The Maya myth of the morning star

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Chak Ek', the morning star, rose from the underworld to the surface of the eastern sea and on into the heavens. His brother K'in Ahaw, the sun, followed. Though Chak Ek' had risen first, K'in Ahaw outshone him, and the resentful Chak Ek' descended back to the underworld to plot against his brother and his allies. Gabrielle Vail details the Maya myth of the morning star.

Lesson by Gabrielle Vail, directed by Basa.

Chak Ek’ rose from the underworld
to the surface of the eastern sea

and on into the heavens.

His brother K’in Ahaw followed.

Though Chak Ek’ had risen first,
K’in Ahaw outshone him,

and the resentful Chak Ek’ descended back
to the underworld

to plot against his brother.

In Mayan mythology, Chak Ek’ represents
Venus and K’in Ahaw represents the sun.

Known as both the morning and the
evening star,

Venus moves through the sky,
sometimes visible before sunrise,

sometimes after sunset,
and occasionally not at all.

The ancient Maya identified this roughly
584 day cycle

more than a thousand years ago

and it still accurately predicts when and
where Venus will appear in the sky

around the world.

Five of these cycles make up almost
exactly eight years,

and the Maya also recognized
this larger cycle.

They assigned Chak Ek’ five
different forms,

one for each cycle of Venus,
that were repeated every eight years.

Within the 584 day cycle, Venus is visible
in the evening sky for 250 days,

then disappears for 8 days before
reappearing as the Morning Star.

The ancient Maya ascribed particular
significance to this point in this cycle:

the first time Venus appears before
sunrise after being invisible.

On this day, Chak Ek’ rose again from the
underworld,

wielding a spearthrower and darts.

To bring discord to the world,

he decided to attack his brother
and his brother’s allies.

His first target was K’awiil, god of
sustenance and lightning.

Rising in the late rainy season, Chak Ek’
aimed his spear and struck K’awiil,

causing damage to the food and a
period of chaos in the social order

until K’awiil was reborn.

584 days after attacking K’awiil,

Chak Ek’ turned his attention back to his
brother, the Sun.

Each night, the Sun took the form of
jaguar

and journeyed through the underworld.

Chak Ek’ speared the jaguar sun as it rose
at dawn towards the end of the dry season.

The Sun was wounded, plunging the
world into a period of chaos and warfare.

Chak Ek’s third victim
was the god of maize,

who provided sustenance for all humankind.

Chak Ek’ speared him at the
time of the harvest.

He was buried in the underworld,
and maize—the staple of life—

was no longer available
to Earth’s inhabitants.

But the maize god emerged after three
months in the place of new beginnings–

the eastern cave known as Seven Water
Place– bringing food once again to earth.

When the turtle Ak Na'ak rose in the sky
to mark the summer solstice,

Chak Ek’ claimed his fourth victim.

With the death of this good omen,
the Sun, the food supply, and the people

were buried within the earth, and the
forces of chaos reigned.

But out of the chaos rose a new order
established by Hun Ajaw,

one of the hero twins known to all

for having vanquished
the lords of the underworld.

A new race of humans was created,
made from maize.

This state of balance was not to last,
however.

Chak Ek’s fifth and final victim was a
mysterious stranger from the west,

and his death
in the heart of the dry season

shook the order established by Hun Ajaw.

The gods, the lords, and the maize were
buried in the underworld.

But this victory for Chak Ek’ would also
prove temporary.

The two brothers, Venus and the Sun,
were caught in an endless cycle

as they battled for supremacy, re-enacting
the same five struggles,

while the world alternated between order
and chaos

with the rising of the Morning Star.