other · mythology

The Popol Vuh

c. 1500 CE (written); oral tradition much older · Pre-Columbian (oral tradition); early colonial (written) · Utatlán, Guatemala (K'iche' Maya highlands)

Part I — The Creation of the World

1This is the account of when all was still silent and motionless.
2All was invisible, all was calm, in the sky, in the earth.
3There was nothing standing; only the tranquil sea, and the great expanse of the sky.
4There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise,
5Nor anything which might move, or tremble,
6Or could make noise in the sky.
7There was nothing standing; only the calm water,
8The placid sea, alone and tranquil.
9Nothing existed.
10There were only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night.
11Then came the Word. Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness,
12In the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together.
13They talked then, discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts.
14Then while they meditated, it became clear to them
15That when dawn would break, man must appear.
16Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets
17And the birth of life and the creation of man.
18Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night
19By the Heart of Heaven, who is called Huracán.
20The first is called Caculhá Huracán. The second is Chipi-Caculhá.
21The third is Raxa-Caculhá.
22These three are the Heart of Heaven.
23Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light,
24What they would do so that there would be light and dawn,
25Who it would be who would provide food and sustenance.
26Thus let it be done! Let the emptiness be filled!
27Let the water recede and make a void,
28Let the earth appear and become solid;
29Let it be done. Thus they spoke.
30Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth!
31There shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation and formation
32Until the human being is made.
33Then the earth was created by them. So it was, in truth, that they created the earth.
34Earth! they said, and instantly it was made.

Part I — The First Humans Made of Earth and Wood

35And so they tried to create man, in the earliest experiments.
36First from earth and mud. But the man of mud did not hold together.
37He could speak, but had no mind;
38He had no feet and no hands;
39He melted into the water, he could not stand.
40The creators saw this and said: He is not finished.
41He cannot walk, he cannot multiply.
42Let it be only a try, only an attempt at man.
43So the first man was unmade.
44Then they tried wood. The wooden people looked like men,
45Talked like men, and populated the surface of the earth.
46But there was nothing in their hearts and nothing in their minds,
47No memory of their Creator, no thought of Heart of Heaven.
48They forgot their Maker, they forgot the Builder.
49And so they fell out of favour.
50Their dogs and turkeys rose up against them.
51Their dogs spoke: "Why did you give us nothing to eat?
52You only drove us away, threw us out.
53You always had a stick ready to hit us!
54We could not speak, so we could not complain.
55But now that we can speak, we shall speak against you."
56Their very hearthstones turned against them.
57Everything afflicted them. They fled in every direction.
58They tried to climb trees, but the trees cast them off.
59They tried to enter caves, but the caves slammed shut.
60Thus was the ruination of these people marked with wood.
61They are said to be the ancestors of the monkeys which now live in the forests.

Part II — The Hero Twins and the Lords of Xibalba

62Now we shall tell of the deeds of Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
63Their fathers had been summoned to Xibalba, the place of death,
64And had been defeated there by the Lords of Xibalba.
65But the Hero Twins were born, and they were cunning.
66The Lords of Xibalba challenged the Twins to a ballgame.
67One Death and Seven Death, who were the lords of death, sent their owls as messengers.
68"Come to Xibalba," said the owls. "The Lords await you."
69The Hero Twins descended to Xibalba.
70They passed the tests of the houses:
71The Dark House, the Cold House, the House of Jaguars,
72The House of Fire, the House of Bats.
73In the House of Bats, Hunahpu raised his head to see if dawn had come.
74At that moment Camazotz, the bat of death, struck off his head.
75But Xbalanque called upon the animals,
76And a squash was placed there in its stead.
77And the Lords of Xibalba played ball with Hunahpu's head,
78But by cunning it was restored.
79They defeated the Lords of Xibalba by a trick:
80They allowed themselves to be killed and ground to bone-dust,
81Then they rose from the river, first as fish-men, then as vagabond performers.
82They showed their power of death and revival,
83And the lords of death begged to be killed and revived.
84But the Twins refused to revive them.
85And so the lords of death were truly conquered.

Part IV — The Creation of the True Human from Maize

86Then they found what was needed for the flesh of man.
87They went only to Paxil, to Cayala, as they were called.
88And there they found ears of yellow corn and white corn.
89These were the names of the animals who brought the food:
90Fox, Coyote, Parrot, and Crow.
91Four animals gave tidings of the yellow corn and white corn.
92And then, grinding the yellow corn and the white corn,
93Xmucané made nine drinks.
94And this grinding was the beginning of food,
95This was the origin of strength,
96Of flesh, of the power of man.
97Of maize alone were the flesh and limbs of man made.
98These are the names of the first men who were created and formed:
99The first man was Balam-Quitzé.
100The second was Balam-Acab.
101The third was Mahucutah.
102The fourth was Iqui-Balam.
103There was no mother for them, no father;
104They were simply made and born.
105Only by wondrous power, by the Creator, the Former, the Forefathers,
106Tepeu and Gucumatz, were they created and formed.
107They had the appearance of men, they were men.
108They were able to speak and converse. They were able to look and listen.
109They were able to walk, they were able to hold things.
110They were excellent and chosen men.

notes

The Popol Vuh ("Book of the Council" or "Book of the People") is the most important pre-Columbian text to survive from the Americas. It preserves the mythology, cosmogony, and early history of the K'iche' Maya people of the Guatemalan highlands. The original K'iche' text was secretly transcribed around 1550 CE by indigenous Mayas who had learned the Spanish alphabet — preserving content from much older oral and hieroglyphic traditions — and was later copied and translated into Spanish by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez around 1701 CE. The Ximénez manuscript is the sole surviving copy. The Popol Vuh contains a creation narrative structurally parallel to other world creation myths: multiple failed attempts at creating humanity (from earth, from wood) before the successful creation of humans from maize — the sacred crop of Mesoamerica. The Hero Twins (Hunahpu and Xbalanque) defeat the Lords of Death in the underworld Xibalba, establish the conditions for the current world, and ascend to become the sun and moon. The ballgame between the Hero Twins and the Lords of Xibalba reflects the sacred ritual ballgame played throughout Mesoamerica. Translation after Lewis Spence, The Popol Vuh (1908). Public domain.

currently held: Newberry Library, Chicago (Ximénez manuscript)

MesoamericanPrimordial HistoryUnderworldFlood NarrativeCreation

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