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Popol Vuh (Clasicos Universales)
Es el libro sagrado de los antiguos Maya-Quiché. El más distinguido ejemplo de literatura nativa americana que ha sobrevivido a los siglos
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1550
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January 23, 2008Can you really rate something like the Popol Vuh?
February 11, 2018
"We found a large number of books," says a conquistador, "and, as they contained nothing in them which were not superstitions and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which [the Maya] regretted to an amazing degree and which caused them much affliction." Maybe one of them was the original Popol Vuh, who knows. This doesn't seem to be it.
Here are the Maya, killing some people
It's close. How close depends on whose word you want to take. This version was probably written down in the 1550s, so well after Spanish arrival, in Quiche, which is the language still spoken by the Maya. The Maya are a civilization dating back to 2600 BCE; they reached the apex of their power and influence around 300 - 900 CE; they built Chichen Itza and other cities between 900 and 1500 CE; the arrival of conquistadores in the 1500s caused a little genocide but they're still around today.
This is Chichen Itza, in Mexico.
This is more or less the Bible of the Maya, and either it shows how similar civilization origin stories tend to be, or it's been badly infected by the Bible. "There is the original book and ancient writing owned by the lords," says our narrator, "now lost." We don't know who that narrator is. This version, by Dennis Tedlock, is universally considered the definitive English one. It comes with tons of killer illustrations from Maya vases and cave paintings and other texts.
Mayan art is super cool.
The Biblical parallels start right away, with the word. "The earth arose because of (the gods), it was simply their word that brought it forth. For the forming of the earth they said 'earth.'" There's a flood to wipe out some incompetent early humans who don't praise the gods enough, which is really the only reason the gods made them. Flood myths are universal; there's one in Gilgamesh, which is well before the Bible. The Maya add their own flavor: the flood is accompanied by a good amount of eye gouging and face crushing. There's an awesome part where the people's own pots yell, like, "I crush your face!" at them and then crush their faces. The Maya were big on face crushing. The whole book is super violent.
Later on the gods try again with people. This time it goes better, but they accidentally make them too good - they have limitless sight. The gods don't want the competition so they dim their gaze, but the Guatemalan lords of Quiche retained an instrument for seeing far; they called it the council book, or Popol Vuh. Ta-dah!
This book doesn't contain prophecies, though, which again raises the question of exactly which version of the Popol Vuh we're reading. This is more of an origin story. So let's get back to it: two early heroes, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, visit the underworld Xibalba - just like Achilles and Gilgamesh did. There's a river of forgetfulness down there, like the Styx - and, this being the Maya, another river of pus. Gross!
Here's the underworld. Skeleton guy in the middle is Xibalba, the lord of Xibalba.
They're defeated by a test in a place called Dark House, where they're given cigars that have to burn without being consumed. But their children Hunahpu and Xbalanque (twins, born of a virgin and sacrificed and resurrected later) later pass that test; they put fireflies on the ends of the cigars. Clever! Then they defeat the lords of the underworld in a ball game.
The ball game is a big part of Maya culture, btw, and the fun part is that the losing team gets decapitated. That didn't always happen. It did in the Popol Vuh. Here's a video of some dudes playing the game but not getting decapitated. Here's a mural from Chichen Itza's ball court, showing some dudes using a decapitated head for a ball.
The thing in the middle is the head
We move on to a story about how the Maya split up into different tribes, with different languages, which is bad news. There's some internecine fighting. There's an exodus deal, including a parting of the sea.
One group - and you sortof lose track here of which group is which, the editors don't seem clear on it either - anyway, one group wants to trap the other group so they send the two hottest daughters in the land to seduce them, and they're like now don't fuck this up, hot daughters, you definitely have to actually fuck these dudes. And bring back proof, reverse 16 Candles style.
Btw one of them is named Lust Woman which is sort of a Pilgrim's Progress kind of problem there, like you give your kid a name like that you gotta figure her adolescence is gonna be weird.
Anyway the daughters do indeed fuck it all up so the tribes try direct war, but are defeated by a castle manned by puppets and booby trapped with wasps, which seem to be quite a thing for the Maya - they pop up a lot - which to be fair I am also scared of wasps. Have you ever been stung by a wasp? It hurts!
And then there's a long list of various tribes and leaders, which has sortof the same effect as one of those "begat" lists from the Bible, in that you don't read it, and that's the end of the Popol Vuh.
Aside from the begats, these are good stories. There are some really cool parts - like, in addition to that Dark House I mentioned, there are all these other houses, each containing a different trap - like that Cube movie, more or less. There's Blade House and Bat House and whatnot.
"The visible sun is not the real one," we're told, and then the authors totally don't explain what they mean by that. They refer sometimes to an original text that they're quoting from, or transcribing. I feel like - and there's no evidence to support this at all - I feel like that's maybe what they're talking about here. This text, the visible sun, is not the real one. It illuminates some stuff anyway, and I like it. I do wonder what the real one was like.
I made bookmarks. More of my weird bookmark project here.
Here are the Maya, killing some people
It's close. How close depends on whose word you want to take. This version was probably written down in the 1550s, so well after Spanish arrival, in Quiche, which is the language still spoken by the Maya. The Maya are a civilization dating back to 2600 BCE; they reached the apex of their power and influence around 300 - 900 CE; they built Chichen Itza and other cities between 900 and 1500 CE; the arrival of conquistadores in the 1500s caused a little genocide but they're still around today.
This is Chichen Itza, in Mexico.
This is more or less the Bible of the Maya, and either it shows how similar civilization origin stories tend to be, or it's been badly infected by the Bible. "There is the original book and ancient writing owned by the lords," says our narrator, "now lost." We don't know who that narrator is. This version, by Dennis Tedlock, is universally considered the definitive English one. It comes with tons of killer illustrations from Maya vases and cave paintings and other texts.
Mayan art is super cool.
The Biblical parallels start right away, with the word. "The earth arose because of (the gods), it was simply their word that brought it forth. For the forming of the earth they said 'earth.'" There's a flood to wipe out some incompetent early humans who don't praise the gods enough, which is really the only reason the gods made them. Flood myths are universal; there's one in Gilgamesh, which is well before the Bible. The Maya add their own flavor: the flood is accompanied by a good amount of eye gouging and face crushing. There's an awesome part where the people's own pots yell, like, "I crush your face!" at them and then crush their faces. The Maya were big on face crushing. The whole book is super violent.
Later on the gods try again with people. This time it goes better, but they accidentally make them too good - they have limitless sight. The gods don't want the competition so they dim their gaze, but the Guatemalan lords of Quiche retained an instrument for seeing far; they called it the council book, or Popol Vuh. Ta-dah!
This book doesn't contain prophecies, though, which again raises the question of exactly which version of the Popol Vuh we're reading. This is more of an origin story. So let's get back to it: two early heroes, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, visit the underworld Xibalba - just like Achilles and Gilgamesh did. There's a river of forgetfulness down there, like the Styx - and, this being the Maya, another river of pus. Gross!
Here's the underworld. Skeleton guy in the middle is Xibalba, the lord of Xibalba.
They're defeated by a test in a place called Dark House, where they're given cigars that have to burn without being consumed. But their children Hunahpu and Xbalanque (twins, born of a virgin and sacrificed and resurrected later) later pass that test; they put fireflies on the ends of the cigars. Clever! Then they defeat the lords of the underworld in a ball game.
The ball game is a big part of Maya culture, btw, and the fun part is that the losing team gets decapitated. That didn't always happen. It did in the Popol Vuh. Here's a video of some dudes playing the game but not getting decapitated. Here's a mural from Chichen Itza's ball court, showing some dudes using a decapitated head for a ball.
The thing in the middle is the head
We move on to a story about how the Maya split up into different tribes, with different languages, which is bad news. There's some internecine fighting. There's an exodus deal, including a parting of the sea.
One group - and you sortof lose track here of which group is which, the editors don't seem clear on it either - anyway, one group wants to trap the other group so they send the two hottest daughters in the land to seduce them, and they're like now don't fuck this up, hot daughters, you definitely have to actually fuck these dudes. And bring back proof, reverse 16 Candles style.
Btw one of them is named Lust Woman which is sort of a Pilgrim's Progress kind of problem there, like you give your kid a name like that you gotta figure her adolescence is gonna be weird.
Anyway the daughters do indeed fuck it all up so the tribes try direct war, but are defeated by a castle manned by puppets and booby trapped with wasps, which seem to be quite a thing for the Maya - they pop up a lot - which to be fair I am also scared of wasps. Have you ever been stung by a wasp? It hurts!
