The traditional Mayas generally assume the moon to be female, and the moon's phases are accordingly conceived as the stages of a woman's life. The Maya moon goddess wields great influence in many areas. Being in the image of a woman, she is naturally associated with sexuality and procreation, fertility and growth, not only of human beings, but also of the vegetation and the crops. Since in a negative sense, growth can cause all sorts of ailments, the moon goddess is also a goddess of disease. Everywhere in Mesoamerica, including the Mayan area, she is specifically associated with water, be it wells, rainfall, or the rainy season. In the codices, she has a terrestrial counterpart in goddess I.
Read more about Maya Moon Goddess: Lunar Mythology, The Moon Goddess in The Post-Classic and Classic Periods, Calendrical Functions
Famous quotes containing the words moon and/or goddess:
“Suppose you attend to the suggestions which the moon makes for one month, commonly in vain, will it not be very different from anything in literature or religion? But why not study this Sanskrit? What if one moon has come and gone with its world of poetry, its weird teachings, its oracular suggestions,—so divine a creature freighted with hints for me, and I have not used her? One moon gone by unnoticed?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)