THE MAYA: RELIGION
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338.) The illustration shows the principal head of the animal with widely-distended jaws enclosing the figure of a deity.
The earth-monster is not however the only two-headed animal in Maya art. Many of the stelæ, particularly
Fig. 51.—Rear head of the two-headed monster; Temple of the Cross, Palenque.
(After Maudslay)
(After Maudslay)
those at Copan, Quirigua and Naranjo, show a figure bearing in its arms an object usually known as the "ceremonial bar" (see Pl. XXI; p. 236). In some cases the object appears simply as a two-headed snake, with drooping body, but in the majority of instances it resembles a beam with a snake-head at either end. In either case the heads are similar, and resemble the main head of the earth-monster; while