And then there's a long list of various tribes and leaders, which has sortof the same effect as one of those "begat" lists from the Bible, in that you don't read it, and that's the end of the Popol Vuh.
Aside from the begats, these are good stories. There are some really cool parts - like, in addition to that Dark House I mentioned, there are all these other houses, each containing a different trap - like that Cube movie, more or less. There's Blade House and Bat House and whatnot.
"The visible sun is not the real one," we're told, and then the authors totally don't explain what they mean by that. They refer sometimes to an original text that they're quoting from, or transcribing. I feel like - and there's no evidence to support this at all - I feel like that's maybe what they're talking about here. This text, the visible sun, is not the real one. It illuminates some stuff anyway, and I like it. I do wonder what the real one was like.
I made bookmarks. More of my weird bookmark project here.
January 6, 2019
"Here we will write. Here we will plant the ancient word of the beginning, the origin of all that was done in the citadel of K'iche', among the people of K'iche' nation."
An epic poem of creation and culture from the K'iche' people of what is now Guatemala, newly translated into verse by Michael Bazzett.
I found it breathtaking and intriguing throughout, but I especially liked the long period before the humans turn up, and how many elements of the culture are embedded into the creation story.
"Surely, we await the dawn."
I received an early copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, but I was belated in reading it and it is already available.
An epic poem of creation and culture from the K'iche' people of what is now Guatemala, newly translated into verse by Michael Bazzett.
I found it breathtaking and intriguing throughout, but I especially liked the long period before the humans turn up, and how many elements of the culture are embedded into the creation story.
"Surely, we await the dawn."
I received an early copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, but I was belated in reading it and it is already available.
September 15, 2021
Es fascinante.
August 30, 2022
i listened to the audiobook first and then read it in paperback, so, it counts at reread, lol. just because it's for homework, lmao.
March 7, 2014
I was taking aback by the amount of bad reviews the kiddies are giving this awesome book. Even as a kid myself I loved the stories and the characters. It transported me to a world full of heroes, powerful lords, Kings, and princesses. As an adult I could see the spirituality behind it. The beauty in the simplicity of the text, and the stories of how humans came into being according to Mayan mythology.
Joseph Campbell, in his "Hero's Journey" draws parallels between the Twin brothers Hun Ah'pu and Xbalam K'ej of the Popol Vuh with the heroes of many other mythologies. Harrelson Smart's seminal work "Religion of Small Societies" tries to explain (although not very successfully) the spirituality within the book. You can read this book many times and each time you can find something different that you did not see before or that you did not get the previous time. An excellent book if you ask me.
I grew up with this edition and it may not be one of the best ones (newer editions come with better notes and even illustrations) but is a fine one to start with.
Joseph Campbell, in his "Hero's Journey" draws parallels between the Twin brothers Hun Ah'pu and Xbalam K'ej of the Popol Vuh with the heroes of many other mythologies. Harrelson Smart's seminal work "Religion of Small Societies" tries to explain (although not very successfully) the spirituality within the book. You can read this book many times and each time you can find something different that you did not see before or that you did not get the previous time. An excellent book if you ask me.
I grew up with this edition and it may not be one of the best ones (newer editions come with better notes and even illustrations) but is a fine one to start with.
March 16, 2021
Svet je nastajao više puta. Jednom potpuno, a više puta delom.
Prvi put je prosto bivao kao jedan napušteni, (!) nepregledni, nepokretni predeo, na čijem je haosu počivalo ogromno more. (7) U tišini mraka živeli su bogovi (Tepeu, Gukumac i Uragan) i nakon što su razmislili, stvoriše „svetlost u grudima nerođenog”, koja je imala ukus večnosti. Nakon svetlosti, potekao je život života.
Tako se, najpre, stvori šuma: čvrsti čempresi, borovi, hrastovi i topole. (8) Stvoriše se i životinje da budu drveću čuvari i sluge. I bi zapoveđeno svem zverinju sledeće: „Svako razumno stvorenje mora biti prilagođeno svojoj prirodnoj sredini, ali nijedno ne treba da živi u tišini, jer je tišina pustoš, tuga i smrt.” (9) Iako su božanstva jasno rekla bićima da pro-govore, ona su ostala nema i nisu se setila svojih stvoritelja. Zbog toga su propala i progonjena od strane ljudi višeg razuma – stvorenih od vlažnog blata.
Ipak, i nova bića behu neslovesna, jer nemahu srca. Te statue blatne što na ljude nalikovahu, behu krute i svaki put kada bi pali, nisu se više dizali. Njihov nedostatak gipkosti ih je uništio – stvoritelji baciše na njih kišu pepela, a zatim poslaše POTOP. (12)
Nakon potopa, kako to i inače biva, osvanu novi život – od rogozine čovek, od šaše – žena. Ali ni ova bića ne odgovarahu tvorcima pa ih je ptica Hecotcovah iskljuckala, a divlji mačak Cotzbazam izkrikcao. Opet nastade pustoš. A usred pustoši, odjednom, pojaviše se nova mala bića.
Propast međuljudi bejaše otpraćen pobunom predmeta i ostalih bića. Mlinski kamenovi bili su se žalili kako njihova žrtva u gnječenju kukuruza nije bila cenjena, šerpe su osvetoljubivo urlale od patnje izazvane paljenjem njihovih utroba, krčazi su besni zbog svih nanetih bolova, a psi su, kiseli od nepravde, isticali kako su sa obožavanjem gledali iz daljine ljude, da bi potom bili ostavljeni kao otpaci na đubrištu. (13) Tako i nova bića nestadoše.
Ali, život je život, mora isklijati. I sa skrivenih mesta neba spuštahu se Mačak, Lisica, Papagaj i Gavran da bi pronašli vodu, koju će staviti u tkivo novih bića. (15) Od kukuruza, vode i šaša, stvoriše praroditelje. Imena su im: Balam Kiće, Balan Akab, Iki Balam, Mahu Kutah. I nakon stvaranja, reče se: „Ubrzo su ispoljili razum kojim su bili obdareni, tako što su spoznali stvarnost koja ih je okruživala na način prirodnog ispoljavanja njihovog duha.” (15) Da ova stvorenja ne bi bila sama, bogovi su im podarili nova stvorenja, ženskog pola. One se, prelepe, pojaviše pored usnulih muškaraca i svako njihovo ime „podsećalo je na kišu u različitim godišnjim dobima” (17).
I tako nastade pleme Kiće-Maja, čija je „Popol Vuh” sveta knjiga. Pomalo istovremeno i stužuje i daje nadu to što je dug praroditeljskog duha sačuvan pukim slučajem i to rukom zavojevača, koji je pronašao rukopis iz 16. veka, preveo ga i predstavio svetskoj javnosti. Ipak, „Popol Vuh” i dalje nepokolebljivo pulsira životom kod Kiće-Maja u savremenoj Gvatemali, koji svoje drevno predanje nastavljaju da prenose i šire. Tako je „Popol Vuh” pre svega divno delo o opstanku, trajanju i životu koji uvek pronađe put.
A iza kulisa etiološkog mita, bruji košnica obilja jedne neuporedivo žive civilizacije. Drevnost koja pretiče svaku misao o drevnosti, zajedno sa živopisnim detaljima svakodnevice snažno pokazuju svu lepotu nepodudaranja. Jer, uz sve filtere vremena i naše savremene oči, moramo da usvojimo da to nipošto nije bio nama blizak svet – a svaka pronađena srodnost jeste nužni anahronizam koji potvrđuje razliku. I dobro je što je tako i što niko ne može imati monopol nad mitom. Ipak, čitalac treba biti oprezan imajući u vidu samo izdanje i to ne samo zbog očitih omaški (poput spominjanja klarineta (38), arije lovaca na majmune (64) ili tigrova (koji ne žive u Americi)), već i zbog onoga što može da tek unatraške osvane kao sličnost, poput bezgrešnog začeća Iškik, koja je zatrudnela u kontaktu sa sokom jednog drveta na kojem su bila žrtvovana braća Ahpu (52).
Ipak, ono što mi zaista deluje kao univerzalni momenat jeste osveta. Gnev su bogovi pevali i Majama i izgleda da je lanac osvete jedan od najžilavijih narativnih modela bez obzira na geografsku širinu i dužinu. Mnogo je krvi, bitaka, svakovrsnih ubijanja, ali i neobičnog (biološkog) oružja poput kutija u kojima se nalaze obadi i ose (40). Interesantno je da vrlo često od osvetničke ruke stradaju ne samo oni koji su nekome nažao učinili, već i oni koji su oholi. Majanski hibris uobraženosti krvavo je plaćan.
