Itzamna The Serpent from the East

Itzamna was the Mayas’ earliest culture-bearer, also known as the “White Man,” who preceded the arrival of the more famous Kukulcan, or “Feathered Serpent.” The latter appears to have represented survivors from the final destruction of Atlantis, in 1198 B.C. Itzamna was the original founder of Mesoamerican civilization and one of the most important deities of Mayan mythology. The ruler of the heavens and of day and night, he was often shown in Mayan art as a pleasant, toothless old man with a large nose. He was also identified as the son of the creator god Hunab Ku. In various myths, Itzamná appears as a culture hero who gave the Maya the foundations of civilization. He and his wife, Ixchel, the “White Lady,” were among immigrants fleeing westward during the late fourth millennium B.C., when their Atlantean homeland was beset with the first in a series of four geologic upheavals.

J. Eric S. Thompson originally interpreted the name Itzamna as "lizard house", itzam being a Yucatecan word for iguana and naaj meaning "house". However, Thompson's translation has gradually been abandoned. While there is no consensus on the exact meaning of the name Itzamna, it may be significant that itz is a root denoting all sorts of secretions (such as dew, sap, and semen) and also sorcery. The otherwise unattested, agentive form itzam could thus mean "asperser" or "sorcerer".

Itzamna

In the Maya cosmology, the Chilam Balam, and Juan Darreygosa’s 16th-century Historia de Zodzil, Itzamna bears the title “Serpent from the East” and is described as “the first after the flood.” He arrived on the eastern shores of the island of Cozumel, where the ruins of several temples to him and Ixchel still stand, just off the Yucatan peninsula.

Moving to the mainland, he built the first version of Chichen Itza and 140 other ceremonial centers and cities. The Mayas believed Itzamna brought all the arts of civilization to Yucatan after the Great Flood. These included city-planning, astronomy-astrology, agriculture, writing, organized labor, sculpture, mathematics, book-illumination, government, and music. According to legend, he taught them to grow corn, to write, to use calendars, and to practice medicine. He also introduced a system for dividing up the land, and he established rituals for religious worship. He is portrayed in temple art, such as friezes at the Maya ceremonial center of Tikal, in Guatemala, as a long-nosed, bearded man rowing his boat across the sea from which he came.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzamna

http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/latin-america-and-caribbean/mesoamerican-indigenous-peoples/itzamna

The Atlantis Encyclopedia by Frank Joseph

Pic Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:God_D_Itzamna.jpg