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2020
ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА ИСТОРИЯ
Т. 65. Вып. 2
ВСЕОБЩАЯ ИСТОРИЯ
Metonyms and Metaphors in Hieroglyphic Texts of the Ancient Maya
A. Shesena
For citation: Shesena A. Metonyms and Metaphors in Hieroglyphic Texts of the Ancient Maya. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History, 2020, vol. 65, issue 2, pp. 433-447. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu02.2020.206
This article discusses the presence of figurative language resources, specifically metonyms and metaphors, in the language used in the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the ancient Maya. In particular, it is argued that certain syntactic constructions, previously not addressed by scholars, that appear in the inscriptions actually express metonyms and metaphors related to anger and bravery. This has become possible when the hieroglyphic texts are not merely rendered as literal translations but analysed philologically, which in this case has enabled to identify the figurative resources. Thus, considering the linguistic references in use by the descendants of the ancient Maya, and based on particular cases taken from representative inscriptions, the article highlights the main features of the metonymies and metaphors in question. The fact that these figurative resources are located in royal titles or attributive adjectives forming names of rulers is stressed. Therefore, the article includes a discussion of
Alejandro Sheseña — PhD, Professor, Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, Calzada Samuel León Brindis s/n, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, 29000, México; sesena@hotmail.com
Алехандро Шесенья — PhD, проф., Университет Сьенсиас и Артес де Чьяпас, Мексика, Чьяпас, 29000, Кальсада Сэмюэль Леон Бриндис, Тустла Гутьеррес; sesena@hotmail.com
I would like to express my gratitude to Marceal Méndez Pérez for the advice on the Mayan languages in the process of my work on this paper. Similarly, I wish to thank Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos for pointing out the example that appears on El Baúl Monument 14. I would also like to acknowledge Marc Zender and Joel Skidmore for their valuable assistance which undoubtedly improved this article. Any error in this paper is, of course, my own.
Я хотел бы выразить признательность Марцелу Мендесу Пересу за его рекомендации в отношении языков майя во время работы над этим документом. Хотел бы также поблагодарить Ос-вальдо Чинчиллу Мазариегоса за то, что он привел пример изображения, которое появляется на Памятнике 14 из Эль-Баула. Я также хотел бы поблагодарить Марка Зендера и Джоэла Скидмора за их важные советы, которые, несомненно, улучшили эту статью. Любая ошибка в этой статье, конечно, моя.
© Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 2020
how those names and titles should be understood in terms of translation. The ancient Mayan rulers would have included in their names figurative references to their anger and courage in order to impose authority over their subjects. As a result of the analysis, the article concludes with a repertoire of ancient figurative terms referring to anger and bravery — the material that will undoubtedly complement our knowledge on the subject and underline the richness of the language of this great civilization.
Keywords: ancient Maya, Maya writing, Mayan languages, figurative language, metonyms and metaphors.
Метонимия и метафоры в древних иероглифических текстах майя
А. Шесенья
Для цитирования: Shesena A. Metonyms and Metaphors in Hieroglyphic Texts of the Ancient Maya // Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. История. 2020. Т. 65. Вып. 2. С. 433-447. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu02.2020.206
В статье обсуждается наличие таких фигуративных языковых ресурсов, как метонимия и метафоры в языке, используемом в иероглифических надписях древних майя. В частности, утверждается, что некоторые появляющиеся в надписях синтаксические конструкции, ранее не рассматривавшиеся учеными, на самом деле выражены метонимией и метафорами, связанными с гневом и отвагой. Данный вывод сделан благодаря процедуре, не ограничивающей иероглифическое чтение буквальными переводами, а применяющей филологический анализ, который позволил выявить упоминаемые риторические фигуры. Таким образом, рассматривая использование языковых средств, сохранившихся среди потомков древних майя, и основываясь на конкретных случаях, взятых из репрезентативных надписей, автор статьи выделил основные особенности исследуемых случаев метонимии и метафор. Подчеркивается, что эти обороты речи используются в царских титулах или, являясь атрибутивными прилагательными, образуют имена правителей. В статье рассматривается, как эти имена и названия следует толковать. Древние правители майя включали в свои имена образные сравнения для описания своего гнева и мужества, дабы властвовать над своими подданными. Результатом анализа явился представленный в статье репертуар древних тропов, относящихся к гневу и отваге, — материал, который, несомненно, дополнит наши знания по теме и в очередной раз продемонстрирует богатство культуры великой цивилизации. Ключевые слова: древние майя, письменность майя, языки майя, образный язык, метафоры и метонимия.