Opet, kako da se ne vidi sličnost između blizanaca ostavljenih na smrt sa nekim drugim blizancima, koji su, eto, stigli i Rim da stvore. Ostavljeni blizanci iz „Popol Vuha” uspeće zbog podrške prirode – mravi će im donositi listove banane da ih ušuškaju, a drveće će rasti kad bi se njega popeli (62).
I za kraj jedno prisećanje koje samo delom ima veze sa delom. Da li ste igrali Zumu? To je ona žabica koja ispaljuje kuglice koje moraju da se upare sa bojama. Pitam jer mi je bila neodoljiva sličnost sa jednom žabom „Popol Vuha”, koja, doduše, ne ispaljuje ništa, ali je prenosila glasnike. Tu je moj omiljeni momenat iz bajki, npr. „Baš-Čelika” – biće-u-biću-u-biću – koji je ovde dobio svoju neočekivanu vezu sa majanskom svetom knjigom: jedna vaška iz staričine kose bila je prenosnik poruke, nju je prijateljski progutala žaba, žabu zmija a zmiju kobac. Odličan transport.
Prvi put je prosto bivao kao jedan napušteni, (!) nepregledni, nepokretni predeo, na čijem je haosu počivalo ogromno more. (7) U tišini mraka živeli su bogovi (Tepeu, Gukumac i Uragan) i nakon što su razmislili, stvoriše „svetlost u grudima nerođenog”, koja je imala ukus večnosti. Nakon svetlosti, potekao je život života.
Tako se, najpre, stvori šuma: čvrsti čempresi, borovi, hrastovi i topole. (8) Stvoriše se i životinje da budu drveću čuvari i sluge. I bi zapoveđeno svem zverinju sledeće: „Svako razumno stvorenje mora biti prilagođeno svojoj prirodnoj sredini, ali nijedno ne treba da živi u tišini, jer je tišina pustoš, tuga i smrt.” (9) Iako su božanstva jasno rekla bićima da pro-govore, ona su ostala nema i nisu se setila svojih stvoritelja. Zbog toga su propala i progonjena od strane ljudi višeg razuma – stvorenih od vlažnog blata.
Ipak, i nova bića behu neslovesna, jer nemahu srca. Te statue blatne što na ljude nalikovahu, behu krute i svaki put kada bi pali, nisu se više dizali. Njihov nedostatak gipkosti ih je uništio – stvoritelji baciše na njih kišu pepela, a zatim poslaše POTOP. (12)
Nakon potopa, kako to i inače biva, osvanu novi život – od rogozine čovek, od šaše – žena. Ali ni ova bića ne odgovarahu tvorcima pa ih je ptica Hecotcovah iskljuckala, a divlji mačak Cotzbazam izkrikcao. Opet nastade pustoš. A usred pustoši, odjednom, pojaviše se nova mala bića.
Propast međuljudi bejaše otpraćen pobunom predmeta i ostalih bića. Mlinski kamenovi bili su se žalili kako njihova žrtva u gnječenju kukuruza nije bila cenjena, šerpe su osvetoljubivo urlale od patnje izazvane paljenjem njihovih utroba, krčazi su besni zbog svih nanetih bolova, a psi su, kiseli od nepravde, isticali kako su sa obožavanjem gledali iz daljine ljude, da bi potom bili ostavljeni kao otpaci na đubrištu. (13) Tako i nova bića nestadoše.
Ali, život je život, mora isklijati. I sa skrivenih mesta neba spuštahu se Mačak, Lisica, Papagaj i Gavran da bi pronašli vodu, koju će staviti u tkivo novih bića. (15) Od kukuruza, vode i šaša, stvoriše praroditelje. Imena su im: Balam Kiće, Balan Akab, Iki Balam, Mahu Kutah. I nakon stvaranja, reče se: „Ubrzo su ispoljili razum kojim su bili obdareni, tako što su spoznali stvarnost koja ih je okruživala na način prirodnog ispoljavanja njihovog duha.” (15) Da ova stvorenja ne bi bila sama, bogovi su im podarili nova stvorenja, ženskog pola. One se, prelepe, pojaviše pored usnulih muškaraca i svako njihovo ime „podsećalo je na kišu u različitim godišnjim dobima” (17).
I tako nastade pleme Kiće-Maja, čija je „Popol Vuh” sveta knjiga. Pomalo istovremeno i stužuje i daje nadu to što je dug praroditeljskog duha sačuvan pukim slučajem i to rukom zavojevača, koji je pronašao rukopis iz 16. veka, preveo ga i predstavio svetskoj javnosti. Ipak, „Popol Vuh” i dalje nepokolebljivo pulsira životom kod Kiće-Maja u savremenoj Gvatemali, koji svoje drevno predanje nastavljaju da prenose i šire. Tako je „Popol Vuh” pre svega divno delo o opstanku, trajanju i životu koji uvek pronađe put.
A iza kulisa etiološkog mita, bruji košnica obilja jedne neuporedivo žive civilizacije. Drevnost koja pretiče svaku misao o drevnosti, zajedno sa živopisnim detaljima svakodnevice snažno pokazuju svu lepotu nepodudaranja. Jer, uz sve filtere vremena i naše savremene oči, moramo da usvojimo da to nipošto nije bio nama blizak svet – a svaka pronađena srodnost jeste nužni anahronizam koji potvrđuje razliku. I dobro je što je tako i što niko ne može imati monopol nad mitom. Ipak, čitalac treba biti oprezan imajući u vidu samo izdanje i to ne samo zbog očitih omaški (poput spominjanja klarineta (38), arije lovaca na majmune (64) ili tigrova (koji ne žive u Americi)), već i zbog onoga što može da tek unatraške osvane kao sličnost, poput bezgrešnog začeća Iškik, koja je zatrudnela u kontaktu sa sokom jednog drveta na kojem su bila žrtvovana braća Ahpu (52).
Ipak, ono što mi zaista deluje kao univerzalni momenat jeste osveta. Gnev su bogovi pevali i Majama i izgleda da je lanac osvete jedan od najžilavijih narativnih modela bez obzira na geografsku širinu i dužinu. Mnogo je krvi, bitaka, svakovrsnih ubijanja, ali i neobičnog (biološkog) oružja poput kutija u kojima se nalaze obadi i ose (40). Interesantno je da vrlo često od osvetničke ruke stradaju ne samo oni koji su nekome nažao učinili, već i oni koji su oholi. Majanski hibris uobraženosti krvavo je plaćan.
Opet, kako da se ne vidi sličnost između blizanaca ostavljenih na smrt sa nekim drugim blizancima, koji su, eto, stigli i Rim da stvore. Ostavljeni blizanci iz „Popol Vuha” uspeće zbog podrške prirode – mravi će im donositi listove banane da ih ušuškaju, a drveće će rasti kad bi se njega popeli (62).
I za kraj jedno prisećanje koje samo delom ima veze sa delom. Da li ste igrali Zumu? To je ona žabica koja ispaljuje kuglice koje moraju da se upare sa bojama. Pitam jer mi je bila neodoljiva sličnost sa jednom žabom „Popol Vuha”, koja, doduše, ne ispaljuje ništa, ali je prenosila glasnike. Tu je moj omiljeni momenat iz bajki, npr. „Baš-Čelika” – biće-u-biću-u-biću – koji je ovde dobio svoju neočekivanu vezu sa majanskom svetom knjigom: jedna vaška iz staričine kose bila je prenosnik poruke, nju je prijateljski progutala žaba, žabu zmija a zmiju kobac. Odličan transport.
September 5, 2011
Allen J. Christenson has given us a brilliant translation (packed with very helpful notes) of the Popol Vuh, the Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya, the "book that pertains to the mat." The "mat" is the royal throne upon which the king gave counsel to his people, with the fibers symbolizing the interlaced community remembered in the text.
This is a personal book for me, because if family legend is to be believed, the distant ancestors of my Ecuadorian relatives might have come through the area of Guatemala where the Popol Vuh was finally recorded by anonymous priests to survive the purges of the Conquistadors. We trace the family tree down from the Dawn of Creation; Tikib'a' is literally “to plant," and so "in the beginning" was literally “the planting," with xe', root, used here to describe the foundation of the authors’ words concerning the history of the Quiché people. The subsequent narrative is seen as growing like a plant from this “root."
