Editing Bacab (section)

==Yucatec traditions==
===Myth===
The Bacabs "were four brothers whom God placed, when he created the world, at the four points of it, holding up the sky so that it should not fall. [...] They escaped when the world was destroyed by the deluge."<ref>Landa, in Tozzer 1941: 135-136</ref> Their names were Hobnil, Cantzicnal, Saccimi, and Hosanek. 

The Bacabs played an important role in the cosmological upheaval associated with [[K'atun|Katun]] 11 Ahau, when Oxlahuntiku 'Thirteen-god' was humbled by Bolontiku 'Nine-god'. According to the Book of [[Chilam Balam]] of Chumayel, "then the sky would fall, it would fall down, it would fall down upon the earth, when the four gods, the four Bacabs, were set up, who brought about the destruction of the world."<ref>Roys 1967: 99-100</ref>

According to Francisco Hernández (quoted by Las Casas and [[Diego López de Cogolludo]]), the Bacab (apparently a unitary concept) was the son of the creator god, [[Itzamna]], and of the goddess Ixchebelyax; he had once been humbled, killed, and revived. 

===Ritual===
The veneration of the Bacabs was closely connected to that of the so-called Year Bearers and their prognostics. Each Bacab ruled one of the directions and the associated Year Bearer day (one of four New Year days), as follows:
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Direction
!Color
!Years
|-
|[[Cantzicnal]]
|North
|White
|Muluc
|-
|[[Kan Ekʼ|Ho' Chan Ek]]
|West
|Black
|Kawaq
|-
|[[Hobnil]]
|East
|Red
|Kan
|-
|[[Zac-Cimi]]
|South
|Yellow
|Ix
|}

The Bacabs were invoked in connection with rain and agriculture, since they were intimately associated with the four [[Chaac]]s, or rain deities, and the [[Pauahtuns|Pawahtuns]], or wind deities, all located in the four directions. The Maya of Chan Kom referred to the four skybearers as the four Chacs (Redfield and Villa Rojas).
 
Since they were Year Bearer patrons, and also because of their meteorological qualities, the Bacabs were important in divination ceremonies; they were approached with questions about crops, weather, or the health of bees (Landa). 

In addition, the "Four Gods, Four Bacabs" were often invoked in curing rituals that had the four-cornered world and its beaches for a theatre, which is the basic reason why the most important early-colonial collection of Yucatec curing texts, the ''[[Ritual of the Bacabs]]'', has been named after them.