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| N15- BL The Square-Nosed Beastie at Hom: Fire in Claws |
Many years ago, I discovered the Square-Nosed Beastie. It was part of Linda Schele's very first class at the University of Texas at Austin. She named several Beasties during the class; her first was Lady Beastie, the genetrix of the gods in the beginning of time.
The Squared-Nosed Beastie came next. This creature was completely without any identification, except for the fire in his claws. I never listened too hard to the lectures, I was always fascinated by the glyphs themselves. And if I saw a different picture in the glyph, it was seldom equal to what was accepted.
Eventually, I attended the Maya Workshops, but not unto 1994 when I met Jan Adams, a woman who insisted that there was a lot of Astronomy data in the glphs. I tried to ignore her beliefs but from that time on, most of my presentations included star "stuff." Even so, i still insisted that I was not studying the stars. "
Early, I learned from Linda the explaination of the ISIG, commonly known as the Initial Series Introductory Glyph. This particular glyph always---when it appeared---covered two columns in the stone stelae. The concept was to notify the reader that the two columns were consistently read together. Dates were always the first set of glyphs found under each ISG. Sometimes the dates were easy for me to read and other times, when expanded full figure glyphs were used, I could not.
I was a difficult student. I always looked for a reason that many glyph passages were full of, what Linda called "spaghetti." She warned her students to look past the spaghetti" and look for the cleaner "glyph" elements.
Well, to discover meanings for picture glyphs, for me, meant "look for ideas in other languages." It was definitely, a NO-NO, since the epigraphers insisted that one must study only Maya languages. In the codices, mostly the Mixtec, the glyphs were expanded beyond single cartouche images. They we're always full-figured elements. The Squared-Nosed Beastie was one of them.
In the above drawing, the S-N Beastie was starting out from his sky location. Google would say his location was his home address. He obviously is a very hungry sky traveler. He seems to be eating the stars that surround the mythical ball court of Hunahpu, the Maya sky entity. of the Popol Vuh. Another glyph of the Square-Nosed Beastie shows a slightly different view.
Early, I learned from Linda the explaination of the ISIG, commonly known as the Initial Series Introductory Glyph. This particular glyph always---when it appeared---covered two columns in the stone stelae. The concept was to notify the reader that the two columns were consistently read together. Dates were always the first set of glyphs found under each ISG. Sometimes the dates were easy for me to read and other times, when expanded full figure glyphs were used, I could not.
I was a difficult student. I always looked for a reason that many glyph passages were full of, what Linda called "spaghetti." She warned her students to look past the spaghetti" and look for the cleaner "glyph" elements.
Well, to discover meanings for picture glyphs, for me, meant "look for ideas in other languages." It was definitely, a NO-NO, since the epigraphers insisted that one must study only Maya languages. In the codices, mostly the Mixtec, the glyphs were expanded beyond single cartouche images. They we're always full-figured elements. The Squared-Nosed Beastie was one of them.
In the above drawing, the S-N Beastie was starting out from his sky location. Google would say his location was his home address. He obviously is a very hungry sky traveler. He seems to be eating the stars that surround the mythical ball court of Hunahpu, the Maya sky entity. of the Popol Vuh. Another glyph of the Square-Nosed Beastie shows a slightly different view.
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N-18-ML
Date: 12-Wind Fire in Claws
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| Sitting on top of sky changing roof of Izapa's Stela 22? |
The question is: Does N-18 come before N-17 or is it where it belongs? [And when did the Square-Nose Beastie join into the Turmoil in the sky?]
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| N-19a-TL Date: 13-Flower: No Fire in Claws |
This view shows that he has eaten all the stars of the . Ball Court. Since only one other view shows him in the process of eating still more stars,this may be a glyph placed incorrectly. It is possible it belongs to the end of this "Star-Eating" series.
- However, if is placed where try in the middle of the two N-15 and N18, then
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| N-17-MM The End of the "Star-Eating" Cycle Date is 10- Crocodile |
[To be Continued as The ISIG Problem of the Square-Nosed Beastie]