Introduction
The renowned Russian historian Yuri Knorozov once correctly pointed out that the literal grammatical translation of Maya hieroglyphic texts does not always lead to their intelligibility, for which reason it is necessary to conduct a philological analysis to make them understood1.
1 Knorozov Yu.: 1) New data on the Maya written Language // Proceedings of the Thirty-Second International Congress of Americanists, Copenhagen, august 1956. Copenhagen, 1958. P. 474-475; 2) Neizvest-nye teksty // Zabytye sistemy pis'ma: Ostrov Paskhi, Velikoe Liao. Indiia: Materialy po deshifrovke. Moscow, 1982. P. 10.
In this article, I shall refer to a specific group of syntactic constructions that in classic Maya hieroglyphic writing relate parts of the human body — the heart, mouth, face, and head — to fire. These constructions are found as attributive adjectives and titles mainly within the names of classic rulers, although some also exist in the names of the naguales. I will argue that these constructions in fact communicate, beyond their literal translation, metonyms and metaphors that figuratively refer to anger as an emotion. Thus, it is important to identify these figurative resources regarding anger in classic Maya inscriptions because, apart from demonstrating the richness of the ancient Maya language, it allows us to correctly translate the expressions referring to names where they appear.
In the following pages, I shall discuss the fundamental traits of these figurative resources as expressed in antiquity and, based on this, I will endeavor to establish what I believe to be the correct translation of the names of certain rulers. I begin with an analysis of the characteristics found in the metonyms and metaphors in colonial and modern Maya sources.
Figurative language
Figurative language is based on the use of words or phrases that go beyond their literal meaning (tropes) and are used to achieve greater effect, persuasion, or impact of a message. Some of these tropes are metaphors and metonyms, as well as personification, synecdoche, symbolism, euphemism, and others2. As we will see later, in the case of Me-soamerica, the most studied tropes are metaphors and metonyms.
In general, metonyms are resources that associate something with the name of something else when there is a relationship of contiguity. For example, in "The lands of the Crown", the word "crown" is a substitute for "king". By contrast, metaphors describe something by its similarity to another thing as in this sentence — "My daughter is an angel".
The most studied Mesoamerican metaphors and metonyms are those used as the basis for constructing linguistic structures called difrasismos widely used in Mesoamerican languages3. A difrasismo is a juxtaposition of two lexemes when the new meaning is not
2 Glucksberg S. Understanding Figurative Language. From Metaphors to Idioms. New York, 2001.
3 Garibay A. M. Historia de la literatura náhuatl. México, 1971; León Portilla M. Pre-Columbian Literatures of Mexico. Norman, 1969; Meaning in Mayan Languages / ed. by M. Edmonson. La Haya, 1973; Laughlin R. De cabo a rabo: las expresiones metafóricas de la anatomía tzotzil de Zinacantán // La metáfora en Mesoamérica / ed. by M. Montes de Oca Vega. México, 2004; Heyden D. Metaphors, Nahualtocaitl and other "Disguised" Terms among the Aztecs // Symbol and Meaning beyond the Closed Community. Edited by Gary Gossen. New York, 1986. P. 35-43; Montes de Oca Vega M.: 1) Los difrasismos en el náhuatl, un problema de traducción o de conceptualización // Amerindia. 1997. No. 22. P. 31-44; 2) Los difrasismos: ¿Núcleos conceptuales mesoamericanos? // La metáfora en Mesoamérica. Edited by Mercedes Montes de Oca Vega. México, 2004. P. 225-251; 3) Los difrasismos: un rasgo del lenguaje ritual // Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl. 2008. No. 39. P. 225-238; Montemayor C.: 1) Arte y trama del cuento indígena. México, 1998; 2) Arte y plegaria en las lenguas indígenas de México. México, 1999; Bourdin G. Las emociones entre los mayas. El léxico de las emociones en el maya yucateco. México, 2014; Gossen G. Los chamulas en el mundo del sol. México, 1990; Becquelin-Monod A.: 1) Des pies et des mains: analyse sémantique des concepts en tzeltal (maya du Chiapas) // La Linguistique. 1981. Vol. 17, no. 2. P. 99-118; 2) Le sang et le corps, ou le blanc et le noir? Contribution á l' étude du parallélisme dans la tradition orale des Maya // Journal de la Societé des Américanistes. 1986. Vol. LXXII. P. 7-31; Craveri M. El lenguaje del mito. Voces, forma y estructura del Popol Vuh. México, 2012; Barrett R. Poetics // The Mayan Languages / eds J. Aissen, N. C. England, R. Zavala Maldonado. London; New York, 2017. P. 433-460.
formed through the sum of the parts but rather the parts refer to a third meaning4. Some examples are in temoxtli in ehecatl (dust wind) = "illness" (from the 16th century Nahuat-l)5, totil me'il (father mother) = "ancestor" (contemporary Tsotsil language)6.
