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Overview
Ixtab
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America
The Maya goddess of suicide. Ixtab was portrayed as dangling from the sky with a rope round her neck; her eyes were closed in death and her cheeks already showed the first signs of decomposition. It was believed that suicides by hanging, warriors killed in battle, sacrificial victims, women who died in childbirth, and members of the priesthood went directly to paradise. Ixtab came to fetch these lucky souls. In the delectable shade of the cosmic tree, yaxche, the inhabitants of paradise could rest from labour, and escape from all suffering and want.
From: Ixtab in A Dictionary of World Mythology »
