The Popol Vuh: The Guatemala Myths

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 Hunahpú 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 epic of Hunahpú and Xblanqué. In the creation myth, there are four deities/beings, 3 in a celestial world together called Tepeu and another called Q’uq’umatz who was on a terrestrial plane. Q’uq’umatz, god of wind and rain, combined with Tepeu, god of fire and lightning, created animals, followed closely by humans. The first “attempt” of these gods to create humans was less than successful, making them from earth and mud, which dissolved in the elements. The second attempt created men out of wood, which stood up to the elements, but lacked souls or self will. These “wood humans” quickly fall out of favor with the gods, causing them to be destroyed in vengeance.

In Popol Vuh, the twins Hunahpú and Xblanqué are called to assist Huracan, the K’iche’ god of wind and storm with a particularly arrogant god named Vucub Caquix. Vucub Caquix had built up a large following among people on earth, claiming that he was either the sun or the moon. Vucub Caquix was...

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...che’ quickly become the most affluent of the tribes. The first “dawn” occurs, which dries the land, and transforms the animals to stone (icons?).

Popol Vuh ends with the genealogies of various prominent tribal leaders up until the arrival of the Spanish, and the migration of the K’iche’ people to where they live today. The K’iche’ travel to Q’umarkaj, where Q’uq’umatz raises them above the other tribes and tells them the rituals that must be performed to stay in the gods favor. Cities are built, inter-tribal relations begin to be a bit strained. A city is eventually built at Q’umarkaj, which becomes one of the largest Mayan cities during the height of the K’iche’ Mayan civilization.

There are certain parallels that can be drawn from Popol Vuh to the Christian Old Testament, gods wipe out a civilization that wavers in faith, but leaves an equally skeptical society.