Mesoamerican PantheonCreature
Camazotz
- Decapitation
- Night Vision
- Swarm Command
- Death Dealing
The Death Bat, a monstrous bat deity from Maya mythology who inhabits Xibalba, the underworld. In the Popol Vuh, Camazotz decapitated the hero Hunahpu during the trials of the underworld. Associated with night, death, and sacrifice, this creature dwells in the House of Bats where he and his kind attack any who enter.
About Camazotz
Death Bat of Xibalba
In the Popol Vuh, the hero twins must survive the House of Bats. Camazotz swoops; Hunahpu's head is taken and hung in the ballcourt. The being is both a named killer and a type of underworld bat. The same Xibalba terror appears among the gods of the K'iche' list.
K'iche' colonial alphabetic text is the witness, written from older performance.
Zotz and the Maya bat
The name combines kame, 'death', with sotz', 'bat' in K'iche'. Bat imagery is common in Classic Maya art, and one of the months of the Maya year is Zotz'. Copán's emblem glyph features a bat head. The Popol Vuh episode is the source of the name, but the association of bats with death, darkness, and the underworld is much older in Maya art.
Quick answers about Camazotz
- What is Camazotz?
- The Death Bat, a monstrous bat deity from Maya mythology who inhabits Xibalba, the underworld. In the Popol Vuh, Camazotz decapitated the hero Hunahpu during the trials of the underworld. Associated with night, death, and sacrifice, this creature dwells in the House of Bats where he and his kind attack any who enter.
- Where does Camazotz live?
- The atlas lists Camazotz's habitat as Xibalba (The House of Bats).
- What abilities does Camazotz have?
- The atlas lists these abilities for Camazotz: Decapitation, Night Vision, Swarm Command, and Death Dealing.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Popol Vuh (K'iche' Maya)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
The danger rating is an editorial shorthand for how the myths portray the creature, not a claim made by the sources.
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