The Olmec Mythology

The height of Olmec culture, generally centered in the modern Mexican state of Veracruz, is currently dated from 1200 BCE to about 800 BCE. The Olmec continued well beyond this period, establishing monuments and communities until 400 BCE. Some scholars declare the Olmec existed as a distinct people until nearly 100 BCE. The Olmec developed a hieroglyphic script for their language, the earliest known example dating from 650 BCE.

However existing Olmec texts are few and the meaning of many of their glyphs remains indistinct compared to the much more abundant and better-understood later Maya hieroglyphics. Archaeologists believe that the Olmec and their culture were ancestral to later Mesoamerican peoples, including the Maya civilization, the inhabitants of the city of Teotihuacan, and the modern Mayan speaking groups.The Toltec and the Aztec may not have descended from the Olmecs but influenced by their culture.

One of the best-known Olmec sites, La Venta, contains representations of several apparently mythologycal figures. These representations, generally dating from 800 to 400 BCE, include a feathered serpent, a man of crops with corn growing out of his head, and a rain spirit in the guise of a dwarf or child. Similar images are frequently found in the myths of later cultures in the area.

Olmec mythology has left no documents, and therefore any exposition of Olmec mythology must rely on interpretations of surviving monumental and portable art and comparisons with other Mesoamerican mythologies. Olmec art shows that such deities as the Feathered Serpent and the Rain Spirit were already in the Mesoamerican pantheon in Olmec times.

The Olmec mythology, Ruler or God connected physical and spiritual worlds. His pose represents his means to link with the supernatural worlds. The turned down mouth, a feline feature, suggests that a power animal such as a cat, jacquar, traditionally the spirit companion of shamans and kings, aided the human ruler.

It was formerly thought that the Olmec mythology worshiped only one god, a rain deity depicted as a 'were-jaguar', but study has shown that there were at least 10 distinct gods represented in Olmec art.

Present were several important deities of the later, established Meso-American pantheon, such as the fire god, rain god, corn/maize god, and the Feathered Serpent.