MAYA CREATION MYTHS

By J. Eric S. TIIOi\IPSON

PART l.
Assemblage of the many Iragments of creation myths recorded
within the Maya area can be of value not only for the insight
they allow inlo pagan thought but also because of the in-
formation they can supply on relations both between Maya
highlands and lowlands and also between each oí those areas
and other parts of Mexiro. The material is widely scattered and
in sorne cases difficult of access, and clearly what has been
recovered represents but a small fragment of the lore on the
subject current in Middle American when Cortés stepped ashore
on Good Friday of 1519. Chance has largely decided what
should or should not be preserved. It is a sad thought that
perhaps only one European was sufficiently interested to collect
and set clown in detail such legends as the lowland Maya told
their íamilies in their homes or recited to strangers around the
campfires of sorne gronp of itinerant merchants. The possible
exception is Fray Andrés de Avendaño y Loyola, but his treatise
on the priests and prophecies, idols and calendar of the Yucatec
is lost.
The effect of time and degree of European contact on rate
of loss of pagan detail to European elements in myths is a
matter of sorne interest. Old World influence is apparent in
Mexican myth very soon, for the story of people with ears so
long that they wrap themselves up in them when they go to sleep
appears in a native source, Histoyre du Mechique, probably
composed in 1543, two decades after the Spanish conquest.
Naturally, myths were never frozen into immutable patterns o{
words and incidents in pre-Columbian times, but sorne present-
day creation myths show complete mestization.

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Other problems raisP.d concern center of diffusion of the

concept of multiple creations and destructions of the world
and the period or periods when specific incidents carne to be
shared by peoples of the Mexican plateau and the lowland
Maya.
Because they are the most detailed, legends of the various
creations from the Val1ey of Mexico and its environs are first
presented for points of comparison with Maya myths.

Valley of Mexico

The reason for the fullness of data from this region probably
lies in the fact that there were persons interested in putting the
different versions in wóting soon after the Spanish conqucst,
bef?re the attrition which all paganism had to face had hecome
senous.
There are five main nahuatl sources : written in the Codex
Chimalpopoca (two versions) and the Historia de los mexicanos
por sus pinturas; painted in Codex Vatican A wi th commentary;
and sculptured on the famous Aztec calendar stone and other
stone objects (Beyer, 1921).
Codex Chimalpopora comprises three distinct manuscripts,
the first being the Anales de Cuauhtitlan and the last Ley<'ndo
de los soles. Both, written in nahuatl, derive from independent
sources. The Anales, by an unidentified author, dates from
about 1570; the Leyenda is dated 1558; the Historia . .. por sus
pinturas survives in a Spanish version of 1547, a copy of a
lost origi nal. Codex Vatican A, a pictorial and hieroglyphic
book, derives from a lost original of about 1550. All, accord-
ingly, are largely uncontaminated by European ideas.
Minor variations, nntably in the succession of world crea-
tions and destructions will not be discussed in view of the fact
that the Valley of Mexico material is presented primarily for
comparative purposes. The scheme here followed seems most
likely to be the original. but the variants may well have been
current before the Spanic;h conquest. All are essentially uPiform.
Each creation is known as a sun. In outline they are :
First Creation. 4 Ocelotl (jaguar) was its name. Tezca-
tlipoca was the sun. The world was inhabited by giants. After
] 3 x 52 years it was ended by jaguars devouring the giants.

