Telchak
Earth Culture of Origin
Mayan, Aztec, Zapotec
Alternate Names / Spellings
Chaac, Chaak, Chac-Mol, Chak, Cocijo (Zapotec), God-B ("B" for "bursting clouds"), Ah Hoya ("he who urinates"), Ah Tzenul ("he who gives food to others"), Hopop Caan ("he who lights up the sky"), Tlaloc (Aztec).
Presides Over
God of Agriculture, Fertility, Rain and Lightning
Personal Symbols
Lightning axe to strike the clouds and produce thunder; frogs symbolize the coming rain because of their croaking.
Earth Mythological References
Chac is a reptilian god with fangs, a down-turned nose, tears flowing from his wide eyes, and hair that is permanently tangled. He is considered benevolent, even giving man advice on how to produce crops. When he cries, it rains.
He is also associated with creation and wears the four colors of the cardinal directions, giving him four aspects, or entities: red (East), white (North), yellow (South) and black (West).
The center of his cult was in Chichen Itzan (Yucatan). Rituals to ask for rain were performed by the men and included fasting and sexual abstinance.
Stargate References
Telchak was the Goa'uld who created the first sarcophagus based on Ancient technology now known as the Telchak Device. Anubis went to war with him for possession of the original Ancient technology, and although he defeated Telchak, he never found the device. After his ascension, Anubis gained knowledge on how to produce a similar device that could animate tissue and give life to his Kull Warriors, genetically engineered beings with programmed Goa'uld symbiotes. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")
When the SGC obtained the body of a dead Kull Warrior, Jacob Carter/Selmak studied the energy signature in the Warrior's tissue and noted the similarity between it and the sarcophagus'. He told Daniel the story about Telchak and the Ancient technology, and Daniel immediately recalled that his grandfather, Nick Ballard, had done decades of Mayan research into the Fountain of Youth (legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters) in which he claimed he'd found evidence indicating the source of the fountain's power was a piece of alien technology used by early Mayan tribes around 900 B.C. Nick traced its origins to Chac, the Mayan god of rain. Daniel, Carter and Jacob/Selmak theorized that if the device was kept hidden near a water source, it could have been the basis of the Fountain of Youth mythology. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")
Nick's research notes turned out to be written in an obscure dialect of Goa'uld, and Selmak translated them to reveal that Telchak's Ancient device was hidden in a temple in southern Hondorus near a waterfall and a river. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")
Daniel and Dr. Lee found the Telchak Device exactly where they thought it would be, and Jacob/Selmak and Carter used the technology to develop a weapon that could counteract the Kull Warriors' life-giving energy. (7.12 "Evolution Part 2", 7.16 "Death Knell")
Episodes
Related Characters
Related Articles
Further Reading
- Mayan Mythology: The Maya Gods of Mesoamerica - CHAC
- Wikipedia: Chaac
- Lost Civilizations: Mayan Gods
- Encyclopedia Mythica: Chac
- Wikipedia: Fountain of Youth
Actor
- none
--DeeKayP 14:54, 7 July 2007 (PDT)