Ik’ (Iq’)
The second Maya day sign, a T shape in a cartouche: the day of wind, breath and life. K’iche’ daykeepers call it Iq’, the day of wind, air, spirit and the heart of the sky.
Meaning
Ik’ is the second of the twenty day signs of the 260-day count; its K’iche’ name is Iq’. Eric Thompson found that almost all sources agree the name means wind, and that Ik’ and the highland Ikh also mean breath and so life itself. The Aztec day in the same place is Ehecatl, the wind god (see Aztec day signs). The day is kept today: the K’iche’ daykeepers of Komon Tohil, in Zunil, Guatemala, in an account of the days that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian reproduces on its Living Maya Time site, derive Iq’ from “wind”, “air”, “spirit” and “heart of the sky”, and write that it means heavy showers and hurricanes. On Iq’, they write, people ask for an end to suffering, illness and problems at home.
Origin and history
The sign is a T, and in the inscriptions that T is, in Thompson’s words, “the only element in the glyph”. Morley noticed that the codices draw the day differently from the monuments. The same T appears in the name glyph of the rain god of the codices that Schellhas lettered God B (see Chaac), so Thompson made Ik’ the day of God B: rain, and the life, germination and fruitfulness that rain brings. On pages 97 and 98 of the Madrid Codex, gods hold an Ik’ sign from which a plant, probably maize, is growing. Kettunen and Helmke give the Classic Maya name as Ik’.
One of the four year bearers
Only four of the twenty day names can begin a year, Morley showed, and he named them as Ik, Manik, Eb and Caban: Ik’, Manik’, Eb’ and Kab’an. In the Guatemalan highlands, Wagley, cited by Thompson, recorded the year bearers at the Mam village of Santiago Chimaltenango as Ik, Cheh, Ek and Noh.
Read next
- Next in Maya symbols and godsAk’bal (Aq’ab’al)The third Maya day sign: night and darkness. Eric Thompson saw in it the jaguar god of the dark inside of the earth; K’iche’ daykeepers, who call it Aq’ab’al, make it the day of the light of dawn.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsGateway of the Sun (the Staff God)A doorway cut from a single block of andesite at Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, carved above the opening with a god holding a staff in each hand. Who the figure is remains open: Britannica lists a sun god, a thunder god and Viracocha among the readings.
See also
Chaac, Manik’ (Kej), Kab’an (No’j), Kukulkan, Itzamna, Maize God.
Sources
- Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction (J. Eric S. Thompson, 1950), J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 589 (Washington, 1950), chapter 3, “The cycle of 260 days”; Internet Archive full text, Internet Archive, p. 73, “Ik”
- An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs (Sylvanus G. Morley, 1915), Sylvanus Griswold Morley, An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 57 (Smithsonian Institution, 1915), chapter III and figs. 16–17; Project Gutenberg eBook 43491, Project Gutenberg, chapter III, Table I; pp. 39 and 53
- The Meaning of the Days in the Maya Sacred Calendar (Komon Tohil, Living Maya Time), Group of K’iche’ Day Keepers Komon Tohil, Zunil, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, “The Meaning of the Days in the Maya Sacred Calendar”, reproduced with permission in Living Maya Time, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (PDF), National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, p. 2, Iq’
- Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs (Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke, Mesoweb, 2020), Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke, Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs, 17th revised edition (Wayeb and Mesoweb, 2020), Appendices, Tables X–XI, “Day names in the Tzolk’in calendar”, Mesoweb, Table X
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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