The Gods here are not the Neoplatonic abstractions of Christianity tainted by abstract Greek philosophy; instead they are explicitly anthropomorphic, the actual ancestors of our spirits, the shining Shapers and Modelers who descended from the darkness to organize the world out of preexisting material. The Divine Parents are Xmucane and Xpiyacoc - I'yom and K'ajolom in Quiche - the "Mother" and "Father". I'yom was "She Who Has Borne Children"; the title of the goddess implies that she assists in the “birth” of the world.
There are five stages in their attempts to create humanity, with numerous false starts. Finally, life arises in the brackish waters, and agriculture supports the creation of humans. Maize in particular is shown to create our bodies, entering into the flesh of humanity by means of the descendants of She Who Has Borne Children and He Who Has Begotten Sons, the Framer and the Shaper. The daughters of Xmucane act as the creative power that prepares the maize dough and forms it into a suitable framework to contain the essence of mankind; the unique ability of the female to form living flesh is thus emphasized. Yet the man and woman are not described as carrying out separate roles; rather, they act in concert and speak with one voice.
Their activities are remembered in the performance of the text of the Popol Vuh as a Ritual Drama: "Great is its performance and its account of the completion and germination of all the sky and earth - its four corners and its four sides. All then was measured and staked out into four divisions, doubling over and stretching the measuring cords of the womb of sky and the womb of earth."
Indeed, the ancient Maya conceived of the universe as a great house. The four corners represent the cardinal directions while its walls and ceiling form the vault of the sky, with the foundation posts forming the boundaries of the underworld, much like a miniature version of the map made of a Temple. The maize plant is often depicted as a divine axis mundi standing at the center point of the universe with its roots extending downward into the underworld while its stalk reaches into the sky.
"Behold us! Hear us! Do not abandon us. ... You are the god in the sky and on the earth, you, Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth. May our sign, our word, be given for as long as there is sun and light." (Etal [sign] and tzijel [word, as well as the act of lighting a candle or torch] when paired together refer to the posterity of children and grandchildren.)
So when their children are sacrificed in the ballcourt to the Lords of Death, all of Xibalba (the "Place of Fear") perceived the greatness of the essence of the calabash tree which resurrected One Hunahpu's head. The virgin Lady Blood heard the story from her father and asked "Can I not come to know it by seeing the Tree that has been spoken of? I hear that its fruit is truly delicious." She goes to converse with One Hunahpu's Tree, which causes her to become pregnant; though her father tries to sacrifice her for the supposed sin, she escapes and bears the children of the Tree who travel to the Underworld to overcome mortality.
Christenson notes: "The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is one of the most prominent motifs in ancient Mesoamerican art and literature. The Maya saw death as a necessary part of life. For maize to grow and produce, a seed must first die and be buried in the earth. It was thus necessary for One Hunahpu to descend into the underworld to die before a new generation could appear and be capable of overcoming death. The maiden, Lady Blood, stood as an intermediary. As the daughter of one of the principal lords of death, she belonged to the darkness of the underworld. As the consort of One Hunahpu, she had the potential to create new life from death."
Next comes a cycle of animal-stories in an allegorical sequence of louse, toad, serpent, and falcon, signifying decay, death, rebirth, and apotheosis as sun and moon. The corrupting louse is swallowed by the fertile underworld toad, swallowed by the regenerating snake, swallowed by the falcon who flies into the dawn. Death swallowed by Hunahpu and his brother Xbalanque, who triumph over the Lords of Xibalba, whose hidden names they have discovered, whose deadly ballgame they have won, and whose many houses of horrific trials they have passed through alive, only to knowingly die and be resurrected in various forms (chosen orphan-boys, fish-people), dancing in front of the Lords of Death.
This fulfills the prophecy of Lady Blood, who told them that one day they would no longer be allowed to take human hearts in sacrifice, but would take the blood of trees rather than that of the Children of Light. The brothers come to dwell in the sky, arising as the central stars of a constellation.
Their children cross the great sea from the land in the East, where the first People were conceived, and there they looked for the coming forth of the sun, when they had one common language and did not yet call upon wood or stone. "However many nations there are today, innumerable people, they all had but one dawn." The Dawn begins beautifully, but then descends once more into human sacrifice as if it were holy, with countless tribes which should be family attacking each other any way they can, including plagues of insects.
After generations of horrific bloodshed, the Spaniards arrive in force, and officially establish Roman Catholicism against great protest in 1534 in order to wipe out whatever "idolatry" and "paganism" might have survived the purges of the conquest itself. (As a member of the LDS church, which believes in a Mother and Father God who have physical forms, just as the Maya did, I have great trouble thinking that the violence and book-burning of the conquest was exactly a Christian act; we believe that true Christianity was lost long before Arius and Athanasius occasioned the great Councils to establish the Creeds which focused on the disembodied abstractions of philosophers rather than the living Gods and the Divine Council formed of their family.) Thankfully, there were other Priests such as Bartolomé de las Casas who vigorously opposed the slaughters of Alvarado.
The book ends in dark tragedy and tortures in which there are precious few good guys; the human sacrifices made in the name of a twisted version of the early Maya religion were hardly better than the slaughter brought by the conquistadors; take your pick as to which people were the worse transgressors in the name of their Gods. And so: "this is the essence of the Quichés, because there is no longer a way of seeing [the vision of] it. It was with the Lords at first, but it is now lost. There is only this. All is now completed concerning Quiché, called Santa Cruz."
This is a personal book for me, because if family legend is to be believed, the distant ancestors of my Ecuadorian relatives might have come through the area of Guatemala where the Popol Vuh was finally recorded by anonymous priests to survive the purges of the Conquistadors. We trace the family tree down from the Dawn of Creation; Tikib'a' is literally “to plant," and so "in the beginning" was literally “the planting," with xe', root, used here to describe the foundation of the authors’ words concerning the history of the Quiché people. The subsequent narrative is seen as growing like a plant from this “root."
The Gods here are not the Neoplatonic abstractions of Christianity tainted by abstract Greek philosophy; instead they are explicitly anthropomorphic, the actual ancestors of our spirits, the shining Shapers and Modelers who descended from the darkness to organize the world out of preexisting material. The Divine Parents are Xmucane and Xpiyacoc - I'yom and K'ajolom in Quiche - the "Mother" and "Father". I'yom was "She Who Has Borne Children"; the title of the goddess implies that she assists in the “birth” of the world.
There are five stages in their attempts to create humanity, with numerous false starts. Finally, life arises in the brackish waters, and agriculture supports the creation of humans. Maize in particular is shown to create our bodies, entering into the flesh of humanity by means of the descendants of She Who Has Borne Children and He Who Has Begotten Sons, the Framer and the Shaper. The daughters of Xmucane act as the creative power that prepares the maize dough and forms it into a suitable framework to contain the essence of mankind; the unique ability of the female to form living flesh is thus emphasized. Yet the man and woman are not described as carrying out separate roles; rather, they act in concert and speak with one voice.
Their activities are remembered in the performance of the text of the Popol Vuh as a Ritual Drama: "Great is its performance and its account of the completion and germination of all the sky and earth - its four corners and its four sides. All then was measured and staked out into four divisions, doubling over and stretching the measuring cords of the womb of sky and the womb of earth."
Indeed, the ancient Maya conceived of the universe as a great house. The four corners represent the cardinal directions while its walls and ceiling form the vault of the sky, with the foundation posts forming the boundaries of the underworld, much like a miniature version of the map made of a Temple. The maize plant is often depicted as a divine axis mundi standing at the center point of the universe with its roots extending downward into the underworld while its stalk reaches into the sky.
"Behold us! Hear us! Do not abandon us. ... You are the god in the sky and on the earth, you, Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth. May our sign, our word, be given for as long as there is sun and light." (Etal [sign] and tzijel [word, as well as the act of lighting a candle or torch] when paired together refer to the posterity of children and grandchildren.)
So when their children are sacrificed in the ballcourt to the Lords of Death, all of Xibalba (the "Place of Fear") perceived the greatness of the essence of the calabash tree which resurrected One Hunahpu's head. The virgin Lady Blood heard the story from her father and asked "Can I not come to know it by seeing the Tree that has been spoken of? I hear that its fruit is truly delicious." She goes to converse with One Hunahpu's Tree, which causes her to become pregnant; though her father tries to sacrifice her for the supposed sin, she escapes and bears the children of the Tree who travel to the Underworld to overcome mortality.
