Camazotz

Camazotz
Night, death, and sacrifice
Other namesCama-Zotz
AnimalsBat
Equivalents
PolynesianLeutogi

In the Late Post-Classic Maya mythology of the Popol Vuh, Camazotz (/kɑːməˈsɒts/ from Mayan /kama ˈsots’/) (alternate spellings Cama-Zotz, Sotz, Zotz) is a bat spirit at the service of the lords of the underworld. Camazotz means "death bat" in the Kʼicheʼ language. In Mesoamerica generally, the bat is often associated with night, death, and sacrifice.[1]

Etymology

Camazotz is formed from the Kʼicheʼ words kame, meaning "death", and sotz', meaning "bat".[2]

Mythology

In the Popol Vuh, Camazotz are the bat-like spirits encountered by the Maya Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque during their trials in the underworld of Xibalba. The twins had to spend the night in the House of Bats, where they squeezed themselves into their own blowguns in order to defend themselves from the circling bats. Hunahpu stuck his head out of his blowgun to see if the sun had risen and Camazotz immediately snatched off his head and carried it to the ballcourt to be hung up as the ball to be used by the gods in their next ballgame.[3]

Classic Period (200–900 CE)

In Classic Maya iconography, the (leaf-nosed) bat, exhaling unhealthy vapours, is often depicted as a person's nahual or way-spirit bringing disease over an enemy. However, the Classic bat spirit is rarely, if ever, part of a narrative context, nor does it appear to play the role assigned to it by the Popol Vuh.[4]

In A Wrinkle in Time, a 1962 young adult science fantasy novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle, Camazotz is a "dark planet" which is controlled by "IT",[5] a disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities.

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Camazotz appears in the Greyhawk campaign setting as a deity of bats and evil.[6]

In the fifth and final season of the American television series Stranger Things, Holly Wheeler references the evil dimension she and Max Mayfield are stuck in as "Camazotz" due to her love of A Wrinkle in Time and its use as a prison by the series' main antagonist, Henry Creel.[5]

In the graphic novel Kingdom Kong, part of Legendary Pictures' Monsterverse, Camazotz is represented as a bat-like Titan in control of an army of draconic bat-like creatures. Camazotz attempts to take Skull Island for itself but is defeated by Kong.

In Fate/Grand Order, Camazotz appears as a major antagonist in Lostbelt Seven - Golden Sea of Trees Travelogue: Nahui Mictlan, an alternate timeline deemed unfit for human history and has since been removed by the universe itself, reestablished by the games second antagonist. There, he serves as a major obstacle, a crazed being feared by the inhabitants of the Lostbelt for his ruthless bloodshed. After his defeat, it's revealed that he's a human who's become an Evil of Man after all of what was left of humanity in the Lostbelt sacrificed themselves to give him enough power to defeat ORT.

See also

References

  1. ^ Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.44.
  2. ^ Christenson.
  3. ^ Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p. 44. Thompson 1966, p. 181. Read & Gonzalez 2000, p. 133.
  4. ^ Brady&Coltman 2016
  5. ^ a b https://www.themarysue.com/stranger-things-presents-two-different-interpretations-of-a-wrinkle-in-time-in-the-final-season/
  6. ^ Cannon, Trent (2024-11-06). "What the Stranger Things season 5 episode titles mean as Netflix teases a 2025 return". Popverse. Retrieved 2026-02-18.

Bibliography

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