B'alam Family
Balam, Jaguar in the Mayan language, is an animal that was highly respected and venerated by the Maya people. The Maya believed that the jaguar had the ability to cross between worlds - between the living world (which was associated with the day) and the spirit world (which was associated with the night). And as the jaguar is quite at home with the night, they were considered part of the underworld. Because of this, usually any Maya gods with jaguar attributes or garments are therefore associated with the underworld. But not all associations were dark though, these large felines were also associated with vegetation and fertility and this connection is represented by what is known as the Waterlily Jaguar - a jaguar depicted with water lilies sprouting from its head.

The pelts of the jaguars were both desirable and highly prized, but restricted only to those privileged enough to be included in the Maya ruling class, barring an exception mentioned further down. In some cases, not only did the Maya kings wear the jaguar pelts, but they also included jaguar as part of their ruling name as a symbol of their might and authority. A prime example would be Shield Jaguar (Itzamnaaj B’alam – see the ShieldJaguar family page for more information), another one of the Maya family names here in the Americas. The use of balam within a name wasn’t soley restricted to the men either, several royal ladies also used it such as Ix Mu B’alam from Yaxchilan. As with the Aztecs, the jaguar was also connected to the warriors and hunters of the Maya, those who excelled in these areas were allowed to adorn themselves with pelts, teeth or claws and were considered to possess feline souls.

K'awiil Family
Known for generations as simply “God K”, Kawiil (or K’awil) is the name given to the Maya god of generations and royal lineage bloodlines – the principal deity of the Maya royal lines. K’awil, in Maya art, is usually recognizable by a large “god eye”, a bright mirror device on his forehead from which juts a tube emitting smoke or an axe-blade and by one leg that ends not with a foot, but with a bearded serpent with open jaws. Most would recognize him from artistic renditions of displays of power – he is depicted within those as the Mannikin Sceptor god and his shown grasped in the hand of the ruler. A possible alternative name for K’awil is that of Bolon Tz’akab – a name found within Landa’s Relacion. There are also several variations of K’awil that one might see such as K’awil-la or K’awil-li – both of which refer directly to K’awil.

As with K’inich (see Kinich family page for more information), several kings affixed K’awil to their name such as K’awiil Chan K’inich from Dos Pilas, K’inich Joy K’awiil from Caracol and Siyaj Chan K’awiil II from Tikal – just to name a few. There is at least one royal lady that included K’awil within her name as well – Ix K’awiil Chan from Tonina. At Palenque K’awil was included as one of the three children of the Palenque Triad – K’inich Kan B’alam II (also known as Chan Bahlum II) included him within inscriptions on the Temple of the Cross that details the actions of the Palenque Triad in the Maya story of the beginning of the current world.

K'inich Family
In the Mayan language Kinich (K’inich) is translated as “sun-eyed” or “sun-faced” and was a word used both in Maya mythology and king’s names. The best example of this is the Maya god K’inich Ahau, “the sun-faced one” or “the sun-faced lord” – the sun god in the Maya pantheon. K’inich Ahau was the husband of the moon goddess, Ix Chel, and was closely associated with the Maya supreme deity, Itzamna – in some cases, he is even regarded as a manifestation of Itzamna. K’inich Ahau represented the day aspect of Itzamna and as such, symbolized the life of the sun in its daily journey across the sky – a metaphor for life itself. At sunset, once his journey across the sky was complete, it was believed he then traveled through the underworld overnight as a B’alam, or jaguar (see the Balam family page for more information).

K’inich Ahau was usually portrayed in Maya art with a square eye and an aquiline nose and his head glyph was a personification of the number four. This god was of particular importance to the city of Palenque, where he was the patron deity of the city and where the Temple of the Cross is partly dedicated to him. Several kings of Palenque used K’inich within their name – specifically K’inich Janaab’ Pakal I (also known as Pacal the Great), K’inich Kan B’alam II and K’inich K’an Joy Chitam II. By adding K’inich to their name, these kings not only wanted to evoke the protection of K’inich Ahau, but some may have also believed that by doing so they then became the terrestrial manifestation of the god himself. The veneration of K’inich Ahau was not solely contained to Palenque, however – as the sun god, he was considered to be the supernatural patron of warriors and rulers and several other kings, from kingdoms outside of Palenque, used K’inich within their name.

Lady Xoc Family
The most prominent of the wives of ShieldJaguar II (see the ShieldJaguar family page for more information), Ix K’abal Xoc (or as she is better known, Lady Xoc) seems to have held a position of great importance and is attested to on several door lintels from Temple 23 in Yaxchilan. Lady Xoc was most probably related to ShieldJaguar, sources point to her being his maternal first cousin, and so was descended from a prestigious family line which reflected on her husband. Most would recognize Lady Xoc from Lintel 24 representing a blood rite being enacted in which she pulls a rope, covered with thorns, through her tongue while kneeling next to ShieldJaguar II as he holds a torch above her. Her presence in such a scene is remarkable in its rarity in the Maya world.

Temple 23, constructed by ShieldJaguar II for Lady Xoc, is a temple of exceptional beauty, a stunning example of Maya stone carving. The Lintels in which Lady Xoc are featured reflect a great artistic skill and the scenes depicted reflect an importance granted only to Lady Xoc, on occasion to the detriment of the other wives of ShieldJaguar. During Roberto Garcia Molls’ excavations of Temple 23 several burials were located in the Temple’s floor – one in specific, Tomb 2, contained a mature woman laid to rest with a large stock of pottery vessels and around 20,000 obsidian blades. Six of nine carved bone bloodletters, also included in the burial, bore the name of Lady Xoc possibly designating the grave site as hers. Lady Xoc survived her husband by six years and seems to have remained a figure of some prestige within the Kingdom until her death in 749 ce.

ShieldJaguar Family
ShieldJaguar, or Itzamnaaj B’alam in Maya, is a name associated with three kings of the Maya kingdom of Yaxchilan. The best known of these three kings is Itzamnaaj B’alam II, or better known as ShieldJaguar the Great. ShieldJaguar II became high king of Yaxchilan on October 23, 681 ce, at the age of 34, and ruled until 742 ce, putting him into his nineties at the time of his death. His age in of itself might not be particularly remarkable, but what is, is that most of the records for this king represent the last third of his reign – extensive building activity, his eventual heir’s birth when he was sixty-one, and even the king leading his warriors into battle when he was in his eighties.

Unfortunately the information for the early years of ShieldJaguar’s life are sparse and there is only one mention of him prior to his accession in 681. What can be ascertained from the later inscriptions reflects a king of the true Maya mold – a warrior and a manipulative politician. ShieldJaguar’s principal wife was Ix K’abal Xoc (see the Lady Xoc family page for more information), a maternal first cousin from the same prestigious Yaxchilan family as his mother, to whom he gave a visibly prominent position within the kingdom. A second wife was Ix Ik’ Skull from the kingdom of Kalak’mul – the wife that bore his eventual heir, Bird Jaguar IV. A clever manipulation by ShieldJaguar on Temple 23 involving these wives and his heir draws a picture of a king that was wise to the political mechanisms necessary for promoting his Yaxchilan connections without offending the aggressive kingdom of Kalak’mul. ShieldJaguar was eventually succeeded by Bird Jaguar IV who ascended the throne of Yaxchilan in 752 ce.