In the scholarship on the classic Maya, important advances have been made both in the identification of specific cases of difrasismos, and in their identification as lexical calques7. Possible difrasismos in Olmec writing have also been pointed out8.
One additional type of metonymic-metaphorical structure related to anger, well defined but poorly addressed, will be the subject of this article.
Mayan metonyms and metaphors for anger
As in many world cultures9, Maya culture can describe emotions, anger among them, by using metonyms and metaphors that involve certain states or sensations related to different parts of the human body.
In general, metonyms of anger can be constructed using, by extension, bodily conditions or sensations experienced during the emotive event10. Interestingly, in the case discussed here, colonial and modern Maya sources refer metonymically to rage as a "hot" or "fiery" condition11, clearly alluding to the connection between rising body temperature and ire. They can also refer to anger by indicating alterations in different parts of the body, perhaps a "reddened face"12 or even a "twisted mouth"13, as a clear reflection of changes that the face and mouth undergo during a bout of rage.
For its part, given their similarity to certain external experiences, metaphors of anger resort to a description of physical properties or imaginary processes that supposedly occur in some internal organ or part of the body of the person experiencing an emo-
4 Montes de Oca Vega M. Los difrasismos en el náhuatl, un problema de traducción o de conceptua-lización. P. 31.
5 Ibid.
6 Laughlin R. The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Washington, 1975. P. 345.
7 Campbell L., Kaufman T., Smith-Stark T. C. Mesoamerica as a Linguistic Area // Language. 1986. Vol. 62, no. 3. P. 530-570; Knowlton T. Diphrastic Kennings in Mayan Hieroglyphic Literature // Mexicon. 2002. Vol. XXIV(1). P. 9-14; Stuart D. On the Paired Variants of TZ'AK // Mesoweb. 2003. URL: www.me-soweb.com/stuart/notes/tzak.pdf (accessed 01.05.2019); Kettunen H. An Old Euphemism in New Clothes: Observations on a Possible Death Difrasismo in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing // Wayeb Notes. 2005. No. 16; Hull K.: 1) Verbal Art and Performance in Ch'orti' and Maya Hieroglyphic Writing. Ph. D. Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin, 2003; 2) Poetic Tenacity: A Diachronic Study of Kennings in Mayan Languages // Parallel Worlds. Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Period Maya Literature / eds K. Hull and M. Carrasco. Boulder (CO). 2012. P. 73-123; Craveri M., Valencia Rivera R. Con la voz y la piedra: estrategias narrativas de la poesía maya // Itinerarios. Revista de estudios lingüísticos, literarios, históricos y antropológicos. 2012. Vol. 15. P. 9-42; Helmke C. Mesoamerican Lexical Calques in Ancient Maya Writing and Imagery // The PARI Journal. 2013. Vol. XIV, no. 2. P. 115; Barrett R. Poetics. P. 433-460.
8 Carrasco M., Englehardt J. D.: 1) Diphrastic Kennings on the Cascajal Block and the Emergence of Mesoamerican Writing // Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 2015. Vol. 22, no. 3. P. 1-22; 2) Conventions and Linguistic Tropes in Olmec Art and Writing. Manuscrito inédito, n. d.
9 Wierzbicka A. Emotions Across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals. Oxford, 1999.
10 Kovecses Z., Radden G. Methonimy: Developing a Cognitive Linguistic View // Cognitive Linguistics. 1998. No. 9. P. 39; Lakoff G., Johnson M. Metaphors We Live by. Chicago, 1980. P. 39.
11 Barrera Vásquez A. Diccionario Maya. México, 1995. P. 78.
12 Ibid. P. 78-79.
13 Lenkersdorf C. Diccionario tojolabal — español 1. Tercera Edición. [S. l.], 2010. P. 476.
tion14. In Maya sources, anger is described in metaphorical terms as "fire existing in the heart"15, thus evoking the image of the damage or irritation that fire might produce in the heart as in any other object.
These examples demonstrate the role of heat and fire, on the one hand, and of certain body parts, such as the mouth, face, and heart, on the other hand, in a general conceptualization of the metonyms and metaphors of anger among the Maya peoples.
