Chac Xib Chac- Maya GodDeity"First of the Palenque Triad"

The Sun from the Waters

His Yucatec name means "Great Male Red One." Born eighteen days before his brothers K'awiil and the Jaguar God of the Underworld, Chac Xib Chac is the eldest of the Palenque Triad. His domain is the eastern horizon, the moment when the sun breaks free of the sea and the underworld at once, rising red and wet from the primordial waters.

Maya sculptors gave him the marks of a creature from the deep. Fish barbels extend from his cheeks like catfish whiskers. Spondylus shells, the spiny oysters prized across Mesoamerica, appear in his regalia. On carved panels and painted ceramics, he rises from water bands and lilies, the sun still dripping from its nightly passage through the sea.

Dawn and Kingship

The Group of the Cross inscriptions at Palenque record the Triad gods' births on specific Long Count dates and trace their parentage to the First Father, Hun-Nal-Ye the Maize God, and a goddess identified with the young moon. Palenque's kings traced their descent from this same divine lineage.

K'inich Kan Bahlam II honored Chac Xib Chac with the Temple of the Cross in 692 CE. Its inner sanctuary houses a carved tablet: the king stands before his divine patron, presenting offerings. On the Temple XIX platform, built a generation later, Chac Xib Chac presides at the accession of K'inich Ahkal Mo' Nahb III. Each new king at Palenque rose as the sun rose: from the waters, into the light.