Ixtab was the Maya mythology goddess of suicide and wife of Chamer. In Maya 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 (a role called a 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.
