Bacab is the generic Yucatec Maya name for the four prehispanic aged deities of the interior of the Earth and its water deposits. The Bacabs have more recent counterparts in the lecherous, drunken old thunder deities of the Gulf Coast regions. The Bacabs are also referred to as Pauahtuns.
Throne support from Palenque showing a young, named official acting as a bacab (Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain).
Itzamná is, in Maya mythology, an upper god and creator deity thought to reside in the sky. Itzamná is one of the most important gods in the Classic and Postclassic Maya pantheon. Although little is known about him, scattered references are present in early-colonial Spanish reports (relaciones) and dictionaries. Twentieth-century Lacandon lore includes tales about a creator god who may be a late successor to him. In the pre-Spanish period, Itzamná was often depicted in books and in ceramic scenes derived from them. Before the names of the Maya deities were deciphered, Itzamná was known as "god D", and is still sometimes referred to as "god D" by archeologists.
Itzamna as shown in the classic period
A Classic Period glyph with a representation of Itzamná with the body of a bird, found in the Plaza of the Dead Sun in Toniná and now in the site museum.
Itzamna as terrestrial crocodile Itzam Cab Ain, Dresden Codex.
Principal Bird Deity and worshipper, Classic period, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY