Introduction
Chahk is the Maya deity responsible for the rain and storms, being both a god of fertility and destruction. Unlike a few other deities, Chahk was valued by both the ruling class and by farmers, as rain and water are required by all. This importance is evident in Chahk’s continued survival. While other deities from the Classic Period disappeared from local cultures after the conquest, or were turned into saints, Chahk has survived unchanged. He has existed for over two thousand years, and will likely stick around for many more years to come.

Iconographic Traits
Chahk’s frequent appearances on a variety of media make him quite easy to distinguish. First and foremost is his zoomorphic face, featuring a large eye with a curled pupil, an elongated snout and upper lip, and a large protruding fang. While Chahk shares these traits with a few related deities, such as K’awiil and Yop’aat, he has some features that, when combined with these facial characteristics, make his appearance unique, specifically the spondylus shell ear that he wears. Chahk’s body, which appears to be human, is marked with a reptilian pattern, most notable on his arms and legs, that resembles snake skin. In addition, his body can also have glyphic “god-markings.” Most often, these are LEM ‘shiny’ glyphs, to show the reflectiveness of his skin, but a few rare examples instead use HA’ ‘water’ glyphs, to show his connection to rain.

Chahk can also be recognized by his regalia and equipment. While his clothing is usually minimal, he often wears a unique headdress that features the crossed bands motif within a circle near the top (Figures 1A, B, and G). In rare instances, such as an example of stone sculpture from Copan, Chahk can instead wear a waterbird as his headdress (Figure 1H). The other piece of Chahk’s unique regalia is his necklace, composed of eyeballs and an upside-down vase, marked by an AK’AB ‘darkness’ glyph, with both ends of a snake emerging from within. The purpose of the AK’AB glyph has been suggested to represent the dark rains contained inside it (Stone and Zender 2011:145).

The weapons that Chahk wields are also an important part of his iconography. He usually wields either a flint axe or a stone manopla, though at times he can even possess both. These weapons, both of which are used by striking, convey the sound and power of both lightning and thunder, entirely appropriate for the god of storms (Taube and Zender 2009:183-188). The axe that Chahk wields is confirmed to be lightning itself, as one example has Chahk wielding an axe personified as K’awiil, the god of power and lightning (K1285). This association with K’awiil and lightning may also explain why the bottom end of the axe is at times depicted as a snake.

Extended Names and Titles
Out of all of the Maya deities, it is likely Chahk who has the largest number of extended names. This is due to his continued importance over more than a millennium, as well as the multiple aspects of the deity. One of the more common names, found across different locations and time periods, is Yax Ha’al Chahk, First Rain Chahk. This aspect of the deity is likely responsible for the onset of the rainy season each year, as he brings the first rains each year. Other common aspects of Chahk include those who are associated with the four cardinal directions. Sak Xiib Chahk, Ihk’ Xiib Chahk, K’an Xiib Chahk, and lastly Chak Xiib Chahk. Each of the colors in their names can be connected to a specific direction: sak ‘white’ represents the North, ihk’ ‘black’ represents the West, k’an ‘yellow’ represents the South, and chak ‘red’ represents the East.

Glyph Uses
Somewhat surprisingly, the only use of Chahk’s head glyph is to act as his name. It isn’t used to represent any words, numbers, or calendrical elements. There are, however, a few glyphs worth noting for their similarities to the Chahk head glyph. Primarily, these are the head glyphs of K’awiil and Yop’aat, fellow zoomorphic storm deities. In addition to the slight differences in their iconography, Sim Lee points out that these three deity head glyphs can be differentiated by the phonetic complements that can be attached to each. Chahk often has ki, K’awiil has la, and Yop’aat has ti (Lee 2023-26). Another related glyph is the logogram KAL ‘to split/strike’. This glyph depicts Chahk, or a nearly identical figure, raising an axe, likely in reference to the axe that Chahk so often uses.

Known Myths
Chahk is a prominent character in many myths; one of the most significant is the resurrection and rebirth of the Maize God. He appears as a participant in this event as early as the Preclassic Period, roughly two thousand years ago, on the murals of San Bartolo. Here, he appears alongside the Water Lily Serpent, where they are seated on either side of the Maize God within a cave, depicted as the interior of a turtle shell (Figure 1D) (Chinchilla 2017:221-222). More examples of this myth can be found on the painted vessels of the Late Classic, where he has two major roles. The first is to assist several other deities, including God I and the Jaguar War God, in the pursuit, capture, and defeat of a shark-like monster so that the Maize God can be pulled out of its open jaws. Later, after the Paddler Gods have transported the Maize God closer to the surface of our world, Chahk assists again. This time, he strikes the earth, cracking it open, allowing the Maize God to emerge.

Chahk appears in other myths as well. There is a series of vessels from Late Classic Nakbe that depict Chahk, specifically in his aspect as Yax Ha’al Chahk, throwing an infant, possibly the Maize God dressed in the guise of the Jaguar War God, into the abyss of the underworld, with the assistance of the skeletal God A. A few scenes done in the same style, Chahk appears as a bundled effigy alongside the Pax God in some type of royal court. Chahk appears in other court scenes as well, though in his full-figured form. One is the Itzamnaaj Court Vase, where Chahk and K’inich Ajaw attend the coronation of God I in the court of Itzamnaaj (Figure 1E). Another would appear to be the court of Chahk himself (K0530), where he can be seen seated within the mouth of a cave before a crowd of attendees. At the back of this crowd are three other Chahks. They can be seen playing different types of drums, likely to replicate the sound of thunder that comes with Chahk’s storms.

Another mythic scene in which Chahk frequently appears is one in which he, sometimes by himself or with other Chahks, is fishing. This scene is depicted on Izapa Stela I from the Late Preclassic, a Maya vessel from the Early Classic, and incised bones from Tikal’s Burial 116. Karl Taube has suggested that these scenes and myths represent supernatural acts of rain-making (2010:209), an appropriate scene for the god of precipitation to be participating in.

Roles and Associations
Chahk’s primary role is the bringer of rain and storms, as destructive as they may be, the water they give is necessary for all life, including the ruling class, farmers, and even the plants and animals of the natural world. It is no surprise then that Chahk is one of the deities who is frequently impersonated; the Dumbarton Oaks Tablet and Yaxchilan Stela 11 are two such examples. Chahk’s importance existed well before the magnificent cities of the Classic Period, and it outlasted them as well. All of this attests to how integral Chahk and his rains are to the Maya worldview of the past and the present.

Chahk Scenes

Sources
Justin Kerr photograph collection, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, DC.
Chincilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo
2017 Art and Myth of the Ancient Maya. Yale University Press.
Lee, Sim
2023-2026 “CMGG entry for chaak”, in Lee, S. Classic Maya Glyph Guide, Amsterdam: Self-published, https://mayaglyphs.org/CWLhtml/CHAAKlogo.html.
Stone, Andrea, and Marc Zender
2011 Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture. Thames & Hudson.
Taube, Karl
2010 Where Earth and Sky Meet: The Sea in Ancient and Contemporary Mesoamerica. In The Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, ed. Daniel Finamore and Stephen Houston, pp. 202-219. Yale University Press.
Taube, Karl, and Marc Zender
2009 American Gladiators: Ritual Boxing in Ancient Mesoamerica. In Blood and Beauty: Organized Violence in the Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and Central America, ed. Heather Orr and Rex Koontz, pp. 161-220. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.