ITZA ORIGINS: Texts, Myths, Legends

These legends constitute the foundational narrative of the Petén Itzás. They are entertaining and fairly consistent internally, although some differences are striking, such as heading inland toward Ticul (Xiw territory) versus traveling by sea. Also, in one version they fled in a K'atun 8 Ajaw, which began in 1441 and dates Mayapán’s collapse, whereas in the other they left in 1420, at the end of a K'atun 12 Ajaw. As Ralph Roys (1962: 47, 80) interprets the story, Hunac Ceel, perhaps lord of Uxmal or a lord in the Kanul lineage allied with the Kokoms, was not (necessarily) the father