and on top of its head is an offering plate (we know this because they tend to depict the same 3 objects: a spondylus shell, stingray spine, and an object representing “way” which is a Maya concept similar to dream/sleep/death).
F = the man himself, Pakal. he’s in a state of falling, hence the odd pose. Pakal is dressed in a way to reference the unnamed “Maize God” figure, often associated with rebirth or resurrection. one could argue his pose is the way it is to resemble a baby since there’s the rebirth theme going on there. while the thing coming out of his nose could be part of the jaw (D), the interpretation i discussed in my paper was that it looked a lot like the tube spouting smoke/fire that K’awaiil has, which would make sense given the also-present theme of succession/accession.
i am NOT a professional here, i am not majoring in mesoamerican anthro or art history, but i did do well in this class and it was my final project.
here’s a cool little graphic that helps paint the picture, too, using some of the same images as the lid itself uses 🙂 i hope any of this helped or made things more clear
[The balizloob is another Maya monster, but unlike the xtabay is very obscure in English. I could find references to it in the Spanish book Monstros Mexicanos (thanks to @abominationimperatrix for the translation!), and a French master’s thesis that refers to that book. Their physical description is basically nonexistent, but since they’re said to live in caves, be highly social and good parents, I knew I wanted to make them something like a flightless vampire bat. I had the darnedest time finding an image I liked (as opposed to something more like the Future Predator from Primeval), until I remembered that some people had interpreted the chubacabra with a similar design.]
Balizloob CR 4 LE Magical Beast This slim creature looks something like a
flightless bat with a long tail. It has dark fur on the upper side of its body,
and pale skin on the underside. Although its long arms bear sharp claws, more
fearsome are its scissor-like, forward facing teeth.
Balizloobs
are mammalian carnivores that live in caves, particularly in humid tropical
environments. They are ambush hunters with keen senses, using a combination of
echolocation, vibrations and scent to track down even hidden prey. Although a
balizloob would be dangerous enough on its own, they are cooperative pack
hunters, and their favorite prey is human beings.
A balizloob
is smarter than an animal—smart enough to know that frequent predation on
human settlements result in their colonies being hunted down and destroyed. So
they limit their attacks to travelers, drunkards, the homeless, and other
people on the outskirts of society who will attract little attention if they
disappear. Mothers sometimes use balizloobs as bogeys to encourage children to
close their windows, lock their doors and keep up minor repairs around the
household, as these monsters are adept at getting into buildings and hiding in
very tight spaces. The bite of a balizloob creates deep, bleeding wounds, and
the monsters use teamwork to surround and overwhelm their prey.
Despite
their savagery towards other species, balizloobs are social and nurturing among
themselves. The young are raised communally, with some members of the colony
staying behind to guard them while others go off to hunt, and both babies and
babysitters provisioned with meat and blood vomited up by the hunters. They are
sensitive to sunlight, so typically sleep deep in their caves by day and go
abroad to hunt by night. Balizloobs do not go out of their way to collect
treasure, but the bodies of anyone who stumbles into one of their caves are
left where they lie, and may have useful items remaining on them.