As Gabriel Bourdin has rightly pointed out in his excellent study of Yucatecan emotional language16, in the figurative expressions of this language (and in those of the other Mayan languages as well, including the language of the inscriptions, as we shall see below), we really have a combination of metonym-metaphor. For example, in the above-mentioned Yucatecan expression "there is fire in his heart", i. e., "anger", the presence of fire is a metonym, as previously stated, derived from the observance of a rise in body temperature of a person who is getting angry; locating the fire in the heart is what defines the metaphor due to the imaginary nature of a fire burning in the heart. The existence of such combinations is what led Louis Goossens17 to coin the term metaftonimia, which is instrumental for our discussion here.
In the Mayan languages, this type of metonyms and metaphors is grammatically expressed in fairly well-defined syntactic structures. Using colonial and modern dictionaries in what follows, I discuss the syntactic characteristics of metonyms and metaphors related to anger in the Mayan languages. I will focus exclusively on those expressions that will prove useful for later analysis of classic Maya figures.
Syntax of Mayan metonyms and metaphors for anger
Several types of common syntactical structures exist in Mayan languages that express metonyms and metaphors of anger. Those that are of interest to our analysis are discussed below.
We begin with those phrases characterized by a noun (referring to a part of the human body) preceded by an adjective having to do with heat. These types of phrases express a general concept of anger. Examples of these come from the Yucatecan phrases chacaw chi', lit. "hot mouth", which means "ire", or chacaw ol "hot heart", i. e., "anger"18. The abstract concept can also be expressed by [N+N] type difrasismos that connect some part of the human body with fire, such as the Tseltal k'ajk'al o'tan, literally "fire-heart", which actually means "anger"19.
Acting as compound structures, these phrases and difrasismos can also serve as adjectives to describe another noun (a specific person), attributing to the latter a permanent-
14 Kovecse Z. Metaphor and Emotion. Language, Culture and Body in Human Feeling. Cambridge, 2000. P. 6; Lakoff G., Johnson M. The Metaphorical Structure of the Human Conceptual System // Cognitive Science. 1980. No. 4. P. 195.
15 Slocum M. C., Gerdel F. L., Cruz Aguilar M. Vocabulario tzeltal de Bachajón. México, 1999. P. 22, 324; Barrera Vásquez A. Diccionario Maya. P. 365.
16 Bourdin G. Las emociones entre los mayas. El léxico de las emociones en el maya yucateco. P. 151.
17 Goossens L. Metaphtonymy: The Interaction of Metaphor and Metonymy in Figurative Expressions for Linguistic Action // By Word of Mouth: Metaphor, Metonymy and Linguistic Action in a Cognitive Perspective. Amsterdam, 1995.
18 Barrera Vásquez A. Diccionario Maya. P. 78.
19 Slocum M. C., Gerdel F. L., Cruz Aguilar M. Vocabulario tzeltal de Bachajón. P. 22, 324.
Table 1. Figurative expressions of anger in Mayan languages
Figurative expressions Literal translation The translation of the unitary concept
TSELTAL
k'ajk' yo'tan Ex.: k'ajk'yo'tan Xmal "fire (is) his heart" "fire (is) her heart of María" "(he is) ireful" "María is ireful"
k'ajk'al o'tan Ex.: k'ajk'al o'tan winik "fire-heart" "fire-heart man" "anger" "ireful man"
YUCATECAN
chacaw chi' "hot mouth" "ire"
chacaw ol "hot heart" "anger"
ah chakaw olal "he of the hot heart" "the ireful one"
chakboxe'n u wich "reddened (is) his face" "(he is) mad"
CH'OL
ch'ejl 'i pusik'al "strong (is) his heart" "(he is) ireful"
TOJOLABAL
pejan ja sti'i "twisted (is) his mouth" "(he is) mad"
kistal ja sti'i "ugly (is) his mouth" "(he is) rude"
ly angry character. Consider the Tseltal phrase k'ajk'al o'tan winik, which literally means "fire-heart man" and is used to express "ireful man"20. These compounds can be used for the same purpose when preceded by agentives, such as in the Yucatecan expression ah chakaw olal, lit. "the one with the hot heart", meaning "ireful man"21.