Christenson notes: "The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is one of the most prominent motifs in ancient Mesoamerican art and literature. The Maya saw death as a necessary part of life. For maize to grow and produce, a seed must first die and be buried in the earth. It was thus necessary for One Hunahpu to descend into the underworld to die before a new generation could appear and be capable of overcoming death. The maiden, Lady Blood, stood as an intermediary. As the daughter of one of the principal lords of death, she belonged to the darkness of the underworld. As the consort of One Hunahpu, she had the potential to create new life from death."
Next comes a cycle of animal-stories in an allegorical sequence of louse, toad, serpent, and falcon, signifying decay, death, rebirth, and apotheosis as sun and moon. The corrupting louse is swallowed by the fertile underworld toad, swallowed by the regenerating snake, swallowed by the falcon who flies into the dawn. Death swallowed by Hunahpu and his brother Xbalanque, who triumph over the Lords of Xibalba, whose hidden names they have discovered, whose deadly ballgame they have won, and whose many houses of horrific trials they have passed through alive, only to knowingly die and be resurrected in various forms (chosen orphan-boys, fish-people), dancing in front of the Lords of Death.
This fulfills the prophecy of Lady Blood, who told them that one day they would no longer be allowed to take human hearts in sacrifice, but would take the blood of trees rather than that of the Children of Light. The brothers come to dwell in the sky, arising as the central stars of a constellation.
Their children cross the great sea from the land in the East, where the first People were conceived, and there they looked for the coming forth of the sun, when they had one common language and did not yet call upon wood or stone. "However many nations there are today, innumerable people, they all had but one dawn." The Dawn begins beautifully, but then descends once more into human sacrifice as if it were holy, with countless tribes which should be family attacking each other any way they can, including plagues of insects.
After generations of horrific bloodshed, the Spaniards arrive in force, and officially establish Roman Catholicism against great protest in 1534 in order to wipe out whatever "idolatry" and "paganism" might have survived the purges of the conquest itself. (As a member of the LDS church, which believes in a Mother and Father God who have physical forms, just as the Maya did, I have great trouble thinking that the violence and book-burning of the conquest was exactly a Christian act; we believe that true Christianity was lost long before Arius and Athanasius occasioned the great Councils to establish the Creeds which focused on the disembodied abstractions of philosophers rather than the living Gods and the Divine Council formed of their family.) Thankfully, there were other Priests such as Bartolomé de las Casas who vigorously opposed the slaughters of Alvarado.
The book ends in dark tragedy and tortures in which there are precious few good guys; the human sacrifices made in the name of a twisted version of the early Maya religion were hardly better than the slaughter brought by the conquistadors; take your pick as to which people were the worse transgressors in the name of their Gods. And so: "this is the essence of the Quichés, because there is no longer a way of seeing [the vision of] it. It was with the Lords at first, but it is now lost. There is only this. All is now completed concerning Quiché, called Santa Cruz."
March 26, 2025
Interesante lectura. Fechado aproximadamente en el año 1550, se cree que el Popol Vuh recoge parte de la cosmogonía y tradición oral del pueblo Quiché (fruto del mestizaje maya y tolteca en la zona de las actuales Guatemala y sur de Méxixo) buscando preservarla de los avatares de la conquista. Pero a la vez, se puede pensar que conjuga eso con un esquema ya situado en el cristianismo si se tiene en cuenta que el propio texto lo aclara ni bien inicia. El manuscrito, originariamente escrito en alfabeto latino pero en lengua quiché por uno o varios indígenas sobrevivientes a la matanza y destrucción perpetuada por Alvarado en 1524, fue recuperado y traducido cerca de dos siglos más tarde por un lingüista y fraile domínico, Francisco Ximénez. Las traducciones que se conocen posteriormente serían derivadas de la suya.
Obviamente una obra de este marco temporal y cultural guarda sus dificultades. El relato es muy variable, yendo desde la épica a la genealogía pasando por la mitología y las narraciones explicativas de la creación del mundo conocido. Por momentos el relato es confuso, también por el hecho de que maneja un esquema temporal diferente del que manejamos, con otra cosmovisión. La enumeración de nombres y la geografía quiché por momentos se puede hacer pesada e indescifrable si no conocemos la región y la tradición cultural de sus habitantes.
Y pese a todo ello, siento que es una lectura que valió muchísimo la pena. Sobre todo porque deja muchos aprendizajes. En el Popol Vuh son otras las lógicas: la relación con la naturaleza, la definición del bien y el mal, el desarrollo histórico comunitario, es diferente al de nuestra tradición. Nos permite conectar con un universo desconocido, con personas de otro entorno histórico-cultural, con otras maneras de definir el relacionamiento entre las personas y el de ellas con el mundo.
En el Popol-Vuh hay una importante centralidad de la oralidad. Cada vez que algo definitorio tiene que suceder, los protagonistas discuten al respecto y acuerdan qué es lo mejor. El acercamiento y conocimiento hacia la naturaleza también es diferente. Y la forma en la que el hombre puede trascender su tiempo y perdurar, alcanzando la inmortalidad, que en este caso tiene que ver con la descendencia y la acción inteligente (como en el caso de los gemelos Hunahpú e Ixbalanqué, sin dudas mi historia favorita del libro).
Al margen de todos estos aspectos propios de la cosmovisión quiché, hay que aclarar que de todas maneras el texto es producido bajo la esfera cristiana. Tiene muchos puntos de contacto con la Biblia, y en algunos casos, se nota que la incorporación de algún simil bíblico resulta forzada, lo que ha hecho a algunos dudar de la verosimilitud de toda la tradición recogida por el libro. Sea como sea, el Popol Vuh nos acerca a ese sincretismo que empezó a marcar la identidad del continente americano tras la llegada de los europeos. Y no por eso se ha de desmerecer la producción literaria de los pueblos originarios, que no se terminó en 1492, como algunos podrían llegar a creer.
Obviamente una obra de este marco temporal y cultural guarda sus dificultades. El relato es muy variable, yendo desde la épica a la genealogía pasando por la mitología y las narraciones explicativas de la creación del mundo conocido. Por momentos el relato es confuso, también por el hecho de que maneja un esquema temporal diferente del que manejamos, con otra cosmovisión. La enumeración de nombres y la geografía quiché por momentos se puede hacer pesada e indescifrable si no conocemos la región y la tradición cultural de sus habitantes.
Y pese a todo ello, siento que es una lectura que valió muchísimo la pena. Sobre todo porque deja muchos aprendizajes. En el Popol Vuh son otras las lógicas: la relación con la naturaleza, la definición del bien y el mal, el desarrollo histórico comunitario, es diferente al de nuestra tradición. Nos permite conectar con un universo desconocido, con personas de otro entorno histórico-cultural, con otras maneras de definir el relacionamiento entre las personas y el de ellas con el mundo.
En el Popol-Vuh hay una importante centralidad de la oralidad. Cada vez que algo definitorio tiene que suceder, los protagonistas discuten al respecto y acuerdan qué es lo mejor. El acercamiento y conocimiento hacia la naturaleza también es diferente. Y la forma en la que el hombre puede trascender su tiempo y perdurar, alcanzando la inmortalidad, que en este caso tiene que ver con la descendencia y la acción inteligente (como en el caso de los gemelos Hunahpú e Ixbalanqué, sin dudas mi historia favorita del libro).
Al margen de todos estos aspectos propios de la cosmovisión quiché, hay que aclarar que de todas maneras el texto es producido bajo la esfera cristiana. Tiene muchos puntos de contacto con la Biblia, y en algunos casos, se nota que la incorporación de algún simil bíblico resulta forzada, lo que ha hecho a algunos dudar de la verosimilitud de toda la tradición recogida por el libro. Sea como sea, el Popol Vuh nos acerca a ese sincretismo que empezó a marcar la identidad del continente americano tras la llegada de los europeos. Y no por eso se ha de desmerecer la producción literaria de los pueblos originarios, que no se terminó en 1492, como algunos podrían llegar a creer.
October 22, 2022
Tolkien e Martin é o caralho, aqui é america latina, porra!!!
Fazer superproduções de seriados sobre supremacia caucasiana todo mundo quer, né, agora dar a mesma ênfase à mitologia guatemalteca do novo mundo ninguém quer.
