Ix (I’x)
The fourteenth Maya day sign, the jaguar: its three circles are the spots on a jaguar’s skin. K’iche’ daykeepers call the day I’x, the sacred name of divinity on Earth.
Meaning
Ix is the fourteenth of the twenty day signs of the 260-day count; in K’iche’ it is I’x. The Aztec day in the same place is Ocelotl, jaguar (see Aztec day signs), and Eric Thompson found that hix was once a Maya name for the jaguar, surviving only in Kekchi (Q’eqchi’). 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 I’x from the word “tiger”, and write that its meaning is vitality, the Maya altar and wisdom: the sacred name of divinity on Earth and the nawal of domestic animals.
Origin and history
The glyph is stylized, but its “essential element”, Morley wrote, “seems to be the three prominent dots or circles”. Seler saw in it the hairy ear and spots of a jaguar, and Thompson agreed that the circles are the spots on the jaguar’s skin. Schultze Jena, whom Thompson cites, recorded that prayers are said on this day to the mountain gods, and that it is a good day to pray for rain, good maize and a person’s well-being. Kettunen and Helmke give the Classic Maya name, with a question mark, as Hix.
Read next
- Next in Maya symbols and godsMen (Tz’ikin)The fifteenth Maya day sign, an aged head with a line of dots from the eye. In the highlands it is Tz’ikin, the bird, the day of money and merchants.
- The same shape in Buddhist symbolsMandalaA mandala is a sacred diagram of the universe in Hindu and Buddhist tantra, usually a circle enclosing a square palace with a gate in each side and a deity at its centre. Tibetan Buddhists paint it, build it in metal and lay it out in coloured sand for initiation and meditation.
See also
Ak’bal (Aq’ab’al), Kukulkan, Chaac, Itzamna, Maize God, Maya calendar.
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. 82, “Ix, Hix, Balam”
- 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; p. 40
- 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. 1, I’x
- 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 XI
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles 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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