The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual

Holley Moyes, Allen J. Christenson, Frauke Sachse, Holley Moyes, Allen J. Christenson, Frauke Sachse

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781646421992
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths to elucidate the ancient Maya past while using multiple lines of evidence to shed light on the text. Combining interpretations of the myths with analyses of archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and literary resources, the work demonstrates how Popol Vuh mythologies contribute to the analysis and interpretation of the ancient Maya past.The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins' deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica. The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics. Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube

1

Introduction

The Popol Vuh as a Window into the Mind of the Ancient Maya

Allen J. Christenson and Frauke Sachse

DOI: 10.5876/9781646421992.c001

The Origins of the Popol Vuh

The Popol Vuh was compiled in the mid-sixteenth century by surviving members of the ancient K’iche’-Maya royal court. It is the single most important highland Maya text of its kind, containing a narrative of the creation of the world, the ordering of the cosmos, the nature of the gods, and the historical development of the various highland Maya groups prior to the Spanish Invasion. Since its first publication in the nineteenth century, the Popol Vuh has had a major impact on our understanding of both Precolumbian and present-day Maya culture. The myths found in the Popol Vuh have clear antecedents in the arts as well as textual records that reach well into the Preclassic era. Many of these mythic stories mirror a fundamental worldview that is at the core of present-day Maya oral traditions and ritual practices. Connecting the ancient past with the present, these myths help us understand Maya thought through time. The present edition not only aims to deepen our understanding of the myths contained in the Popol Vuh but also presents the work of some of the leading scholars in the field of Mesoamerican culture that elucidates how Popol Vuh mythology can aid in the analysis and interpretation of the ancient Maya past.

The authors of the Popol Vuh wrote that their work was based on an ancient book that was venerated by the Precolumbian K’iche’ kings who consulted it often. They described this older version of the Popol Vuh as an ilb’al, literally “an instrument of sight.” The word today is used to refer to the clear quartz crystals K’iche’ ajq’ijab’ (traditional highland Maya religious specialists) use in divinatory ceremonies. It is also the word used for magnifying glasses or spectacles, by which things may be seen more clearly. The kings are not described as “reading” the text but rather “seeing” its contents:

They knew if there would be war. It was clear before their faces. They saw if there would be death, if there would be hunger. They surely knew if there would be strife. There was an ilb’al—there was a book. Popol Vuh was their name for it. (Popol Vuh, fol. 54r; Christenson 2007: 287)

The authors of the sixteenth-century text of the Popol Vuh wrote that what they compiled was based in some way on the contents of the more ancient version. There has been a great deal of speculation regarding the nature of this Precolumbian Popol Vuh and its relationship to the version we have today. The introductory section of the Popol Vuh includes the following statement:

We shall bring it [this book] forth because there is no longer the means whereby the Popol Vuh may be seen, the means of seeing clearly that had come from across the sea—the account of our obscurity, and the means of seeing life clearly, as it is said. The original book exists that was written anciently, but its witnesses and those who ponder it hide their faces. (Popol Vuh, fol. 1r; Christenson 2007: 64)

This passage raises some intriguing questions. First, did the Precolumbian version of the Popol Vuh exist in the sixteenth century, and second, was it available to the K’iche’ authors of our present version? The text suggests that the answer to both questions may be yes. The first sentence of the passage, which acknowledges that “there is no longer the means whereby the Popol Vuh may be seen,” may be interpreted as referring to the destruction or loss of the original book. But the phrase may simply mean that the text is hidden and unavailable for public display. This is certainly in keeping with modern highland Maya usage of the phrase. In traditional Maya communities, sacred objects such as old books, official papers, and ritual paraphernalia are generally kept wrapped in bundles and hidden in chests or kept out of sight in the lofts of houses. They are rarely taken out except under ritually appropriate circumstances. For example, in the Tz’utujil-Maya community of Santiago Atitlán, the town’s most precious silver vessels, documents, missals, and other ritual objects are kept in a locked chest. This chest is only opened once a year. When this occurs, the doors are locked and men are posted as guards to ensure privacy. The objects are removed from the chest one by one, checked against a very old inventory, and laid out on the ground on cloths to ensure that they do not touch the ground. The contents of the chest are considered living beings and must be allowed to “breathe” and to be reanimated with prayers and offerings, or they would die. During the year, if anyone were to ask about the contents of this chest or any number of others scattered around the community, the common answer is that ma kaka’yxi’ ta “they cannot be seen.” On the other hand, if something has been stolen or destroyed, the answer is that ma k’o ta “it does not exist,” or if the person knows the circumstances, he will describe the disappearance. The assertion that the Popol Vuh could not be seen does not therefore necessarily mean that it did not exist anymore.

