ID: 901000046 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/ia/901000046	Record Type: Religion/Mythology/Legend

	Bacabs (Maya dieties)

Note: In Mayan mythology, any of four gods, thought to be brothers, who, with upraised arms, supported the multilayered sky from their assigned positions at the four cardinal points of the compass. (The Bacabs may also have been four manifestations of a single deity.) The four brothers were probably the offspring of Itzamná, the supreme deity, and Ixchel, the goddess of weaving, medicine, and childbirth. Each Bacab presided over one year of the four-year cycle.

Names:

	Bacabs (Maya dieties) (preferred,English-P,D,N)
	Bacab (Maya diety) (English,A,N)

Hierarchical Position:

		Legend, Religion, Mythology (P)
		....<Amerindian iconography> (P)
		........<Maya iconography> (P)
		............<Maya characters> (P)
		................Bacabs (Maya dieties) (I)

Other Relationships:

	role/characteristic is .... deities
	.....(people in religion, people in religion and related occupations, people in the humanities, people by occupation, people (agents), People (hierarchy name)) (AAT)

	culture/religion is .... Maya (culture or style)
	.....(Native Highland Mexican and Guatemalan styles, Native Middle American, Native American, Americas, The, styles, periods, and cultures by region, Styles and Periods (hierarchy name)) (AAT)

Sources:

	Bacabs (Maya dieties)
	................Encyclopedia Britannica Online (2002-)
	Bacab (Maya diety)
	................Encyclopedia Britannica Online (2002-)
	................Miller, Maya Art and Architecture (1999)

Iconography Record Sources:

	................ Encyclopedia Britannica Online (2002-) "Bacab," accessed 2 December 2010
	................ Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-)