To describe anger either as a permanent characteristic or a passing emotion in a specific person, we should highlight the use of non-verbal stative expressions. For a permanent characteristic, adjectives or nouns are used that, aided by absolutive affixes, function as a predicate of a possessed noun (which here is obviously a part of the person's body) that functions as a subject-argument to indicate that the possessor has a permanently ireful nature. Consider the Ch'ol expression ch'ejl 'ipusik'al, which literally means "strong (is) his heart", conveying the meaning "he (is) ireful"22, or the Tseltal k'ajk'yo'tan "fire (is) his heart", i. e., "he (is) ireful"23. When the possessor (of a part of the body) is specified, the non-verbal stative expression takes on a demeanor as in the following example taken from Tseltal, k'ajk' yo'tan Xmal "fire (is) the heart of María", which really means "María is ireful"24.
Some of these non-verbal expressions use, instead of adjectives or nominals, participles of transitive or derived verbs that also function as predicates of the same possessed parts of the body, although, in this case, they are introduced to indicate the passing nature
20 Ibid.
21 Barrera Vásquez A. Diccionario Maya. P. 78.
22 Auli W., Aulie E. Diccionario ch'ol de Tumbalá. México, 1978. P. 53.
23 Slocum M. C., Gerdel F. L., Cruz Aguilar M. Vocabulario tzeltal de Bachajón. P. 22, 324.
24 Ibid.
of the anger in the subject-argument. An example of this is the Tojolabal phrase pejan ja sti'i "twisted (is) his mouth", which means "he (is) mad"25, or the Yucatecan phrase chak-boxe'n u wich "reddened (is) his face", in other words, "he (is) mad"26.
As we can see, in general these various syntactical structures have as a common denominator the use, on the one hand, of elements linked to fire as adjectives or predicates and, on the other hand, arguments that refer to bodily organs, possessed or not, such as the heart, face, and mouth.
I list these figurative expressions of anger in the Table 1 that includes the literal translation of the components of each expression and the translation of these expressions as a unitary concept27. I have retained the spelling used by each source28.
Further we will see that these same syntactic structures are found in classic Maya hieroglyphic texts.
Metonyms and metaphors of anger in the language of Classic Mayan inscriptions
The metonyms and metaphors of anger on the inscriptions are found, as I have pointed out earlier, in the names of the rulers and wahyis. Here, these figurative resources function as attributive adjectives that associate a feature to the appellative. In the following paragraphs, I focus attention on these metonyms and metaphors but omit for the moment the appellative (to which I return in the following section). The analysis will show the syntactical structure of the resource followed by the literal translation of its components and the translation of the resulting unitary concept.
In these classical inscriptions, I have found two types of syntactical structures described in the preceding paragraph. In a manner similar to what occurs in colonial and modern Mayan languages, one of the inscriptions expresses the general concept of anger by the [N+N] type difrasismo. One such occurrence comes from a text preserved on the K1652 vessel, where we see a structure made up of two nominals, one regarding fire and the other — a heart (Fig. 1).
K'AK'-'OL-la
k'ahk' ohl "fire-heart" "anger "
Fig. 1. Detail of K1652 Vase [Grube N., Nahm W., 1993]
25 Lenkersdorf C. Diccionario tojolabal — español 1. P. 476.
26 Barrera Vásquez A. Diccionario Maya. P. 78-79.
27 See: Montes de Oca Vega M. Los difrasismos en el náhuatl, un problema de traducción o de conceptualización.
28 Slocum M. C., Gerdel F. L., Cruz Aguilar M. Vocabulario tzeltal de Bachajón; Barrera Vásque, A. Diccionario Maya; Aulie W., Aulie E. Diccionario ch'ol de Tumbala; Hopkins N., Josserand J. K., Cruz Guz-mán A. A Historical Dictionary of Chol (Mayan): The Lexical Sources from 1789 to 1935. Tallahassee, 2011; Lenkersdorf C. Diccionario tojolabal — español 1.
There are various difrasismos of anger in Mayan inscriptions. One of these associates fire not with the heart but rather with the mouth, as we see from an inscription found in a stair block in the Anonal site, not far from Ceibal (Fig. 2).
K'AK'-TI'
k'ahk' ti'
"fire-mouth"
« »
anger
Fig. 2. Detail of stair block in Anonal. Source: [Houston S., 2016, fig. 5]
Another very interesting case is the one in which the word "fire" is substituted by the word "flint" because of a certain semantic field. This was found on Naranjo Stela 19 and on vessel K635 as follows (Fig. 3).
