The Maya came to the mathematical certainty of the existence of cosmic consciousness which they named "Hunab Ku", sole dispenser of measurement and movement, to whom they attributed the mathematical structuring of the universe. This divinity they represented by a circle in which was inscribed a square, just as did Pythagoras. The Maya believed that their supreme divinity functioned through a principle of dynamic dualism, or polarity...by which, through the agency of the four elements, air, fire, water, earth...the whole material world was engendered...To the Maya, the earth was not a corpse, it was neither dead nor inert, but a living entity immediately tied to the existence of man.