Olmec
rulers offered their own blood as a sacrifice to feed and nourish the gods. . .
. The symbolism and context of Olmec bloodletting offer a prototype for Maya
blood sacrifice and beliefs. Among the Maya, offering blood was probably a
symbolic reenactment of the sacrifices the gods made when they gave their own
lives to create the world. As a result, blood sacrifice is both a symbol of
death and a source of life throughout Mesoamerican history. (Douglas E.
Bradley, “Gender, Power, and Fertility in the Olmec Ritual Ballgame,” in The
Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame, ed. E. Michael
Whittington [London: Thames and Hudson, 2001], 36)
The
ballgame was one means by which human offerings of blood and death were
accomplished. From the pre-Hispanic perspective, the taking of life was
necessary in order to perpetuate life. The ballgame offered the defeated
contender in war and conquest the opportunity of being sacrifice with honor.
Such actions replicated the deeds of the Hero Twins who defeated death in the
Quiché Maya epic the Popol Vuh. (María Teresa Uriarte, “Unity in
Duality: The Practice and Symbols of the Mesoamerican Ballgame,” in The
Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame, ed. E. Michael
Whittington [London: Thames and Hudson, 2001], 44)
DEATH
AND RESURRECTION
Death
and resurrection are paramount themes of the Mesoamerican ballgame. It is the
great drama of human sacrifice depicted on ballcourt reliefs and numerous
portable objects that fuels our imagination. For Mesoamerican peoples, human
sacrifice was a contractual agreement with the gods, in which the gift of
creation was constantly repaid with blood—humanity’s most precious offering.
The ballgame-playing Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh are sacrificed and reborn, thus becoming the
model for human interaction with the supernatural. (“Catalogue,” in The
Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ballgame, ed. E. Michael
Whittington [London: Thames and Hudson, 2001], 250)
