He was the culture hero of the Tzendals, a branch of the Maya race, whose home was in Chiapas and Tabasco.

Even the usually cautious Humboldt suggested that his name might be a form of Odin or Buddha! As for more imaginative writers, they have made not the least difficulty in discovering that it is identical with the Odon of the Tarascos, the Oton of the Othomis, the Poudan of the East Indian Tamuls, the Vaudoux of the Louisiana negroes, etc.

All this has been done without any attempt having been made to ascertain the precise meaning and derivation of the name Votan.

Superficial phonetic similarities have been the only guide.
We are not well acquainted with the Votan myth.

It appears to have been written down some time in the seventeenth century, by a Christianized native.