Key Passages From 'Popol Vuh'

Photo: Popol Vuh (Book,
By Allen J. Christenson, 2003. 
                                                            

        Today's post is about a very important book for the Maya culture and all of us who are interested in knowing as much as possible about them. The book is entitled Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of The Maya, which was translated by Allen J. Christenson. Some of the main characters in this story are: One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, two brothers whose name represents their main activity, in this case using their blowguns. They play an important role because they are involved in a problem since they disturbed the lords of the underworld with their ball game, then they are asked to summon and die in that place called Xibalba. One Hunahpu spat on Lady Blood's hand and they became the parents of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who are other major characters. As it is expressed, "when the day arrived, the maiden Lady Blood gave birth. The grandmother did not see it when they were born, for these two arose suddenly" (Christenson 140). They also went down to Xibalba to defeat the lords after surviving many different trials.

Photo: The Hero Twins shooting Seven Macaw (Vucub Caquix) with their blowguns, 
Institute of Archaeology, February 2019, 

         On the other hand, Seven Macaw is also present, a huge bird that fed on the fruits of a nance tree and wore a large head dress along with many jewels. He is defeated by the Hero Twins. Similarly, two of the main deities and lords of Xibalba, One Death and Seven Death, the main rulers of the underworld.

Photo: Dancing Monkey, from a Classic Maya vase.
Rollout photograph (Popol Vuh), Justin Kerr, 1980.

        The Hero Twins had a difficult childhood as their older brothers treated them terribly, however Hunahpu and Xbalanque managed to deceive them and turn them into monkeys. Later, the owls sent as messengers from Xibalba carried the message that the Hero Twins should summon in the underworld for a ball game. They agreed to go but left an ear of unripe maize in the center of their grandmother's house, so that it could serve as a reference if they were alive or not. The Twins survived to many tests, such as the house of Cold, the house of Jaguars, the house of Fire and the house of Bats. However, in this last house when one of them was trying to check the dawn, Hunahpu's head was cut off by one of the bats. But this was not his end. As the author states, "Xbalanque summoned all of the animals... he then entreated them fro their food" (Christenson 173). The last to arrive was the coati, with a chilacayote squash that worked perfectly as a replacement for Hunahpu's head. After that they organized a plan with a rabbit, so that during the ball game they would deceive the lords of Xibalba and thus be able to recover Hunahpu's head.

        Later, they met with two seers, Descended and Ascended. They talked about how the Xibalbans would seek to kill them, but for each of the ideas they planned a response that would favor them, and this was that their bones were ground into a stone like corn, and later spread them in the river. Hunahpu and Xbalanque were called to enjoy what had been prepared for them in a pit oven. According to the text, "they turned to face one another, spread out their arms and together they went into the pit oven. Thus both of them died there" (Christenson 179). After his death, the seers told the lords of Xibalba what was agreed on what to do with the remains of his bones.

Fish, redrawn from a Classic Maya Vase, Popol Vuh.

        Five days later, the hero twins reappeared in the river as people-fish. Then as two orphans, who danced in front of the Xibalbans. One of them died and then came back to life, and they did so with a dog, a person, and finally One Death and Seven Death, lords of Xibalba. All the Xibalbans gave up. Meanwhile, the ear of maize they planted had died and revived just like them.

The resurrection of the Maize God assisted buy
 his twin sons, from a Classic Maya plate,
Drawing by Linda Schele.

        The Hero Twins ascended to the sky, one of them became the sun, and the other the moon. Thus the sky was illuminated and the four hundred men who had died because of one of the sons of Seven Macaw rose with them to become constellations. Later they were looking for something to be the flesh of humans. They shared ideas before dawn. The corn would be the flesh, the water would be their blood. The corn was ground, the water was added, and the limbs of the body were shaped. From that, the first men were created, whose names were Balam Quitze, Balam Acab, Mahucutah, and Iqui Balam. They gave them perfect vision, but decided it was too much and reduced their range of vision to whatever was close to them. Later, the first women were created, who would be the wives of each man: Cahapaluna, Chomiha, Tzununiha, and Caquixaha. According to the author, "These were they who multiplied the nations both small and great. This, therefore, was our foundation, we the Quiche people" (Christenson 202). All of them therefore represented the fathers and mothers of the Quiche. Those were the passages mentioned in the incredible book Popol Vuh to learn about the Mayan culture.

Works Cited

Christenson, Allen. Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of The Maya. O Books, 2003.