The flowers on this drinking cup are water lilies. The Maya people who lived in Honduras, Guatemala, and parts of Mexico grew crops in wetlands and at the edges of rivers, where water lilies also grow. Maya kings adopted the flower as a symbol of royal power. Nobles were called Ah Nab, which means “water lily people.”
For the Maya, death called the soul to Xibalba, the watery underworld. This vessel was placed in a tomb, and the water lily appears on it because the flower also was a symbol of death and rebirth.
