Introduction
Yax Chit Juun Witz’ Naah Kan, more commonly known by the nicknames Water Lily Serpent or Water Serpent, is a Maya deity that was present throughout most of Maya history. The earliest known depiction of the Water Lily Serpent is in the San Bartolo Murals of the Preclassic Period, and the last is within the Dresden Codex of the Postclassic Period, making him one of the longest lasting.

Iconographic Traits
The Water Lily Serpent has two main forms, much like the Pax God and the Principal Bird Deity. The first, and the more common, is the serpent. The second retains the serpent’s zoomorphic head but instead has a human body. The large zoomorphic head usually features a long downward-turned snout, a large eye with either a curled or square pupil, and a unique headdress. This headdress is usually comprised of water lily pads and flowers, and a fish can often be seen with its mouth attached to the flower portion. Additionally, the Water Lily Serpent typically has a missing lower jaw. It can be entirely absent, or it can be replaced by either something that resembles water, such as in the example from the Dresden Codex, or a motif with bands crossed diagonally.

Extended Names and Titles
Over the years, the Water Lily Serpent has had several nicknames. The most used is, of course, Water Lily Serpent, first introduced by Karl Taube and named after the deity’s unique headdress (1992). Later, David Stuart proposed a simplified form of the nickname, Water Serpent, as the deity acts as the personification of water. Both nicknames are equally valid, though I prefer the former as it is the name that is used most often.

The base name of the Water Lily Serpent seems to be Juun Witz’ “One Splash.” There are also two common extended versions of the name, which in a few cases are even combined with each other. These are Yax Chit Juun Witz’ Naah Kan “First Father One Splash First Snake” and Ha’ ?? Ek’ Juun Witz’ “Water ?? Star One Splash.” These names can be put together as Ha’ ?? Ek’ Yax Chit Juun Witz’ Naah Kan.

Glyph Uses
The Water Lily Serpent has quite a few different glyph uses. Interestingly, any glyph that it substitutes for is usually placed atop the Water Lily Serpent’s head. In its standard form, either by itself or within its own name, the head glyph of the Water Lily Serpent can be read as witz’ “splash/waterfall” (Stuart 2007). When it functions as a WITZ’ glyph, it can wear several different glyphs, including HA’ ‘water’, NAHB ‘water lily’, and WINIK ‘person’. In calendrics, it can act as the head variant for the number thirteen, the month of Imix, and the Haab. As thirteen, the Water Lily Serpent wears the water lily headdress, as Imix it wears a HA’ ‘water’ glyph, the same glyph used for the month of Imix, and as Haab it can wear the water lily headdress, a water scroll glyph (possibly YAM ‘wave’), or the HAAB ‘year’ glyph itself.

Known Myths
The earliest myth that the Water Lily Serpent participates in is the resurrection of the Maize God. A preclassic mural from the West Wall at San Bartolo depicts a quatrefoil cave within a turtle. The Maize God can be seen within it, with Chahk seated to his left and the Water Lily Serpent, in his anthropomorphic form, seated to his right (Figure 1B) (Chinchilla 2017:221-222). Together, these two deities likely represent the water necessary for maize to grow. Chahk represents the rains, the celestial waters of the sky, and the Water Lily Serpent represents the lakes, rivers, and streams, the terrestrial waters of the earth.

Another myth, from the Classic Period, shows the Water Lily Serpent being assisted by two subservient deities, Polaw K’uh and Ik’ K’uh (Figure 1E). They appear with duck bills for mouths, they wear the headdress of the Water Lily Serpent, and they are each marked by glyphic “god-markings.” Polaw K’uh is marked by POLAW ‘sea’ glyphs, and Ik’ K’uh is marked by IK’ ‘wind’ glyphs (Stone and Zender 2011:141, 174-175). The presence of this pair together suggests that they represent a sort of sea breeze, or aquatic winds, which the Maya also associated with cenotes (Coltman 2015:18-20).

Roles and Associations
The primary association of the Water Lily Serpent is with water, specifically terrestrial water such as lakes, rivers, pools, and waterfalls. By extension, he seemed to also be associated with wind, as he was served by a pair of duck-billed wind gods. The Water Lily Serpent was also quite important to the ruling class, as he is one of only a handful of deities that were frequently impersonated. In this example of impersonation, it has been suggested that the goal of the impersonation was to show that the Maya kings and queens who impersonated the Water Lily Serpent were in control of water, a resource that is incredibly important for any city (Coltman 2015:23-24). The Water Lily Serpent, as previously mentioned, was also quite important calendrically, as he had roles with numbers, days, and the year as a whole.

Water Lily Serpent 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.
Coltman, Jeremy D.
2015 In The Realm of the Witz’: Animate Rivers and Rulership among the Classic Maya. The PARI Journal 15(3):15-30.
Stone, Andrea, and Marc Zender
2011 Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture. Thames & Hudson.
Stuart, David
2007 Reading the Water Serpent as WITZ’. Maya Decipherment: https://mayadecipherment.com/2007/04/13/reading-the-water-serpent/
2025 Day Sign Notes: Imix / Imox. Maya Decipherment: https://mayadecipherment.com/2025/08/14/day-sign-notes-imix-imox/
Taube, Karl
1992 The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology 32. Dumbarton Oaks.