"The Maya goddess of suicide. Ixtab was portrayed as dangling from the sky with a rope round her neck; her eyes were closed in death and her cheeks already showed the first signs of decomposition. It was believed that suicides by hanging, warriors killed in battle, sacrificial victims, women who died in childbirth, and members of the priesthood went directly to paradise. Ixtab came to fetch these lucky souls. In the delectable shade of the cosmic tree, yaxche, the inhabitants of paradise could rest from labour, and escape from all suffering and want." (Cotterell 1986:213)
"Ixtab was the goddess of suicide. On the Dresden Codex, she is represented hanging from the sky by a rope wound round her neck. The Maya had the idea that suicides went directly to heaven. " (Rivet 1960:77)
IXTAB. The goddess of suicide
(q.v.) in Mayan culture. She was also called "the lady of the rope." According
to Mayan culture, those who died by their own hand were sacred and their souls
went to a special heaven of their own.
Bibliography: Van V. W. Hagen 1970. El mundo de los Mayas.