Humberto Garcia Religion 110 Professor W. Raver Popol Vuh Myths organize the way we perceive and understand our reality. Myths grant stability to a culture, and in this respect; serve to explain the unexplainable. From Barbra Sproul’s perspective, creation myths reveal basic religious concerns pertaining to how the universe was formed, and how people or societies are fashioned. Myths speak of the transcendent and unknowable aspects in a drama that attempt to reveal and give reason to human existence and where man stands in the cosmos. Through myth, the dimensions of space, nature and time are expressed in symbolisms that show how the holy can be experienced or conveyed if understood properly. The Popol Vuh is a collection of mythic narratives that recount the origins and history of the Quiche’ Mayan people. The narrative opens with a description of what it was like before the first creation. “There was neither man nor animals… there was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky” (Sproul, Barbra. Primal Myths, Harper Collins Publishers 1979, Pg. 288). Only Tepeu and Gucumatz, the creator couple, existed as sun-fire powers in the void of the dark waters. After agreement, the creator couple said "let it be done", and it was done. From this; the earth emerged from the sea, mountains and valleys formed, the currents of the waters divided, and the wild animals (the guardians of the woods and spirits of the mountains) came to be. The animals were ordered to give praise to their creators and invoke the gods; but they could not speak like men, so they were banished to the forests. The Gods made three frustrated attempts to create mankind. In the first attempt to create humans, they used mud, though this failed because the... ... middle of paper ... ...o divinity, that this spiritual connection between nature (natural world) and man exists. Mayans don’t exploit the lands (the giver of corn) because “Everything that is…manifests itself above the waters” (Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and the Profane, Harcourt 1959, Pg. 131) and therefore having a connection to the gods. Notions of sacred space are defined in the classical image of the sky. The sky shows itself to be “infinite, transcendent…it is preeminently the wholly other” (Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and the Profane, Harcourt 1959, Pg. 118). Transcendence is revealed by this infinite height. In the beginning, only the still waters and the sky existed. “For the sky by its own mode of being “reveals transcendence, force, eternity…it exists absolutely because it is high, infinite and eternal” ” (Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and the Profane, Harcourt 1959, Pg. 119) .
Further exploration of the myth teaches more about Northern Europeans who believed it as their creation myth and reveals their emphasis on structure and order as well as a belief in supernatural
The Popol Vuh is a collection of historical mythos of the K’iche’ Maya, a group that still lives in the Guatemalan highlands. Popol Vuh translates as either, “Book of Council” or in proper K’iche’ “Book of Events” or “Book of the People”, and tells the creation mythos of the K’iche’ peoples, an epic tale of Hero Twins Hunahp and Xbalanqué, along with a series of genealogies. Popol Vuh takes on a large number of subjects, including creation, history, destiny and cosmology. Popular editions of Popol Vuh all use basically the same method of breaking the text up into related pieces, but for clarity’s sake the edition that will be described here takes the organizational structure put forth by Brasseur de Bourbourg (Introduction, Pts 1-4). Part one includes the creation myth, and the epics of Hunahp and Xblanqué.
The Popol Vuh is the most important Mayan document to survive the Spanish conquest. It is believed to have been written in pre-Columbian times in hieroglyphs. After the conquest it was transcribed into the Mayan language with Roman characters. The Popol Vuh is the most sacred book of the Quiche Maya. Like other holy books, it contains stories of human creation. The opening passage excerpted here refers to the Heart of Heaven and the Heart of Earth, a name given to the Creator and the Maker of Life. According to the text, nothing was on Earth in the beginning, only the silence of darkness. The Creator and his helpers united their "words and their thoughts" and brought forth the world. They then modeled humans from yellow and white corn. The Popol Vuh is not only a precious source of information on the pre-Columbian Maya but a source of inspiration to many contemporary Central American and Hispanic-American artists and writers. “This is the account of how all was in suspense, all calm, in silence; all motionless, still, and the expanse of the sky was empty. This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky. The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky. There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky. There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed. There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Fore-fathers, were in the water surrounded with light. They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and were
In placing humankind within this world, it is the intent of God that humans enjoy this world and flourish in it through a continuing relationship with Him. And God said, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness, to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the cattle and the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth” (Genesis 158-159). Therefore, He creates a human in His image, the image of God. God did not want man to be alone and decides to fashion a companion from the rib of man. “And the Lord God cast a deep slumber on the human, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs and closed over the flesh where it had been, and the Lord God built the rib He had taken from the human into a woman” (Genesis 160). Upon learning of this the human said, “This one at last, bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh, / This one shall be called Woman, / for from man was this one taken” (Genesis 160). Human beings occupy center stage in this account of the world’s origin, but are held in low regard in Mesopotamian and Greek creation stories. In Enuma Elish, Marduk spoke to Ea of his idea for the creation of humankind, but Ea was the actual creator who devised how it should come about. In the Sixth Tablet, Marduk says, “My blood will I take and bone will I fashion / I will make man, that man may… / I will create man who shall
Words can be on a much grander scale. The Popol Vuh is a story originating from modern day Guatemala with its oldest excerpt dating back to the early 18th century. The most recent translation is by Allen J. Christenson in 2007. The Popol Vuh follows the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque and their epic tales. The mythological story ripe with symbolism is often coined as the “sacred book” of the Maya people. Symbolism in the Popol Vuh is important because it explains life and death, satirizes human behavior, represents the creation of the Maya, and it depicts the importance of maize.