The next sentence in the passage asserts that “the original exists that was written anciently” and that it is the “witnesses and those who ponder it” who “hide their faces.” The text is clear here that the ancient book “exists” rather than “once existed.” It is the keepers of the text who are in hiding, implying that the Precolonial version may have still been available to the authors at least by the mid-sixteenth century. The authors of the version of the Popol Vuh available today were anonymous. In the text they refer to themselves as “we,” as seen in the passage just quoted. This indicates that more than one contributed to the compilation of the book. The text suggests, however, that they were members of the old K’iche’ nobility. Toward the end of the book, the authors declare that the three Nim Ch’okoj (Great Stewards) of the principal K’iche’ ruling lineages were “the mothers of the word, and the fathers of the word” (Christenson 2007: 305). Tzij (word) is used in the text to describe the Popol Vuh itself (folio 1 recto, in Christenson 2003: 13, 264), suggesting that the Nim Ch’okoj may have been the authors of the book. Nim Ch’okoj was a relatively minor position within the K’iche’ nobility, charged with certain duties at royal banquets, perhaps including the recitation of tales dealing with the gods, heroes, and past rulers of the K’iche’ nation. In this position they likely would have had access to manuscripts containing such traditions at the K’iche’ court (Tedlock 1996: 56–57; Akkeren 2003).

Unlike other documents of the period, the authors of the Popol Vuh chose to remain anonymous, referring to themselves only as “we” (Christenson 2007: 64). The authors’ anonymity is unusual since most Early Colonial period highland Maya documents were prepared for some official purpose, such as land titles submitted to the Spanish courts to assert border disputes and claims of privilege. These were all duly signed by their authors as testimony of their veracity. For whatever reason, those who were responsible for compiling the Popol Vuh did not wish their identities to be known. It is likely that those who wrote the Popol Vuh purposely hid their names as it was not intended for the eyes of Spanish ecclesiastical and political authorities. Although the text was compiled after the Spanish Invasion, the authors described the traditional Maya gods as luminous, wise beings who “gave voice to all things and accomplished their purpose in purity of being and in truth” long before the arrival of the European invaders (Christenson 2007: 63). There is certainly no denigration of the Maya gods such as is found in the Título de Totonicapán, which was prepared as a legal document and submitted to the Spanish courts. So as not to offend the ecclesiastical and secular Spanish authorities, the K’iche’ authors of the Totonicapán document stress that they are the “grandchildren and children of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and that they became “lost in Assyria” because of Shalmaneser (Carmack and Mondloch 1983 [1554]: 174), a reference to the lost ten tribes of Israel that was a fairly common explanation for the presence of people in the New World taught by the earliest Christian missionaries. The Título de Totonicapán declares that they “fell into lies” and briefly mentions the sun god Junajpu and the moon god Xb’alanke as examples (1983 [1554]: 174).

This stands in marked contrast to the Popol Vuh, which has virtually no intrusive Christian or Spanish cultural influences in the text itself and describes the ancient Maya gods as beneficent and life-giving, as in this prayer:

Pleasing is the day, you, Juraqan, and you, Heart of Sky and Earth, you who give abundance and new life, and you who give daughters and sons. Be at peace, scatter your abundance and new life. May life and creation be given. May my daughters and my sons be multiplied and created, that they may provide for you, sustain you, and call upon you on the roads, on the cleared pathways, along the courses of the rivers, in the canyons, beneath the trees and the bushes. Give, then, their daughters and their sons. (Popol Vuh, fol. 54r–54v; Christenson 2007: 289)

Such unapologetic reverence for the ancient gods would have been offensive to the Spanish authorities, not to mention the Roman Catholic clergy. During the early decades of the Spanish Invasion, the most obvious expressions of Maya religion and literature were either destroyed or forced into hiding. Precolumbian texts were singled out as particularly dangerous hindrances to the conversion of the people to Christianity and were actively sought out and destroyed. Those who were found in possession of such books were persecuted and even killed. Bartolomé de Las Casas (1958: 346) witnessed the destruction of a number of such books in the early sixteenth century, which were burned to “protect” the Maya from their traditional religion: “These books were seen by our clergy, and even I saw part of those which were burned by the monks, apparently because they thought [they] might harm the Indians in matters concerning religion, since at that time they were at the beginning of their conversion.”