TOK'-TI'
took' ti'
"flint-mouth"
« »
"anger"
Fig. 3. Details of Naranjo Stela 19 and K635 (composition elaborated by: [Houston S., 2016, fig. 4])
This difrasismo stands out, first, by the presence of a metonym that demonstrates how, during an altered state, offensive words can spill from a person's mouth; and, second, by the metaphoric association of these offensive words with flint since both are alike in that they can injure.
The syntactic structure used to convey a person's permanent bad temper is based on non-verbal stative expressions that are very similar to colonial and modern ones. In the following example, found on the Taxin Chan Plate and on K4669, the noun "fire" acts as a predicate of the possessed noun, which in this case is "heart" (Fig. 4).
K'AK'-yo-'OL-la
k'ahk' yohl fire 3SE-heart "fire (is) his heart "he (is) ireful"
Fig. 4. Detail of Taxin Chan Plate. Drawing by G. Krempel
Yet in other cases, the heart is substituted by the mouth, while fire remains, as is demonstrated in the text from the Kuych'en Vase and the K1253 vessel (Fig. 5).
K'AK'-'u-TI'
k'ahk' 'uti' fire 3SE-mouth "fire (is) his mouth" "he (is) ireful"
Fig. 5. Detail of Kuych'en Vase [Helmke Ch., Nielsen J., 2009]
And in fact, the eye/face can also be used to construct these non-verbal stative expressions. Consider the following example from the Acanceh Vase (Fig. 6).
'u-K'AK'-HUT?
k'ahk' 'uhut fire 3SE-eye/face "fire (is) his face/eye "he (is) ireful"
Fig. 6. Detail of Acanceh Vase. Drawing by A. W. Voss
On Copan Stela 11, the figurative expression uses the face/eye as the body part possessed, but once again, with the nouns "obsidian" and "flint" instead of "fire" as predicates in a fine example of parallelism (Fig. 7).
ta-ji 'u-HUT?-ti TOK'-'u-HUT?-ti
taaj 'uhut took' 'uhut obsidian 3SE-eye/face flint 3SE-eye/face "obsidian (is) his eye/face, flint (is) his eye/face" "he (is) ireful, he (is) ireful" "he (is) very ireful"
Fig. 7. Detail of Copan Stela 11. Drawing by L. Scheie
If greater preponderance is given to the eyes as the body part to which the word hut refers, then the expression that appears on the Acanceh Vase and the Copan stela would be an example both of the metonymic reflection of the change in one's eyes during a moment of anger, and of the metaphoric link between the belligerent expression of the gaze in these cases, and the damage caused by fire, obsidian, and flint when used as weapons. This reminds us of the Spanish expression "sparks flew from his eyes" (Spanish: echaba chispas por los ojos)29.
Up to this point, we have seen how heart, eyes, face, and mouth are used in classic Maya figures of anger, all of which totally coincide with equivalent expressions found in colonial and modern dictionaries. Furthermore, there are also inscriptions in which the head is associated with fire. Although in colonial and modern lexicons the head does not appear in metonyms or metaphors regarding anger, we should point out that in these
29 Pérez Galdós B. Gerona. Episodios Nacionales 7. Madrid, 2008. Вестник СПбГУ. История. 2020. Т. 65. Вып. 2 441
same sources the head is indeed used to express personal qualities in syntactical structures similar to those that refer to anger. Consider the example of the Ch'ol expression 'añ 'a jol, lit. "you have your head", meaning "you are intelligent"30. From this I conclude that with regards to the inscriptions, the presence of this part of the body associated with the "fire" element as a predicate, should be interpreted as a figurative phrase often used to express rage. One of these classic cases is found in La Rejoya Stela 3 (Fig. 8).
K'AK'-'u-JOL
k'ahk' ujol fire 3SE-head "fire (is) his head "he (is) ireful"
Fig. 8. Detail of La Rejoya (Caracol) Stela 3 [Martin S., Grube N., 2008]
Lastly, we should point out that in the inscriptions there are other names of rulers, in which parts of the body, discussed previously, are used in similar syntactical structures, which could also refer to anger or to some other emotion. Nonetheless, these expressions are difficult to analyze due to the lack of clarity in the meaning of some of the words used, or due to the lack of exact decipherment of the pertinent hieroglyphics31. For these reasons, we shall not take up these expressions herein.
Translation of classic rulers' names
Identifying the classic Maya metonyms and metaphors of anger allow us to better understand how ancient rulers defined some of their own names. As Stephen Houston32 has pointed out, Mesoamerican rulers, the Maya among them, needed at all times to show anger and aggressiveness in order to keep their subordinates and enemies under control. Their names, then, were one excellent way to achieve this objective.