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Second Creation. 4 Eecatl (wind) was its name. Quet-

zalcoatl was the sun. AftP-r 7 x 52 years it was ended by terrible
winds which swept away houses, trees, and people. The few
survivors were turned into monkeys.
Third Creation. 4 Quiauitl (rain) was its name. 'flaloe
was the sun. After 6 x 52 yeas it was ended by fire raining
clown from the sky and the forming of lava ( volcanic eruptions).
The sun burned all the houses. The people were children. The
survivors were turned into birds.
F ourth Creation. 4 Atl (water) was its name. Chalchihui-
tlicue was the sun. After 13 x 52 years it was ended by floods.
The mountains disappeared and the people were turned into
fishes. According to one version two persons survived because
Tezcatlipoca ordered them to bore a hole in the trunk of a very
large ahuehuetl tree, and to crawl inside when the skies fell .
The pair entered and survived the flood s. La ter, they annoyed
Tezcatlipoca who changerl them into dogs by cutting off their
heads and sticking them on their buttocks.
Fifth Creation. 4 Ollin ( movement) was its name. Tonatiuh,
the sun god, was its sun. Eventually an earthquake will bring
it to an end. Men were created from bones rescued from the
underworld realm of the death god by Quetzalcoatl. Blood
which he drew from bis penis dripped on the bones, bringing
them to life.
The gods created four men and Tezcatli poca and Quetzal-
coatl turned themselves into great trees. "With the men and
trees and gods they raiset:l the sky with its stars as it now is.
When the sky was raised Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl walked
across it, and made the road which appears in the sky, and
they were there and ever after are there with their abode
there".
In the sixth year after the ílood, Centeotl, the maize god,
was born; two years later the gods created men; in the four-
teenth year the gods decidP-d to make the sun because the world
was still in darkness, but this did not happen till the twenty-
sixth year after the flood.
Dei ti es supporting the heavens and trees set at the ( four)
points of the compass appear in Codices Borgia and Vatican
B, and world directional trr.es are a conspicuous feature of
Codex Fejervary-Mayer. AH three codices are pre-Columbian

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and certainly originated outside the Valley of Mexico, probably

somewhere in the area embracing Puebla, northern Oaxaca
and southern Veracruz, so those two elements clearly had a
far wider distribution than thP, Valley of Mexico.
So much for Central Mexico.

Quicl,e

A large part of the Popol V11h recounts the adventures of

the sun and his brother on earth before the former took up
his duties as the present sun; a smaller part tells of the creations
and destructions of the world (Recinos, 1950). The book was
written in Quiché employing European script in the second half
of the sixteenth century and so is somewhat later in date than
the V alley of Mexico sources. On the other hand, the more
isolated Quiché were presumably less exposed to Spanish
influence than the natives of the Valley of Mexico. Certainly
the Popol Vuh is easily the best source for highland Maya
mythology. The creations according to this sources are:
First Creation. Man was made of mud. Consequently the
figure "melted away, it was soft, did not move, had no st.rength;
it fell clown, it was limp, it couJd not move its head; its face
fell to one side, its sight was blurred, it coul d not look behind.
At first it spoke, but it had no mind. Quickly it soaked in the
water and could not stand". The gods were so dissatisfied that
"they broke up and destroyed their work and their creation".
It is not clear whether the whole world was destroyed at that
time, but man was created afresh.
Second Creation. Men were made of wood of the pito tree,
women of reed, after divination by the old pair of gods of
divination had shown pito woo<l, the beans of which like maize
grain were used in divination, a better substance than maize.
The people looked, talked and multiplied like men, but they
l acked souls and minds, their faces were without expression
and their flesh yellow. They did not remember their lord and
creator, and for that reason they were destroyed.
A heavy resin fell from the sky; the face of the earth was
darkened and a black rain fell day and night. Animal demons
killed the people, breaking and devouring their flesh. The

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domestic animals and the utensils attacked their owners. The