As much as 200 years later, Francisco Ximénez (1929–31, I.i.5) wrote that in the K’iche’ community of Chichicastenango, many indigenous books were still kept in secret so the Spanish authorities would not learn of them. It was the loss of such precious books as the Precolumbian version of the Popol Vuh that may have prompted K’iche’ scribes to preserve what they could of their literature by transcribing the contents into a form that would make it safer from the fiery purges of the Christian authorities. The authors of the Popol Vuh may have recognized the danger in this and cloaked themselves with anonymity to protect themselves.

Regardless of whether the authors of the sixteenth-century manuscript version of the Popol Vuh had direct access to a Precolumbian book, it should not be assumed that they wrote a word-for-word transcription of the original. The few Precolumbian Maya books that survive, as well as the numerous inscriptions found on stelae, altars, architectural wall panels, and the like, all bear texts that are highly formalized and condensed references to dates, persons, and events that briefly outline the stories they wish to tell. These are often accompanied by illustrations to further elucidate the otherwise terse prose. No known Precolumbian text contains the kind of long storytelling devices, descriptive detail, commentary, and extensive passages of dialogue found in the Popol Vuh. Nor is the structure of the written language conducive to such extended narrative. The Popol Vuh, as written in the mid-sixteenth century, is more likely to have been a compilation of oral traditions based to one degree or another on mythic and historical details outlined in a Precolumbian codex with their associated painted illustrations.

The Ximénez Copy of the Popol Vuh

The fate of the sixteenth-century transcription of the Popol Vuh is unknown for the next 150 years. At some time during this period, it was taken from Santa Cruz del Quiché to the nearby town of Chuwila’, now known as Santo Tomás Chichicastenango. Chichicastenango had long since eclipsed Santa Cruz in size and importance, and most members of the K’iche’ nobility had transferred their residence there. Between 1701 and 1704, a Dominican friar named Francisco Ximénez, the parish priest of Chichicastenango, came to obtain the manuscript. Since 1694, Ximénez had served in various Maya communities where he learned a number of dialects and studied K’iche’ grammar so he could teach it to newly arrived clerics. Ximénez was also interested in the ancient traditions of the K’iche’. He noted that in his parish the people still conserved ancient “errors” they had believed prior to the arrival of the Spaniards (Ximénez 1929–31, I.i.54). His curiosity concerning ancient K’iche’ history and religion may have overcome the suspicion of the guardians of the Popol Vuh manuscript, and they allowed him to borrow it, at least long enough to make a copy. In his proemium, Ximénez writes that the book had a wide circulation in the town and that the K’iche’ knew the myths from the Popol Vuh and other, similar books well:

It was with great reserve that these manuscripts were kept among them, with such secrecy, that none of the ancient ministers knew of it; and investigating this point, while I was in the parish of Santo Tomas Chichicastenango, I found that it was the doctrine which they first imbibed with their mother’s milk, and that all of them knew it almost by heart; and I found that they had many of these books among them. (Ximénez 1929–31, I.i.5, in Recinos et al. 1950: 6)

Figure 1.1. Folio 1r of the Ximénez manuscript (Ayer MS 1515) of the Popol Vuh. Courtesy, Newberry Library, Chicago.

Ximénez’s copy of the Popol Vuh manuscript comprises a total of fifty-six double-sided folios and is organized in two columns, the original K’iche’ text on the left and a Spanish translation on the right (figure 1.1). Ximénez explains that he modified the orthography of the original text that was shown to him in Chichicastenango. We do not know what else Ximénez may have changed or left out in the process of copying, but his manuscript is the oldest version of the K’iche’ text we have today. It is unknown what h...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface: Maya Archaeology and the Popol Vuh: An Intellectual History
• 1. Introduction: The Popol Vuh as a Window into the Mind of the Ancient Maya
• Part 1: Understanding Highland Maya Worldviews through the Mythologies of the Popol Vuh
• Part 2: The Popol Vuh in Understanding the Archaeological Record
• Part 3: Comprehending Classic Maya Art and Writing through the Myths of the Popol Vuh
• Part 4: Mythological Continuities and Change
• Index
• List of Contributors