Clam/ Oyster
The clam denotes the closed shell of the sea's first life, receptive and shy, prised open for the world's treasure and the pearl within.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Animal World / Water Creatures
- Borne by
- 1 figure
- Traditions
- Mayan mythology (1)
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Chac bears Mayan mythology
why
In Classic art he is recognisable by catfish-like whiskers, a snout that is short and lizard-like, and scaled skin, along with a conspicuous tied hank of hair and a spiny-oyster ear ornament; the Postclassic codices render him markedly more human.