Camazotz

The Bat God of Death

Domain: Darkness, Caves & Death
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Blade of the Wings

Speak with Camazotz

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4 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Maya

Region

Mesoamerica (Yucatán & Guatemala)

Period

c. 2000 BC – 1500 AD

The Maya gods were worshipped in the city-states of Mesoamerica, such as Tikal, Palenque, and Chichén Itzá. Astronomer-priests read the skies and the calendar to honor them at the right time, in pyramid-temples now swallowed by the jungle. Many of their myths survive in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiché Maya.

Maya kings and queens offered their own blood in bloodletting rituals to feed the gods, and the ritual ballgame re-enacted the duel against the lords of the underworld. Cenotes such as the one at Chichén Itzá received precious offerings, guided by the 260-day sacred calendar.

At a glance

Camazotz (in the standardized Classical K'iche' Maya spelling K'ama' Zotz', literally translated as 'Death Bat' or 'He Who Reaps with the Bat', derived from the pan-Maya term zotz', 'bat') is the fearsome supernatural creature and the personification of the chthonic forces of darkness, of deep caverns, and of sacrifice by decapitation in Maya mythology. The protagonist of one of the most dramatic episodes of the second part of the Popol Vuh, Camazotz rules over the Zotzi Ja (the 'House of Bats'), one of the six underground chambers of trial through which the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque were forced to pass in the underworld of Xibalba. When the brothers sought refuge by sleeping inside the hollow of their blowguns to escape the cutting wings of the bats, Hunahpu put his head out before dawn to watch the horizon; Camazotz swooped down in low flight and severed his skull with surgical precision, carrying the bloodied head to the ballcourt of Xibalba, where it was used as a rubber ball by the lords of death. In Classic-period Maya archaeology and iconography, the bat is a prominent symbol associated with the underworld, the night and karstic darkness, appearing both as the emblem glyph of the royal dynasty of Copan and on polychrome vessels, where it is anthropomorphized with wings fringed with obsidian blades and necklaces of sacrificial eyes.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The bat, the sharp wings, the cave and the sacrificial blade

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous (K'iche' Maya), Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. translation: Translation by Allen J. Christenson, University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.
Anonymous (Kaqchikel Maya), Memorial de Sololá (Annals of the Cakchiquels). translation: Adrián Recinos, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1950.

Studies

Karl Taube, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Dumbarton Oaks, 1992.
Claude-François Baudez, The Maya Bat: A Demon of Darkness, Fertility, and the Underworld. University of Texas Press, 1994.
Elizabeth P. Benson, The Maya Bat. Institute of Maya Studies, Miami, 1987.

Name and epithets

The Classical K'iche' theonym K'ama' Zotz' combines the verbal root k'am ('to receive', 'to take away', 'to snatch', or, in a funerary sense, 'to reap a life') with the noun zotz' ('bat', found in practically all the la…

In the ancient sources

Popol Vuh, c. 1554-1558 CE. Describes the imprisonment of the Hero Twins in the House of Bats and the lightning attack of Camazotz against Hunahpu. Vessel of the Bats of Xibalba (Vessel K2284), c. 700 CE.

The myths

The Decapitation of Hunahpu in the Zotzi Ja. Challenged by the lords of death in Xibalba, Hunahpu and Xbalanque were confined in the Zotzi Ja, the deep cavern infested by clouds of carnivorous bats whose snouts were lik…

Worship and archaeology

Unlike benevolent celestial gods such as Chaac or the Maize God, Camazotz and the bat spirits did not receive public festive celebrations with open agricultural dances, but were the object of solemn rites of appeasement…

How the god was depicted

Classic Maya iconography depicts the Bat God combining human anatomy and the morphology of bats of the family Phyllostomidae (characterized by the prominent fleshy nasal leaf at the tip of the snout).

What scholars debate

The Zoological Species That Inspired Camazotz. Zoologists and archaeologists, such as Elizabeth Benson and Claude-François Baudez, have investigated the real zoological basis behind the iconography of Camazotz.

After antiquity

Camazotz has transcended the limits of Mesoamerican studies to become one of the most celebrated figures of indigenous mythology in world popular culture.

Did you know?

The Kaqchikel Maya of the Guatemalan highlands had a dominant aristocratic lineage called Sotz'il ('Bat People'), whose rulers wore mantles with dark feathers and winged insignia in memory of the sovereigns of the noctu…

Codex relic

Blade of the Wings. The razor-sharp wings with which he decapitates victims in the darkness of his cave.

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