dogs asked them why they had not fed them, but, instead,
always had a stick handy to beat them. The turkeys and the
dogs kept for eating said "you ate us, now we shall kill you".
The metates complained of how they had suffered when the
maize was ground on them, but now it was their turn they said.
The pots and griddles accused man of burning them and
clamored for revenge. The stones of the hearth <lid likewise.
When the wooden men tried to escape to the roof crests, the
houses collapsed ; thr trees and the caves refused them shelter.
The race was annihilated; from the survivors descend the
monkeys.
Third Creation. Next, the ancestors of the present race
werr made of dough of yellow maize and of white maize, first
four men and then four women. They pleased their creators
by thanking them for their creation, preservation, and all the
blessings of this life. They were too wise; there was danger
that they would equal the gods in wisdom. Consequently, Heart
of Hcaven blew mist into their eyes, diminishing their knowledge
and wisdom. The worlcl was still in darkness. Finally, the
morning star rose before the assembled people. The priests
hurned copal and then the sun appeared. Even the animals
turned to face the rising sun. It rose with unbearable heat,
drying the muddy surface of the earth. Certain gods and deified
animals and hobgoblins ( Zaqui coxol, little men of the forest)
were turned to stone.
That the present world would end in destruction is not
indicated in the Popo] Vuh, but there is an extraordinary re-
ference to that event in testimony give in 1563 by the Mer-
cedarian Friar Luis Carrillo de San Vicente. The area to which
this relates is not specified, but it is definitely in the highlands
of Guatemala, and quite probably that part occupied by the
Quiché. According to this friar, old lndians on the point of death
pass their idols on to others, bidding the recipients guard, ho!lor
and venerate them because those who follow their law and
custom will prevail, whereas the Spaniards who were upstarts
must come to an end, and "when they were dead, these gods
must send another new sun which would give light to him who
followed them, and the people would recover in their genera-
tion and would possess their land in peace and tranquility."
(Scholes and Adams, 1938, Document 46).

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Thus, for the Quiché we have three races of man created,

two destructions of man in the past with a third destruction and
a fourth creation promised for the future. In connection wit11
the divination of the old pair (Xpiyacoc and Xmucane) to
decide whether man should be of pito wood or of maize, it
should be noted that the equivalent pair in the Nahua pantheon,
Oxomoco and Cipactonal, made a divination to find out who
should break open thc mountain to obtain maize (Part 2).

Cakchiquel

In the Annals of the Cakchiquels ( Recinos, 1953 : 46-67) ,

neighbors but enemies of the Quiché, there are very brief re-
fercnces to this same series of traditions. One race of man
was made of earth, but was useless. He was fed with wood and
leaves ( confused recoller.tion oí the creation of roen of wood?),
but neither walked nor talked; he had neither blood nor flesh.
Subsequently man was made of maize dough mixed with blood
of tapir and serpent. Thirteen men, but fourteen women were
created. "Then they talked. They had blood, they had flesh.
They married and multiplied."

Mam

The Maro Maya oí Santiago Chimaltenango in the western

highlands of Guatemala retain memories of three creations, a
mixture of Maya and Christian themes (Wagley, 1949: 51).
First Creation. People said to have been monkeys. They
were destroyed by a flood of burning pitch.
Second Creation. Sorne say the second race compri5ed
moles. A flood destroyed it.
Third· Creation. The first people were St. Joseph and the
Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Joseph made the earth. It was per-
fectly flat. As it was always dark, St. Joseph made the sun and,
later, the moon. Jesus was born and in four days grew to full
size. He said to his father "Do not be troubled, father for I
am going to make another world and you will be able to help
me.

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Then Jesus began to make the mountains and valleys and

canyons for the rivers. He made the moon less bright than the
sun so that people could sleep at night.
In the Mam town 0f San Miguel Acatán a cycle of stories,
sorne of which refer to the creation, also attach to Jesus (Siegel,
1943: 125). The Jews caught and crucified God, but He set
a ladder on the cross and climbed to heaven. The cock crew
and the world became clear. In the last sentence it seems possible
that the author's use of tbe word "clear" rises from a misunders-
tanding of the Spanish se aclaró, became bright. Clearly, the
ladder as a symbol of the Passion, the denial of St. Peter and
the darkness at noon have modified this version of the coming
of light to the wor1d, a favorite motif in all these Middle Amer-
ican creation stories.

]acalteca

The Jacalteca recount (La Farge and Byers, 1931: 113)

that the world was once in darkness. When the sun ( apparently
Jesus) rose, the Spania.rds hid in caves and under the water,
but were killed. Perhaps we may presume that those under the
water were drowned. We are reminded of the belief recorded
by Fray Luis Carrillo de San Vicente that the present world
would end with the destructil)n of the Spaniards.

