Ixtab was the
Mayan goddess of
suicide and wife of
Chamer. In Mayan tradition, suicide, especially suicide by hanging, was considered an honorable way to die, comparable to the human victims of the sacrificial rite and slain warriors. Ixtab, depicted as a corpse with a rope around her neck, would accompany the suicides to their eternal rest (
psychopomp). Some accounts contend that this belief in Ixtab among the peoples of Central America fostered a readiness to commit suicide rather than face disease or disgrace.