We have a fairly well-known precedent for Mesoamerican rulers' names that refer to the characteristic of anger, i.e., the names of two Aztec emperors, Moctezuma (Móteuczó-ma) I and II. As is well known, the translation of their name means "Our Angry Lord", although the literal translation is really "Our Lord Who Frowns". The Náhuatl word zoma means "he who is angry frowns" [Spanish: "poner ceño el que está enojado"]33. As we can see, this name has obvious metonymical bases. Judging from the insights revealed in this study, the classic Maya used this same practice.
30 Aulie W., Aulie E. Diccionario ch'ol de Tumbala; Hopkins N., Josserand J. K., Cruz Guzmán A. A Historical Dictionary of Chol (Mayan)...
31 See: Sheseña A.: 1) Acerca de la traducción de los nombres de los gobernantes mayas // Latin American Indian Literatures Journal. 2012. Vol. 28, no. 2. P. 114-129; 2) Carácter y temperamento en los nombres de los gobernantes mayas clásicos. Ponencia presentada en el I Congreso Religiosidades y ritualidades en el sur de México y Centroamérica. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México — Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social. San Cristóbal de Las Casas, 25-27 de noviembre de 2013.
32 Houston S. Tough Talk and Maya Kings // Maya Decipherment, 2016. June 8. URL: https://deci-pherment.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/tough-talk-and-maya-kings/ (accessed 01.05.2019).
33 Karttunen F. An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman, 1992. P. 153.
The Maya achieved this effect, as shown in the opening section, by placing difrasis-mos or non-verbal stative expressions of anger as attributes before the appellatives. This led to a name that underscored the ireful character of its bearer. In the following section, I propose translations for the names of the classic Maya rulers, taking into consideration the example of Moctezuma and the anger metaphors-metonyms discussed in this paper. The first reference is to the site associated with the particular ruler followed by the source of the inscription that alludes to him. Then, as I have been doing, following the transliteration and transcription, I suggest a literal translation of the components and a translation of the complete name in different stages.
(1) Name of the ruler of Yotz. K4669 and Taxin Chan Plate (see: Fig. 4): K'AK'-yo-'OL-la K'INICH
k'ahk'yohl k'inich
"Fire (is) his heart (of) K'inich"
"Ireful (is) K'inich"
"K'inich is ireful"
"The sun is ireful"
(2) Name of a ruler at an unknown site. Vase from Kuych'en (see: Fig. 5): K'AK'-'u-TI' ku-yu
k'ahk' 'uti' kuy
"Fire (is) his mouth (of) Kuy" "Ireful (is) Kuy" "Kuy is ireful" "The owl is ireful"
(3) Name of a ruler in Acanceh. Vase from Acanceh (see: Fig. 6): 'u-K'AK'-HUT'-'EK'
k'ahk' 'uhut 'ek'
"Fire (is) his face (of) Ek'"
"Ireful (is) Ek'"
"Ek' is ireful"
"The star is ireful"
(4) Name associated with Yax K'uk' Mo' and Yax Pasaj, lords of Copan. Copan Stela 11 (see: Fig. 7):
ta-ji 'u-HUT?-ti TOK'-'u-HUT?-ti 18-'u-ba CHAN-na
taaj 'uhut took' 'uhut waxaklahun 'ubaah chan
"Obsidian (is) his face, flint (is) his face (of) Waxaklahun Ubaah Chan" "Ireful, irascible (is) Waxaklahun Ubaah Chan" "Waxaklahun Ubaah Chan is ireful, irascible"
(5) Name of two rulers from Caracol (see: Fig. 8): K'AK'-u-JOL[K'INICH]
k'ahk' ujol k'inich
"Fire (is) his head (of) K'inich"
"Ireful (is) K'inich"
"K'inich is ireful"
"The sun is ireful"
(6) Name of the wahyis of an unknown lord. K1253 (see: Fig. 5): K'AK'-TI'-SUTZ'
k'ahk' ti' sutz' "[Fire-mouth] Sutz'" "Anger Sutz'" "Ireful Sutz'" "Ireful bat"
(7) Name of the wahyis of the lord of Ux Ha'b Te' (Río Azul). K1652 (see: Fig. 1): K'AK'-'OL-la CHAM 'u-WAY
k'ahk' ohl cham uwahy "[Fire-heart] death (is) his wahyis (of) ..." "Anger death (is) his wahyis (of) ..." "Ireful death (is) his wahyis (of) ..."