Kekchi

Almost the same stories of the creation as are given below

for the Mopan, Maya are current among the Kekchi (Gordon,
1915; Burkitt, 1920; Dieseldodf, 1926-33, vol. 1, pp. 4-5) .
Burkitt was the author, whose name was withheld, of the myths
published by Gordon. Dieseldorff obtained his version from
the German Paul Wirsing who lived among the Kekchi for
very many years. There are sorne grounds for thinking that the
Kekchi borrowed these stories from the Manché Chol, a large
part of whom they absorbed in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
The late Mrs Elsie McDougall passed on to me information
of Señor Viaux, resident in Alta Vera Paz, that an old Kekchi

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woman attributed skulls in a cave near Cohan to people living

hefore the creation of the sun. When the sun appeared they
stayed in caves for the light was so hright they could not see.
By day they made pots; at night they carne to the surface.

Zutuhil

The Zutuhil conserve memory of a flood, at wihch time men

were turned into animals (Rosales, 1949 :801).

Maya lowlands. Precolumbian

Archaeological evidence for the cosmological beliefs of Lhe
Maya is not plentiful but does point to world directional trees
and Atlantean figures upholding the sky as ideas current
during the Classic period.
The so-called crosses of the Tablet of the Cross and of the
Foliated Cross at Palenque have long heen regarded as probable
word directional trees. Dating from around A.D. 700, both have
been published many times. To these should be added the scene
on the lid of the sarcophagus of the burial of the Temple of the
lnscriptions at the same site (Ruz, 1954, fig. 8). A conven-
tionalized tree rises from immediately behind a person in an
awkward half-reclining position. Beneath, and probably serving
as base of the tree is a mask combining death symbols with
the sun glyph; perched on the tree is a bird.
In Codices Borgia (pp. 49-53) and Vatican B (pp. 17-18)
the world directional trees similarly rise from immediately
behind figures reclining in similar awkward positions and also
have birds perched on them. The figures are gods or god im-
personators. With the group must belong the scene on Dresden
codex p.3 of a tree rising from behind a sacrificial victim with
gaping incision for the removal of his heart. On the tree perches
a vulture who apparently has removed one eye of the victim,
reminding us of the Maya expression colop u ich, pulling out
of the eye, which occurs so frequently in t~e Ritual of the
Bacabs, frequently as the title of a god (Roys, 1965).
Possibly scenes on the reliefs of the Temple of the Panels,
Chichen l tza (Ruppert, 1931, pl. 11) treat of directional trees

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for there are four of them in the south panel with a bird
perched on each one. At the bottom of the panel there is a
line of monkeys.

Yucatec. Colonial Period.

Material on creations and destructions of the world are

found in the Books of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Roys, 1933:
99). Maní and Tizimín (Barrera Vásquez and Rendón, 1948:
153), reduced to writing in the colonial period.
First Creation. This took place in a katun 11 Ahau, which
is the first in the round of thirteen katuns (20-year periods)
which together form the Maya ritualistic cycle of two hundred
and sixty years of 360 days, the framework of all Maya
mythology, history and prophecy.
The principal actors are Oxlahun-ti-ku (Thirteen god or
Thirteen gods) and Bolon-ti-ku (Nine god or Nine gods). The
former apparently is a collective term for a group of sky gods,
the latter for a group of gods of the un<!_erworld, night and
darkness. It would seem that like the Chacs each group can
be regarded as a single deity or number of gods with similar
functions. In a strugglt=! between the two Nine god emerged
victorious; Thirteen god "was seized, his head was wounded,
his face was buffeted, he was spit upon and he was turned
round and was robbed of his canhel ( symbol of the four world
directions?) and of his black facial painting."
This passage is not clear, but in the Lacandon account of
the creation given below the creator god is killed and buried
by Cizin, lord of the underworld, and his two sons, perhaps
a parallel to the defeat of the sky god by the underworld god
in the Books of Chilam Balam. Ah Muzencab, bee gods, who
seem to be the same as the Bacabs mentioned below, are also
involved in the struggle, apparently on the side of Nine god.
There is also an occult passage treating of agricultura! products,
sorne of which were carried to the thirteenth heaven while
others remained on earth.
There follows the only reference to a human (?) race of
this creation: "After that the fatherless ones and those without
husbands disintegrated. They were alive, but they had no
judgement. Then they were smothered by the sand in the midst

