Xtabay

This article is part of a series on the
Maya civilization
Drawing of a Mayan stone carving with elaborate decoration.
History
Spanish conquest of the Maya

La Xtabay (Spanish pronunciation: [la iʃ.taˈβaj]) is a Yucatec Maya folklore tale about a demonic femme fatale who preys upon men in the Yucatán Peninsula.[1] She is said to dwell in the forest to lure men to their deaths with her incomparable beauty.[2] She is described as having beautiful, shining black hair that falls down to her ankles and wearing a white dress.[3] One of the most accepted versions of the myth comes from a book, Diez Leyendas Mayas (1998), written by Jesus Azcorra Alejos.[4]

  1. ^ Romero, Rolando (2014-05-14). Feminism, Nation and Myth: La Malinche. Arte Publico Press. p. 135. ISBN 9781611920420.
  2. ^ Starr, Frederick (1904). "Notes upon the ethnography of southern Mexico: expedition of 1901". Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences. 9: 63–172.
  3. ^ Preuss, Mary H. (1985). "Vestiges of the Past: The Role of the Grandmother in Contemporary Yucatec Literature". Wíčazo Ša Review. 1 (2): 1–10. doi:10.2307/1409116. JSTOR 1409116.
  4. ^ Romans, Dorothy Jennifer (2013). The siren of syzygy: A textual hermeneutic study of the embrace of the anima/animus in Yucatec Maya culture as seen through the myth of La Xtabay (Thesis). pp. 6, 11, 43–47, 60. ProQuest 1461758952.