| Object Name: | Monument 31: Jaguar as symbol of power and fertility |
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|---|---|---|
| Creation Date: | 1000 BC - 200 BC | |
| Culture: | Olmec | |
| Site: | Chalcatzingo | |
| Material: | ||
| Repository: | ||
| Image source: | © Dr. Manuel Aguilar | |
| Following the analysis of Ken Really (1993), this relief depicts a feline ripping apart a human victim, above which three phallic-shaped raindrops fall from the S glyph (interpreted as a heavenly level) that is a substitution of the cloud symbol. On the diverse reliefs of Chalcatzingo, we have seen the theme of the interaction of the natural and supernatural realms for the purpose of vegetative fertility. In this recently discovered relief, we find the link of the S symbol (cloud) and the phallic-shaped rain drops with the themes of felines, bloodletting, and human sacrifice. Reilly's hypothesis is very logical and consistent, but Dr. Aguilar dared to propose his own. He saw in this relief a S-symbol (cloud) that is pouring raindrops on a jaguar that represents the creative power of the earth and from this fertility metaphor, comes the creation of life and specifically the human beings. This relief shows the very moment of creation, according to the cosmological ideas of the Olmecs, which would survive and being reinterpreted by the future civilizations became the foundation of the Mesoamerican ritual and political ideology in a continuity of more than two milleniums. | ||