Essa edição da Ubu é a maravilhosisade em pessoa, comecei a lê-la para acompanhar a leitura de Homens de Milho, mas chegou num ponto que comecei a confundir as mitologias, mesmo a linguagem de ambos serem tão diferentes, então parei um pouco com o livro do Asturias e me dediquei ao Popol Vuh.
Essa é uma edição para se estudar para além de apenas ler, há uma suculenta introdução e notas ainda mais saborosas, deixando a maioria das páginas com ambos, plus a tradução competente da Josely Vianna que sempre nos trás essas maravilhosidades dos povos originários.
Fazer superproduções de seriados sobre supremacia caucasiana todo mundo quer, né, agora dar a mesma ênfase à mitologia guatemalteca do novo mundo ninguém quer.
Essa edição da Ubu é a maravilhosisade em pessoa, comecei a lê-la para acompanhar a leitura de Homens de Milho, mas chegou num ponto que comecei a confundir as mitologias, mesmo a linguagem de ambos serem tão diferentes, então parei um pouco com o livro do Asturias e me dediquei ao Popol Vuh.
Essa é uma edição para se estudar para além de apenas ler, há uma suculenta introdução e notas ainda mais saborosas, deixando a maioria das páginas com ambos, plus a tradução competente da Josely Vianna que sempre nos trás essas maravilhosidades dos povos originários.
August 28, 2025
El mejor mito sobre la creación de los humanos que leí.
May 25, 2019
Nearly every culture has an origin story, from the Garden of Eden to the sacred rock in Lake Champlain (some indigenous folk held that the world began when the Great Mother poked her finger above the surface of the waters that covered the Earth).
The Popul Vuh is that sort of an origin story, derived from the thousands-of-years-old Mayan oral tradition, written on bark in the 1500s, and translated vividly and with great compassion by the poet Michael Bazzett.
This book will not be for everyone. It's odd, and the names are strange, and much of it seems to take place in a dreamland. Yet there are passages of great drama, as demi-gods battle for supremacy based on honor and strength and familial loyalty.
Only very late in the story do humans appear, almost as an afterthought to the warfare. When they do, though, it is a moment of impeccable loveliness. Humility, too -- humans are mostly an afterthought in this creation myth, a busy byproduct. Somehow that diminutive role makes the arrival of our species all the more sweet.
I didn't understand everything in this book, but I didn't need to. It brought me to a wonderful destination anyway.
The Popul Vuh is that sort of an origin story, derived from the thousands-of-years-old Mayan oral tradition, written on bark in the 1500s, and translated vividly and with great compassion by the poet Michael Bazzett.
This book will not be for everyone. It's odd, and the names are strange, and much of it seems to take place in a dreamland. Yet there are passages of great drama, as demi-gods battle for supremacy based on honor and strength and familial loyalty.
Only very late in the story do humans appear, almost as an afterthought to the warfare. When they do, though, it is a moment of impeccable loveliness. Humility, too -- humans are mostly an afterthought in this creation myth, a busy byproduct. Somehow that diminutive role makes the arrival of our species all the more sweet.
I didn't understand everything in this book, but I didn't need to. It brought me to a wonderful destination anyway.
November 10, 2020
I re-read this book with a writing group and still find it amazing. The hero twins on the road to Xibalba. It is a dark creation myth that partially follows Joseph Campbell's heroic journey, but there are corners of Mayan consciousness that remain impenetrable. It presents a fascinating world laden with imagery and symbolism that defy our comprehension. What a shame that this world was virtually destroyed first by European viruses and later by European arrogance in the guise of Christianity and greed. Fortunately, the Popol Vuh survived the Spanish inquisition in America to give us a glimmer of indigenous creativity.
Read
May 24, 2013A very interesting cosmogony. There are some common points with Christianity, such as a virgin who gets pregnant by Spirits, and the fact that men were created from mud (yet, in the maya myth, this was just the first attempt from the gods to create mankind, which ended, by the way, as a failed attempt. Their final creation was made from corn).
A must in cosmogony.
A must in cosmogony.
April 20, 2017
Me ha parecido muy interesante, la visión que tenían los pueblos hispanoamericanos, acerca de la creación del universo, y como algunas partes tienen similitud con la visión cristiana.
La única parte que me ha parecido un poco difícil de leer es la parte de la creación de las tribus.
Recomiendo esta lectura porque es importante y esencial conocer nuestra cultura prehispánica.
La única parte que me ha parecido un poco difícil de leer es la parte de la creación de las tribus.
Recomiendo esta lectura porque es importante y esencial conocer nuestra cultura prehispánica.
January 29, 2013
Of all the creation and hero myths in the world, this one has to be one of the most woefully neglected.
October 31, 2017
Tales from the citadels of Man
For most readers, this could be a first introduction to the legends of the Maya. It is an excellent place to start, in my opinion. I also began here. Not being familiar with Maya languages or writing, I have less than zero idea if the translation is accurate, but it is no doubt poetic and beautiful, if more than a mite strange. It seems to me that the legends of other peoples, only dimly comprehended through veils of space and time, are bound to seem strange to us. What comes through is common humanity. Like many books in other parts of the world, the Popol Vuh was used for divinatory purposes as much as for simple reading. If you want to know about Judaism, would you read the Old Testament and figure you'd got it down ? Not likely. And for Islam, would you just read the Qur'an Sharif and feel satisfied ? No, you would need to read a lot of interpretation, a lot of history. The same will be true for the Popol Vuh. For those who are not experts, a lot of background knowledge is required. The Popol Vuh can be seen, to some degree, as a Bible of the Maya, or at least the Quiché Maya. I would say that reading this book will probably be unsatisfactory unless you have, or are going to get, a lot of background knowledge to go along with it.
Tedlock's book kicks off with an introductory section which enables the newcomer to the Maya world to understand the cultural and historical import of what he/she is about to read. The reader then launches into the text itself, and can make use of the final part--almost 100 pages of notes and comments on the text. A glossary at the back explains dozens of terms that appear in the text. There are excellent line drawings, two maps, and even black and white photographs which connect modern times to ancient. The vast number of names of individuals, tribes, gods, and places is hard to digest. Only a few readers who are not students of Maya culture or mythology will be able to read the central text without considerable difficulty. OK, reading the Popol Vuh is not easy, but it tells the Maya version of creation and provides a guide to their visions of what the world is and should be. When we remember that European missionaries burned all but a few of the Maya books, we should cherish all the more this survival, written down in Roman letters in early colonial times and skillfully translated by Tedlock.
For most readers, this could be a first introduction to the legends of the Maya. It is an excellent place to start, in my opinion. I also began here. Not being familiar with Maya languages or writing, I have less than zero idea if the translation is accurate, but it is no doubt poetic and beautiful, if more than a mite strange. It seems to me that the legends of other peoples, only dimly comprehended through veils of space and time, are bound to seem strange to us. What comes through is common humanity. Like many books in other parts of the world, the Popol Vuh was used for divinatory purposes as much as for simple reading. If you want to know about Judaism, would you read the Old Testament and figure you'd got it down ? Not likely. And for Islam, would you just read the Qur'an Sharif and feel satisfied ? No, you would need to read a lot of interpretation, a lot of history. The same will be true for the Popol Vuh. For those who are not experts, a lot of background knowledge is required. The Popol Vuh can be seen, to some degree, as a Bible of the Maya, or at least the Quiché Maya. I would say that reading this book will probably be unsatisfactory unless you have, or are going to get, a lot of background knowledge to go along with it.
Tedlock's book kicks off with an introductory section which enables the newcomer to the Maya world to understand the cultural and historical import of what he/she is about to read. The reader then launches into the text itself, and can make use of the final part--almost 100 pages of notes and comments on the text. A glossary at the back explains dozens of terms that appear in the text. There are excellent line drawings, two maps, and even black and white photographs which connect modern times to ancient. The vast number of names of individuals, tribes, gods, and places is hard to digest. Only a few readers who are not students of Maya culture or mythology will be able to read the central text without considerable difficulty. OK, reading the Popol Vuh is not easy, but it tells the Maya version of creation and provides a guide to their visions of what the world is and should be. When we remember that European missionaries burned all but a few of the Maya books, we should cherish all the more this survival, written down in Roman letters in early colonial times and skillfully translated by Tedlock.
June 15, 2018
I first read the Popol Vuh when I was a Spanish undergraduate at the University of Oregon. I remember being absolutely enchanted by it, as well as surprised that I had never heard of it before. I spent an entire semester digging into the details and context of the book, but that was over twenty years ago. I confess I had pretty much forgotten the Popol Vuh until a chance encounter gave me a reason to enjoy it again, and I’m so pleased.
