THE PANTHEON OF THE “POPOL VUH”

It must be remembered that we are dealing with Kiché and not with Mayan mythology. Although the two had much in common, it would be most unsafe in the present state of knowledge to attempt to identify Kiché with Mayan deities; such an attempt would, indeed, assume the bulk of a formidable treatise. Scholarship at the present time hesitates to designate the representations of Mayan gods on the walls of “buried” cities otherwise than by a letter of the alphabet, and it is therefore wise to thoroughly ignore the question of Mayan affinities in dealing with myths purely Kiché. This does not apply to the Kiché-Mexican affinities. Mexican and Kiché deities are mostly known quantities, but this cannot be said of their Mayan congenors. The reason for this is that until Mayan myth is reconciled with the evidence of the Mayan monuments no certitude can be arrived at. This cannot well be achieved until the Mayan hieroglyphs give up their secret, a contingency of which there is no immediate likelihood. Bearing this in mind, we may proceed to a brief consideration of the Kiché pantheon and its probable Mexican affinities.

Deities who early arrest our attention are Tepeu, Gucumatz and Hurakan. The name of the first signifies “king.” According to Brinton this in Kiché applies to rulership chiefly, inasmuch as the conjugal prowess often ascribed to monarchs by savage people is concerned. A creative faculty is obviously indicated in the name, but Brinton assumes that this Kiché generic name for king can also be rendered “syphilitic,” especially as the name of the Mexican sun-god Nanahuatl has a similar significance.

That Tepeu was a generative force, a creative deity, there can be no doubt, but strangely enough in certain passages of the “Popol Vuh” we find him praying to and rendering homage to Hurakan, the “Heart of Heaven.” We also find the latter along with Xpiyacoc, Xmucane and Tepeu jointly and severally responsible for the creation of the mannikins, if not for the whole cosmological scheme. This, of course, bears out the assumption of a composite origin of the creation-myth in the “Popol Vuh,” but it is nevertheless strange to find Hurakan, whom we must reckon an alien deity, at the head of these Olympic councils.

That Quetzalcohuatl was not an aboriginal Maya-Kiché deity is proved by the relative importance granted him by a people—the Aztecâ—to whom he was alien; and that they regarded him as the aboriginal god of Anahuac par excellence is indisputable.

Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque, who appear in the first myth proper—that of the destruction of Vukub-Cakix, are certainly “of the gods,” but seem to be only demi-gods. They are constantly alluded to as “young men.” Brasseur de Bourbourg, who saw in the Vukub-Cakix myth the struggle between the Toltecs and the invading Nahuatlacâ, believed these hero-gods to be equivalents of Tezcatlipoca and Nanahuatl, but the resemblance appears to exist merely in the martial character of the deities, and is hardly noticeable in other details. Hun-Ahpu would appear to signify “The Master,” but Brinton translates the name as “Magician.” It may have a reconciliatory translation as “Adept.” A variant is the name of his father Hun-Hun-Ahpu, “Each-one-a-Magician,” and some confusion is apparent in the Vukub-Cakix myth between the two names; but as the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg so justly observes, “these names are so symbolic in character that their absolute elucidation is impossible.” Xbalanque signifies “Little Tiger.”

“The gods of the Kichés were legion,” but the foregoing list embraces practically all the deities proper with whom we have to deal in the “Popol Vuh.”

The Vukub-Cakix Myth

The outstanding point of interest in the myth of Vukub-Cakix and his two sons is its terrestrial significance. That they were of the earth as truly as were the Jotuns of Scandinavian mythology there can be no doubt. Like the Jotuns or the Titans, Vukub-Cakix and his progeny are made from the earth, and the parent giant is a living representation of its surface. Xpiyacoc and Xmucane remove his emerald teeth, and replace them with maize grains—surely a mythical interpretation or allegory of the removal of the green virgin turf of the earth, and its replacement by the maize seed. It is further worthy of notice that the maize is placed in Vukub-Cakix’s mouth by divine beings. In the third book of the “Popol Vuh” it is stated that the gods gave maize to man. It was, indeed, brought to earth from heaven by the sacred animals.