Abstract. – The protagonist of a core myth of the Ch’orti’ Mayas, Kumix, has been called a deity of the sun, the maize, and the rain. Here it is argued that the myth is primarily to be understood from the perspective of Mayan rainmaking tales and rituals. Kumix is shown to belong to a heterogeneous group of Mesoamerican rain-bringing heroes that includes ancestral kings as well as deities of maize and rain. Kumix’s identity is not reducible to that of a particular deity, although of all Mayan myths, this comes closest to the myth of the Gulf Coast maize hero [Mesoamerica, Maya, Ch’orti’, myth, ritual, hero, rainmaking].