You’ll find many people who compare the Popol Vuh to the Bible, and at first glance it’s easy to see why (especially if you are a Western reader steeped in a culture of Christianity and Biblical stories.) There are a number of really fascinating similarities, and it can be fun to read the Popol Vuh from this viewpoint. That said, PV in whole is really nothing like the Bible. I think it makes more sense to approach it as being a bit more like Greek mythology, where stories of the adventures of the gods, demigods, and first humans are told. We learn how the world came to be, but also get exciting stories about fooling the demons of the underworld or getting animals to take pity on a poor girl and do her farm work for her or talking heads that grow on trees. It’s fantastical, and fun, and it inspires. Considering how incredibly ancient these stories are (millennia older than the Bible and the Odyssey) they’re truly precious.
I was lucky enough to read Michael Bazzett’s new translation of the text, which is a delight. (It’s unfortunate that Goodreads lumps the reviews for all translations.) I’d recommend it to anyone. He preserves not only the beating heart of each story but the very sound in his word choices, giving the Popol Vuh a beautiful rendering here. It reads as though English was the original language, and I believe there are linguistic nuances here that are missed in earlier translations. Especially if you will be reading the book for pleasure, I’d definitely suggest Bazzett’s work, as it’s just so enjoyable to lose yourself in.
You’ll find many people who compare the Popol Vuh to the Bible, and at first glance it’s easy to see why (especially if you are a Western reader steeped in a culture of Christianity and Biblical stories.) There are a number of really fascinating similarities, and it can be fun to read the Popol Vuh from this viewpoint. That said, PV in whole is really nothing like the Bible. I think it makes more sense to approach it as being a bit more like Greek mythology, where stories of the adventures of the gods, demigods, and first humans are told. We learn how the world came to be, but also get exciting stories about fooling the demons of the underworld or getting animals to take pity on a poor girl and do her farm work for her or talking heads that grow on trees. It’s fantastical, and fun, and it inspires. Considering how incredibly ancient these stories are (millennia older than the Bible and the Odyssey) they’re truly precious.
I was lucky enough to read Michael Bazzett’s new translation of the text, which is a delight. (It’s unfortunate that Goodreads lumps the reviews for all translations.) I’d recommend it to anyone. He preserves not only the beating heart of each story but the very sound in his word choices, giving the Popol Vuh a beautiful rendering here. It reads as though English was the original language, and I believe there are linguistic nuances here that are missed in earlier translations. Especially if you will be reading the book for pleasure, I’d definitely suggest Bazzett’s work, as it’s just so enjoyable to lose yourself in.
June 5, 2024
Ancient Americas
The Popol Vuh is the Mayan book of creation myth. It reveals the imagination and faith of ancient people in the Americas. This book includes the text that has been translated, historical notes, and numerous images. It makes an interesting anthropological study and is great for readers interested in archeology, sociology, and history of this hemisphere.
It is well worth reading for understanding the mindset and history of our geography. After conquest, not much of the history remains from pre-conquest. This helps fill in the gaps, and is a good supplement to our archeological knowledge. I imagine that with time, technology will advance enough to allow for better retrieval of ancient ruins still unburied. But, until then, this is very good reading.
The Popol Vuh is the Mayan book of creation myth. It reveals the imagination and faith of ancient people in the Americas. This book includes the text that has been translated, historical notes, and numerous images. It makes an interesting anthropological study and is great for readers interested in archeology, sociology, and history of this hemisphere.
It is well worth reading for understanding the mindset and history of our geography. After conquest, not much of the history remains from pre-conquest. This helps fill in the gaps, and is a good supplement to our archeological knowledge. I imagine that with time, technology will advance enough to allow for better retrieval of ancient ruins still unburied. But, until then, this is very good reading.
July 26, 2021
(3.5 ⭐️) “Que no caigan en la bajada ni en la subida del camino. Que no encuentren obstáculos ni detrás ni delante de ellos, ni cosa que los golpee. Concédeles buenos caminos, hermosos caminos planos."
Este libro es una mezcla de religión e historia y explica el origen del mundo, del hombre y de la cultura maya. Mi parte favorita fue la leyenda del juego de pelota.
Este libro es una mezcla de religión e historia y explica el origen del mundo, del hombre y de la cultura maya. Mi parte favorita fue la leyenda del juego de pelota.
May 29, 2021
It is an extraordinary book, in fact it is an epic story, which brings together the legends of the Mayan-Quiché civilization, in which the creation of the world is discussed. It is also entertaining, a door to a world full of poignant characters.
June 30, 2019
Pronounced “Poe-pol Voo,” this ancient creation myth dates to about 200 B.C.E. I had never heard of it and wouldn’t have been tempted to read it except for one thing: Michael Bazzett. I love his poetry, and trusted that he would make this good reading. He did. In parts it reminded me of the Bible, stories of the Greek gods, Aesop, African animal legends, and Native North American animal fables.
That doesn’t mean I fully enjoyed it. Bazzett couldn’t, after all, change ancient text for the sake of making it more enjoyable. There are some gaps in logic, just as there are in the Bible (who were those people in another valley for Adam and Eve’s children to marry?). The other difficulty
I had following The Popol Vuh is that the time line jumped around like it does in most 21st c. novels. However, I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars for the reading and an extra star for being important in our attempt to understand humankind, history, and cultural difference, as well as cultural similarities. Bazzett's magic in making words sing is also a big plus. The similarities to the Bible are uncanny. There’s a flood to eliminate unworthy humans, for example, but it’s the opening that most impressed me.
In “The Beginning,”
“…These are the first words.
This is the first speaking.
There is not yet one person,
one animal, bird, fish,
crab, tree, rock, hollow,
canyon, field, or woven forest….
When it was time to make the earth:
it only took a word.
To make earth they said, “Earth”
and there it was: sodden
as a cloud or mist unfolds
from the face of a mountain,
so earth was there…”
Remind you of “Genesis”? There are also some striking differences from Judeo-Christian beliefs. The sharing of knowledge and personification of animals weaves in the beliefs of Native Americans. Many of the stories are brutal and violent like other ancient myths, but The Popol Vuh also has much more humor. There is not a single God the Father, but a male and female, the Framer and the Shaper. They seem to work more as a committee, consulting and working with other animals and lesser gods to create humans who will be worthy of a newly made world. They experiment with what materials to use. The first “people” made of wood are pretty useless. Later, they learn that using maize makes humans to their liking. They create four men as test models. Once they’re pleased with the results, they create four women as their mates. The women are made independently, not from ribs. That there were four struck me as interesting, since DNA websites tell us that we current humans are all descended from four Eves.
If you're interested in hearing more, here's a podcast interview with Michael Bazzett by the National Review
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcas...
That doesn’t mean I fully enjoyed it. Bazzett couldn’t, after all, change ancient text for the sake of making it more enjoyable. There are some gaps in logic, just as there are in the Bible (who were those people in another valley for Adam and Eve’s children to marry?). The other difficulty
I had following The Popol Vuh is that the time line jumped around like it does in most 21st c. novels. However, I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars for the reading and an extra star for being important in our attempt to understand humankind, history, and cultural difference, as well as cultural similarities. Bazzett's magic in making words sing is also a big plus. The similarities to the Bible are uncanny. There’s a flood to eliminate unworthy humans, for example, but it’s the opening that most impressed me.
In “The Beginning,”
“…These are the first words.
This is the first speaking.
There is not yet one person,
one animal, bird, fish,
crab, tree, rock, hollow,
canyon, field, or woven forest….
When it was time to make the earth:
it only took a word.
To make earth they said, “Earth”
and there it was: sodden
as a cloud or mist unfolds
from the face of a mountain,
so earth was there…”
Remind you of “Genesis”? There are also some striking differences from Judeo-Christian beliefs. The sharing of knowledge and personification of animals weaves in the beliefs of Native Americans. Many of the stories are brutal and violent like other ancient myths, but The Popol Vuh also has much more humor. There is not a single God the Father, but a male and female, the Framer and the Shaper. They seem to work more as a committee, consulting and working with other animals and lesser gods to create humans who will be worthy of a newly made world. They experiment with what materials to use. The first “people” made of wood are pretty useless. Later, they learn that using maize makes humans to their liking. They create four men as test models. Once they’re pleased with the results, they create four women as their mates. The women are made independently, not from ribs. That there were four struck me as interesting, since DNA websites tell us that we current humans are all descended from four Eves.
