Analysis of Popol Vuh

And so they accomplished nothing before the Maker, Modeler who gave them birth, gave them heart. They became the first numerous people here on the face of the earth.

Again there comes a humiliation, destruction, and demolition. The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins, woodcarvings.

Popol Vuh is an ancient Mayan mythology from Guatemala. The Quiche people wanted this text to be passed on for many generations, however many may consider it to be a comparison of the Bible, but that is not how they compared it to. The Mayans considered this book to be a “Council Book” and not a religious Bible. The text I have chosen to analyze caught my attention because after these creators failed with their animal creation they decided to created humanity. The animal creation was unsuccessful because the animals would not worship nor would they praise them the way they wanted to be praised and worshiped. Instead, the animals would praise them with noise and that was something they did not like. Therefore, they decided to create humanity so they can be worshipped and praised. The interesting part is they were given a heart, yet they had no blood, no lymph, no sweat and no fat. In the text the humankind are identified as “deformed” and they were never referred to as humans. These were the first of humanity to have existed, but just like the animals the creators felt as if they had been unsuccessful and they felt humiliated with their creation and knew it was best for them to be “destroyed”. A flood was created to wipeout humanity and this part can be compared to the biblical story of Noah.