Camazotz, Zotz, and Zotzilaha

Camazotz, Zotz, and Zotzilaha
By Maria Deltorre

To understand the real meaning of these three words (they are real words!), one needs to review the Popol Vuh, the Mayan "creation myth" (and try to not to giggle during the part where the frying pans accost the Mayans).

Zotz (alternately Camalotz) is a sort of aloof death god, and one of the 4 animal demons who helped slay the evil proto-humans before the coming of this age and the arrival of the Mayans.

Zotzihila is a great dark cave, the underworld, where Zotz dwells, along with, as can be expected in central American caves, lots of bats. The Camazotz, the "Death Bat" or "Snatch Bat", believed to be the Mayan term for the Vampire Bat, and other large bats, were believed to inhabit this cavern with Zotz.

The confusion as to Zotzhila being the name of a god comes from the myths of the Quiche people of what is now Guatemala, who were a pre/proto-Mayan group that worshipped (among other things) a fire god called Zotzilaha Chamalcan. This god has little relation to Zotz/Camalotz, and the Popol Vuh is quite clear on the meaning of Zotzihila in Mayan myth.