If you're interested in hearing more, here's a podcast interview with Michael Bazzett by the National Review
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcas...
September 29, 2018
For a reader of Western epics, myths and creation stories, there is something disconcerting and almost surreal about reading The Popol Vuh. It is not as though the basic tropes of myth are not present: gods and men striving to wrest meanings out of a chaotic existence that will ultimately account for the universe in its cyclical rotations. It is rather that the names and the cultural references are off kilter for a reader of Western Myth in a way that make The Popol Vuh's world strange. This can be read in the smallish details, where characters have numbers without referent associated to their names such as Seven Macaw or One Hunahpu, in the sudden disruptions where characters or magic tools appear suddenly, and ultimately in the tragic-comic striving of gods and men to establish creation. One can almost read the connection between these ancient myths and the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The creation myth itself is one in three. The Framer and Shaper first demonstrate a clear omnipotence in their creation of the world. But then their initial act of speaking earth into existence is superseded by a series of false starts as they seek to create a being able to speak to them, as if the internal dialogue of divinity needs an Other to create meaning for creation. Instead of humans, they end up with animals and then wooden men in their first two attempts, only to finally make humans after the interlude of the story of the twin brothers Hunaphu and Xbalanque, the twin children of the daughter of death and One Hunahpu. These twin brothers must overcome death, but only do so by dying. Through Hunahpu's death and resurrection, they overcome the tribe of death and establish the seasons and the cycles of the sun and moon, which they themselves become. Once their story is complete, the Framer and the Shaper return and humans can be made from the food produced through the cycles of life and death of an agrarian society.
As a poet himself, Bazzett's translation of this story establishes a rhythm and cadence that he combines with a vivid language to make the work accessible and a joy to read. I highly recommend this book and this translation to anyone interested in myth and ancient literature.
The creation myth itself is one in three. The Framer and Shaper first demonstrate a clear omnipotence in their creation of the world. But then their initial act of speaking earth into existence is superseded by a series of false starts as they seek to create a being able to speak to them, as if the internal dialogue of divinity needs an Other to create meaning for creation. Instead of humans, they end up with animals and then wooden men in their first two attempts, only to finally make humans after the interlude of the story of the twin brothers Hunaphu and Xbalanque, the twin children of the daughter of death and One Hunahpu. These twin brothers must overcome death, but only do so by dying. Through Hunahpu's death and resurrection, they overcome the tribe of death and establish the seasons and the cycles of the sun and moon, which they themselves become. Once their story is complete, the Framer and the Shaper return and humans can be made from the food produced through the cycles of life and death of an agrarian society.
As a poet himself, Bazzett's translation of this story establishes a rhythm and cadence that he combines with a vivid language to make the work accessible and a joy to read. I highly recommend this book and this translation to anyone interested in myth and ancient literature.
March 1, 2019
This is an amazing little book.
I would say that it should be added to every survey class on world literature—but then nobody would read it. Read it. It is an absolutely riveting account of the creation of the world. It's as if you took primordial elements from a dozen other core myths from cultures across the planet—cataclysmic floods, dismembered heroes made whole, talking animals, virgin births, fiery pits—and blended them together into some kind of indigenous tapestry: unique and totally new.
Calabash heads, strange forms of dentistry, vengeful pottery, helpful ant colonies filling bowls with flower petals, you never know what you are likely to encounter next. The story principally revolves around the adventures of ingenious twin boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, their deadly blowguns, their athletic skill on the Mayan ballcourt, their visit to Hell and the defeat of the gods of Death, and the final transfiguration of the twins into the Sun and Moon, with 400 attendant stars.
Although the book forms a full and complete circle, when I was finished I found myself wanting to read more by this author, and this civilization. But there really isn't much more left. Only ruined ballcourts and fugitive fragments of stories in carvings. And a wary look in the eyes of their creators' descendants. And the Sun and the Moon and the stars.
I would say that it should be added to every survey class on world literature—but then nobody would read it. Read it. It is an absolutely riveting account of the creation of the world. It's as if you took primordial elements from a dozen other core myths from cultures across the planet—cataclysmic floods, dismembered heroes made whole, talking animals, virgin births, fiery pits—and blended them together into some kind of indigenous tapestry: unique and totally new.
Calabash heads, strange forms of dentistry, vengeful pottery, helpful ant colonies filling bowls with flower petals, you never know what you are likely to encounter next. The story principally revolves around the adventures of ingenious twin boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, their deadly blowguns, their athletic skill on the Mayan ballcourt, their visit to Hell and the defeat of the gods of Death, and the final transfiguration of the twins into the Sun and Moon, with 400 attendant stars.
Although the book forms a full and complete circle, when I was finished I found myself wanting to read more by this author, and this civilization. But there really isn't much more left. Only ruined ballcourts and fugitive fragments of stories in carvings. And a wary look in the eyes of their creators' descendants. And the Sun and the Moon and the stars.
February 9, 2019
They spoke then, the ones called
She who has borne children
And He who has planted them,
The Framer and the Shaper,
Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent:
Soon it will be dawn,
yet our work is not done.
There are not yet those
who will provide for this world,
And those who will sustain it:
children of light, born in the light.
Note that my rating is for Michael Bazzett’s new translation published by Milkweed. Beautiful both poetically and visually, this edition of the captivating creation myth delights. Bazzett truncated the full work to eliminate a lot of apparently tedious genealogical information after the creation of people (as distinct from earlier gods and mythic creatures). So if the complete work is important to you, you should find a different translation. But I loved this one.
David Shook of Phoneme Media wrote an informative review in World Literature Today:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
She who has borne children
And He who has planted them,
The Framer and the Shaper,
Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent:
Soon it will be dawn,
yet our work is not done.
There are not yet those
who will provide for this world,
And those who will sustain it:
children of light, born in the light.
Note that my rating is for Michael Bazzett’s new translation published by Milkweed. Beautiful both poetically and visually, this edition of the captivating creation myth delights. Bazzett truncated the full work to eliminate a lot of apparently tedious genealogical information after the creation of people (as distinct from earlier gods and mythic creatures). So if the complete work is important to you, you should find a different translation. But I loved this one.
David Shook of Phoneme Media wrote an informative review in World Literature Today:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...
November 28, 2022
Well, here is one of the few times I can’t give a review. Why? Historical accuracy.
According to researchers like Dr. Gaspar Pedro Gonzalez, there were many hieroglyphic texts of the Popol Vuh, and regional versions continue to be retold in villages across the former Mayan territories within Mexico and Guatemala. He also asserts a high probability that a few original Popul Vuh codices exist quietly hidden amongst descendants, to ensure their safety, authenticity, and continuity.
The only version we all can read is a 16th century Conquistador account. Hence, I can’t in any way offer an earnest review until at least reading the 9 books of the Chilam Balam.. understanding the Mayans via old Mayan voices.
For now, rating it 5 stars for antiquity.
According to researchers like Dr. Gaspar Pedro Gonzalez, there were many hieroglyphic texts of the Popol Vuh, and regional versions continue to be retold in villages across the former Mayan territories within Mexico and Guatemala. He also asserts a high probability that a few original Popul Vuh codices exist quietly hidden amongst descendants, to ensure their safety, authenticity, and continuity.
The only version we all can read is a 16th century Conquistador account. Hence, I can’t in any way offer an earnest review until at least reading the 9 books of the Chilam Balam.. understanding the Mayans via old Mayan voices.
For now, rating it 5 stars for antiquity.
December 11, 2018
This was a joy to read. I have very little knowledge or history of this part of the world, much less the Mayans, but it was absolutely fascinating. The translation is welcoming, and the parallels to other myths and archetypes gave me chills. There are connections to philosophy that surprised and tickled me.
My favorite lines might be:
However many nations
live in the world today,
however many countless people,
they all had but one dawn.
My favorite lines might be:
However many nations
live in the world today,
however many countless people,
they all had but one dawn.
October 19, 2023
This book is a retelling of the content of a text now lost belonging to the indigenous people of the southern part of Mexico and the region of Guatemala. It tells stories of the origins of the world, of myths, and of conquests of the lands. An important read when it comes to the indigenous tradition in the Americas.
February 16, 2020
I love reading Native creation stories, and this one is also amazing. The ways in which our ancestors tried to explain the world around them are so fascinating–– it really offers a great perspective into other cultures.
January 24, 2016
I can summarize my reading experience of this book for my world literature class in one word: boring.
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