Ec chuah

Ek-Chuah was the patron god of commerce and cocoa. Maya had a kind of monetary unit in Maya, so cocoa was deified. The cult of Ek-Chuah was revered by merchants and wealthy cocoa planters ^[1] , since Ek-Chuah was the patron of their profession ^[3] . It is also possible that he was associated with the cult of bees , which is supported by the fact that Ek-Chuah was depicted in one of the codes in the section on bees ^[2] .

Ek-Chuah was depicted with a long nose, red mouth and black paint ^[1] (in some images he was completely black, in others black and white striped, and in some figures he was white, without black paint ^[2] ). Since he was the patron saint of commerce, he was portrayed with a staff that he held in his hand and luggage on his back ^[1] (in some figures, the luggage on his head). Also, one of its characteristic features were two curved lines located on the right side of the eye. The Dresden Code has three drawings depicting Ek-Chuah. As a rule, Ek-Chuah was portrayed as an old man without teeth or with one tooth ^[2] .

In one of the images, Ek-Chuah is shown with a piercing spear of the god of death, which symbolized the fact that this god would protect the merchants from enemies. In another image, he is shown with an ax hitting the sky to cause rain. In many images, Ek-Chuah has a scorpion tail ^[2] .

Russian-speaking

• Rus Luillier, Alberto . Mayan people . - Moscow: Thought, 1986. - 256 p.

English

• Schellhas, Paul. Representation of deities from Mayan manuscripts . - American Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University , 1904. - P. 36-37 .