Hesiod’s Theogony and the Babylonian Enuma Elish are both myths that begin as creation myths, explaining how the universe and, later on, humans came to be. These types of myths exist in every culture and, while the account of creation in Hesiod’s Theogony and the Enuma Elish share many similarities, the two myths differ in many ways as well. Both myths begin creation from where the universe is a formless state, from which the primordial gods emerge. The idea of the earth and sky beginning as one and then being separated is also expressed in both myths.
It also shows how different animals come together in harmony to create a new land that was once destroyed. The creation story teaches about different animals such as the loon who catches its food by diving underwater yet floated to the top weak and nearly unconscious, the hell diver who tried but also failed, suddenly the little muskrat came forward and accomplished what they all failed. This helps us understand the text’s social role and importance as the legend teaches about courage of all the animals to volunteer; bravery displayed by the muskrat as he disregards the more powerful and bigger animals as they taunted him, yet he strived to prove to them that he can do it. Ultimately muskrat resurfaces very weak from air and a few minutes later his spirit passed on to the spirit world; in his paw was a smallball of earth. The animals are regarded as one that people should posses such as bravery and courage. The theory makes the text more understandable as it creates a base on how the world and the people in it should
At the beginning of time only the Gods where living, until one day Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of the Sky, named Hurricane, created trees, bushes, and life. Bearer Begetter was the creator or animals big and small, like birds, deers, jaguars, pumas, and serpents. When the Gods created animals they created them for the sole purpose of being worshiped by them. However, when they realized that the animals could not speak they decided they would be sent to live in the woods and fend for themselves. After this Xpiyacoc and Xmucane attempted to make humans, but instead of not being able to speak. They appeared to be too unnatural and decided to call them manikins or wood carvings so, Heart of the Sky creates a flood killing them off. It is believed that monkeys look like humans because they are the manikins who survived the flood by climbing onto trees.
The Maori myth is a Polynesian story about the creation of the universe which according to Rosenberg was different from other creation myths because it begins with nothing and then progresses through a process of “nonbeing to thought to the creation of the universe and human beings” (351). Even though it may be different because it goes from “nonbeing to thought” instead of nothingness to a spoken word or action, it has many similarities to other creation myths in how it explains the origins of the Gods and how each one represents a natural event or aspect of nature and humanity. The myth begins with an “idea” that “was remembered” and then “became conscious” and then “a wish to create”, all of which created a “power to live and to grow, even in emptiness” (352). At this point there was still no being, only thought and desire which gives the idea that what is being addressed are the human attributes of feeling, sensing, desire and thought, this is where this story is different from other creation myths.
The most important idea in Allen J. Christenson's Popol Vuh is maize or often known as corn but to the Maya culture, corn has a bigger significance than just food. Corn has played a important role in empires, civilizations and people for thousands of years. The Maya have a lot of admiration to corn as a cornerstone of their culture and spirituality. Maize was so highly admired that the Mayans had a Maize God. Corn was a gift from the Gods and cultivating it and planting it was a sacred duty it was a really important process in which corn was to be planted and harvested. Temples were built for Maize Gods and corn was used to nourish workers and kings. To the Mayans, the Gods made humankind out of maize. The Maya also considered this crop to be the vegetation of life in order to eat and grow. This symbolized the fragile nature of corn, a crop that depends entirely on human cultivation for its reproduction with such deep meaning and that has deep culture and meaning.
In the Central America, most notably the Yucatan Peninsula, are the Maya, a group of people whose polytheistic religion and advanced civilization once flourished (Houston, 43). The Maya reached their peak during the Classic Period from around CE 250 to the ninth century CE when the civilization fell and dispersed (Sharer, 1). Although much has been lost, the gods and goddesses and the religious practices of the Classic Maya give insight into their lives and reveal what was important to this society. The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198).
Unlike “The Song of Creation” from the Rig Veda, the Popol Vuh thought the earth and humanity were birthed from spiritual gods. The Mayans believed in several higher powers and lionized them all. Both cultures had their individual views on how the earth was formed, who were the first humans, and who created them. This contradiction builds on the many aspects of today’s reality and how did it all begin.
Once upon a time in ancient Mexico lived a little Mayan boy he had no name, no family, for he only had his village his people and his Gods. He worshiped the Sea that surrounded his land and protected his people, he worshiped the Sun that gave him warmth and grew there crops,he worshiped the Moon that looked down upon him and gave him light when the sun slept, he worshiped the Stars that twinkled at night and surrounded the darkness. But he did not know what these things where. He had no clue that the Moon was a giant rock or the Sun was a big ball of gas. He had no idea what any of these beautiful things where that protected him. so he prayed to them, talked to them thinking they would talk back but they didn't but he knew they where listening.
The beginnings of life as we comprehend it have continued to captivate scientists, religious followers, and our world and while society seems to have envisioned a respective creed of Earth’s secrets, humanity may never know how it came to be. Around the world, different cultures have their sense of how Earth and the people within it came to be and although each story has its own distinctive understanding, there are some collective associations. Popol Vuh, a cultural narrative of the Quiche people, tells the story of creation as we live it. Referred to as “The Mayan Bible”, it is an account and understanding the Quiche people had of cosmology and creation before the rise of Christianity. The creation stories present in Popul Vuh and the
The aspect of ordered space versus uniform space is the first comparison drawn between the Sacred and Profane experience of life. Space has a sense of order for religious men because holy places gave the universe a fixed center and sacred territories were distinctly separated from the profane territories. Furthermore, the foundation on which religious men built their entire reality were heirophanies. This is because of their desire to connect to the transcendent being. Heirophanies revealed the glory of god’s power and each action that a religious man carried out in life was symbolically surmounted on this base, thereby ...