Ixtab

The Goddess of the Rope and the Hanged

Domain: Death, Suicide & Paradise
Alignment: True Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Celestial Rope

Speak with Ixtab

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.

The Sacred Scrolls

Goddess associated with death by hanging, Ixtab is a complex figure of the Maya pantheon. Rather than condemning, she gathered certain souls and led them to a paradise of rest in the shade of a sacred tree. She represents a particular view of death as a passage, not as a punishment. As The Goddess of the Rope and the Hanged, this deity occupies a position of supreme prestige in the maias pantheon. Their domains over Death, Suicide & Paradise reflect ancestral cosmic order maintained across millennia. In classical iconography, they are depicted with an aura of unshakeable majesty and sacred attributes that inspired reverence in emperors and peasants alike. Their influence extended beyond earthly boundaries, governing fates and harmony between the visible and invisible worlds. For ancient devotees, contemplating their essence was to understand the very fundamental forces of nature and human existence.

Sacred Symbols

The rope from the sky, the sacred tree and eternal rest

Divine Lineage

Death deity tied to the special fate of certain souls in the Maya afterlife.

The Legendary Myth

According to Maya tradition recorded by chroniclers, certain categories of the dead — among them those who departed by hanging, warriors, and women who died in childbirth — did not go to gloomy Xibalba.

Legends & Deeds

A celebrated secondary legend preserved in the oral traditions of the maias recounts the journey when Ixtab intervened directly in the lives of mortals.