Popol Vuh
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Anonymous or composite
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~13,500 words · 64 passages
Cite this work
- APAPopol Vuh. (n.d.). Popol Vuh. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/popol-vuh/the-popol-vuh-the-mythic-and-heroic-sagas-of-the-kiches-of-central-america
- MLAPopol Vuh. "Popol Vuh." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/popol-vuh/the-popol-vuh-the-mythic-and-heroic-sagas-of-the-kiches-of-central-america.
- ChicagoPopol Vuh. Popol Vuh. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/popol-vuh/the-popol-vuh-the-mythic-and-heroic-sagas-of-the-kiches-of-central-america.
What it is about
Popol Vuh: the sacred book of the K'iche' Maya.
Context and history
The creation of the world, the hero twins who descend to the underworld to play ball, and the genealogy of the Guatemalan lineages. It was written in K'iche' in Latin script around 1550, when the hieroglyphic originals had already been burned. English translation.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
The "Popol Vuh" is the New World's richest mythological mine. No translation of it has as yet appeared in English, and no adequate translation in any European language. It has been neglected to a certain extent because of the unthinking strictures passed upon its authenticity. That other manuscripts exist in Guatemala than the one discovered by Ximenes and transcribed by Scherzer and Brasseur de Bourbourg is probable. So thought Brinton, and the present writer shares his belief. And ere it is too late it would be well that these--the only records of the faith of the builders of the mystic ruined and deserted cities of Central America--should be recovered. This is not a matter that should be left to the enterprise of individuals, but one which should engage the consideration of interested governments; for what is myth to-day is often history to-morrow. LEWIS SPENCE. July 1908. THE POPOL VUH [The numbers in the text refer to notes at the end of the study] There is no document of greater importance to the study of the pre-Columbian mythology of America than the "Popol Vuh." It is the chief source of our knowledge of the mythology of the Kiché people of Central America, and it is further of considerable comparative value when studied in conjunction with the mythology of the Nahuatlacâ, or Mexican peoples. This interesting text, the recovery of which forms one of the most romantic episodes in the h← Back to Popol Vuh