Popol Vuh Analysis

“And the earth was formed first, the mountain-plain. The channels of water were separated; their branches wound their ways among the mountains. The waters were divided when the great mountains appeared.”

“Talk, speak out. Don’t moan, don’t cry out. Please talk, each to each, within each kind, within each group,” they were told–the deer, birds, puma, jaguar, serpent.”

“So then comes the building and working with earth and mud. They made a body, but it didn’t look good to them. It was just separating, just crumbling, just loosening, just softening, just disintegrating, and just dissolving. Its head wouldn’t turn, either. Its face was just lopsided, its face was just twisted. It couldn’t look around. It talked at first, but senselessly. It was quickly dissolving in the water.”

“You have been called upon because of our work, our design. Run your hands over the kernels of corn, over the seeds of the coral tree, just get it done, just let it come out whether we should carve and gouge a mouth, a face in wood,” they told the day keepers.”

“there was nothing in their hearts and nothing in their minds, no memory of their mason and builder. They just went and walked wherever they wanted. Now they did not remember the Heart of Sky.”

Popol Vuh is a Mayan myth about human creation. It starts by explaining how the gods created the world. The myth discusses the importance of water and how all of the mountains were formed. It also discusses how the gods created animals. When animals were created, the gods wanted them to talk. The animals all seemed to have their own original noises. The gods believed that the animals were unable to communicate with each other because of the different noises that they made. The gods then attempted to make humans. There first attempt to make humans was with mud. This method didn’t work well because the mud kept separating. Next the gods attempted to make people out of wood. This created two people who then had more people. The people they made weren’t capable of having any emotion. They were also unable to retain memories. After this, a flood came and wiped out all of humankind that they created. The creation of the world in this Mayan myth can be compared to almost every religious text that discusses world creation.