The “Copulating Couple” at Naj Tunich: A Critical Reexamination

The discovery of a large corpus of Maya inscriptions and paintings in the cave of Naj Tunich in 1980 attracted the attention of scholars because of an explicitly drawn image of a naked couple locked in an embrace. The initial analysis identified it as part of a well-known scene portraying an old male deity with a young female goddess. With the passage of time, it has become increasingly popular to interpret the drawing as depicting a homoerotic ritual involving two men. This article reviews the iconography to show that there is no evidence to suggest that two men are present, especially since male genitalia are drawn on only one figure. Additionally, the homoerotic interpretation is inconsistent with what is known about cave ritual.