The latter case is notable since the translation of the name of the wahyis leads us to wonder if the adjacent image that depicts him (Fig. 9) is not really a representation of the linguistic metonym-metaphor that expresses the anger characteristic of this supernatural entity34. Other examples that also seem to depict representations of linguistic metonyms and metaphors of anger are found in the image of the anthropomorphous deer with fire emerging from its snout in El Baúl Monument 14, and in the central face of the famous Aztec calendar stone that depicts a knife emerging from its mouth, among several other examples35.
Fig. 9. Detail of K1652 Vase [Grube N., Nahm W., 1993; with color modifications by A. Sheseña to give emphasis]
34 Sheseña A.: 1) Los nombres de los naguales en la escritura jeroglífica maya. Religión y lingüística a través de la onomástica // Journal of Mesoamerican Languages and Linguistics. 2010. Vol. 2, no. 1. URL: elanguage.net/journals/index.php/jmll/article/viewFile/765/655 (accessed 01.05.2019); 2) Metonimias y metáforas en los textos jeroglíficos mayas. La ira en el lenguaje figurativo maya clásico. Ponencia presentada en la IV Mesa Redonda del Mayab, Mérida, Yucatán, octubre de 2016; 3) Lenguaje figurado maya en las inscripciones jeroglíficas e imágenes clásicas. Conferencia presentada el 07 de noviembre del 2019 en el Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala.
35 See images in: Chinchilla Mazariegos O. The Flowering Glyphs. Animation in Cotzumalhuapa Writing // Their Way of Writing. Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies in Pre-Columbian America / eds E. Hill Boone, G. Urton. Washington, 2011. P. 55; Stuart D. The Face of Calendar Stone: A New Interpretation // Maya Decipherment. 2016. URL: https://decipherment.wordpress.com/2016/06/ (accessed 01.05.2019).
(8) Title of Lord K'ahk' Ukalaw Chan Chahk, ruler of Naranjo (see: Fig. 3): 'AJ-TOK'-TI'
'aj took' ti'
"The one with the [flint-mouth]" "The one who has anger" "The ireful one"
Conclusion
The philological analysis of the metonyms and metaphors included in the names of the classic Maya rulers enabled us, firstly, to highlight the existence of a very ancient, special figurative vocabulary to refer to emotions such as anger. Secondly, the analysis allowed us to specify the translations of some rulers' names and thus deepen our understanding of the classic Maya worldview.
Table 2. Figurative vocabulary of anger in the Classic Maya language
Figurative expressions Literal translation The translation of the unitary concept
k'ahk' ti' Fire-mouth Anger
took' ti' Flint-mouth Anger
k'ahk' ohl Fire-heart Anger
k'ahk' 'ujol Fire (is) his head He (is) ireful
k'ahk' yohl Fire (is) his heart He (is) ireful
k'ahk' 'uti' Fire (is) his mouth He (is) ireful
k'ahk' 'uhut Fire (is) his face He (is) ireful
taaj 'uhut Obsidian (is) his face He (is) ireful
took' 'uhut Flint (is) his face He (is) ireful
Table 3. Names of classic Maya rulers and wahyis that allude to anger
Name of the ruler Translation Political entity associated
K'ahk' Ohl Cham (wahyis) Ireful death Río Azul (Ux Ha'b Te')
K'ahk' Yohl K'inich The sun is ireful Yotz
K'ahk' Ti' Sutz' (wahyis) Ireful bat ? (K1253)
K'ahk' Ujol K'inich The sun is ireful Caracol
K'ahk' Uti' Kuy The owl is ireful ? (Kuych'en, Belize)
Aj Took' Ti' (K'ahk' Ukalaw Chan Chahk) The ireful one Naranjo
Taaj Uhut Took' Uhut Waxaklahun Ubaah Chan Waxaklahun Ubaah Chan is very ireful Copán
K'ahk' Uhut Ek' The star is ireful Acanceh
For a better overview of the material covered herein, I end this article with two lists that display the insights discussed. The first list (Table 2) covers the vocabulary. It shows the classic Maya expression followed by the literal translation of its components and ends with the translation of the unitary concept. The second list (Table 3) shows the translations of the full names of the rulers, in which metonyms and metaphors of anger described above are used. I list the complete name of the ruler, the political entity associated with him, and what I consider to be the correct translation.
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Статья поступила в редакцию 16 декабря 2019 г.
Рекомендована в печать 12 марта 2020 г.
Received: December 16, 2019 Accepted: March 12, 2020
