Maya Stele with a Mythological Scene in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2022

Title: Stela with mythological scene

Date: 300 BCE–250 CE

Geography: Mexico, Chiapas

Culture: Maya

Medium: Stone

Dimensions: H. 77 15/16 × W. 46 7/16 × D. 16 9/16 in., 771.6 lb. (198 × 118 × 42 cm, 350 kg)

Credit Line: Museo Arqueológico del Soconusco, Tapachula, Mexico, Secretaría de Cultura–Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia

Accession Number: SL.2.2022.19.1

Maya gods and the myths associated with them were based on earlier traditions. On this relief panel, created in the centuries before the Classic period, are elements of a remarkably enduring myth about the origins of the world. At left, an upended crocodile becomes a lush tree. To the right, a figure holds up a vertical element on which a monstrous bird is perched. Perhaps a mythical hero or god, he has lost an arm, likely in confrontation with the bird. This conflict reappears many centuries later in the early colonial book known as the Popol Wuj. Despite this initial loss, the gods who became the sun and moon ultimately defeated the monstrous avian being, who had pretended to shine like the sun but shed only a dim light.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/854903