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of the sea. There would be a coming and going o f water. The

water will come when the canhel is robbed. The sky will fall,
it will fall upon the earth when the four gods, the four Bacabs,
were set up who brought about the destruction of the world.m
The above account clearly shares features with the version
in the Popol Vuh of the first creation and destruction in which
the men of mud, without intelligence or judgement, disintegra-
ted. In the Yucatec version we are not told that they were
of mud, but they wer(" without judgemeQt, ~nd they dis
integrated.
Bishop Landa, the great sixteenth-century source on the
Yucatec Maya, tells us concerning the Bacabs "These, they
said, were four brothers whom God, when he created the world,
placed at its four parts holrling up the sky so that it should
not fall. They said also of these Bacabs that they escaped when
the world was destroyed by the flood. To each they gave other
names thereby designating the part of the world in which God
has set each one holding up the sky."
Second Creation. lmmediately following the statement about
the setting up of the Bacabs. the narrative continues:
Then after the destruction of the world was completed,
they set up the red tree of abundance [ to the east], pillar of the
sky, sign of the dawn of the world, tree of the Bacab, for the
yellow cock oriole to percb on.
Then the white tree of abundance was set up to the north
for the white bunting to perch on. Support of the sky, sign of
destruction was the white tree of abundance.
Then the black tree of abundance was set up to the west
of the flat land, as a memorial of the destruction of the world,
for the black-breasted pidz'oy bird to perch on.
Then the yellow tree of abundance was set up to the south
of the flat land, a memorial of the destruction of the world,
1 The above translation is mainly based on that of Roys, but it differs írom

others published in two important points. The Maní and Tizimíu versions have
hutlahi, 'disintegrated,' the Chumayel version has hullahi, 'pierced.' In view of
the disintegration ascribed in th e Popol Vuh to the men of mud, the former
seems more logical. Puczikal is heart and, by extension, judgement. The latter
fits hetter in view of other sources which speak of the first creatures without
judgement. Mucchahi tumen u yam zuz, 'smothered by the sand.' Other translations
render this 'buried in the sands,' but mucchahal is 'choked, smothered, drowned,'
and t1imen is instmmental.

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for the yellow-breasted pidz'oy bird to perch on, for the yellow
cock oriole to perch on, the timid yellow bird.
Then the green tree of abundance was set up in the center
of the land, a memoria) of the destruction of the world."
Following this the plate of another katun was erected and
the red, white, black and ydlow Piltec were placed respectively
to the east, north, west and south of the world. The account
continues:
"However, Ah Uuc Cheknal was set up for all the earth.
He carne to [ or from] the seventh layer of the earth. Then he
descended to fecundate [ or trample on the back of] ltzam-
Kab-ain (Lizard with alligator paws). Then he descended to
the abutment of the angle between heaven and earth. They
traveled to the four waxes [ ?] , to the four layers of stars.
There was no light in the world; there was no sun; there was
no night; there was no moon. Then they saw that the dawn was
coming. Then the dawn carne. During the dawn thirteen infinite
series and seven was the count of the creation of the world.
And then it dawned for them."
ltzam-Kab-Ain probably is to be identified with the celestial
dragons, which are in my opinion the ltzamna, rain-sending
dragons which are so prominent in the art of the Classic period
and in the codices (Thompson, 1943). Ah Uuc Cheknal is
unknown outside this context. His name meaos something like
seven times stud animal ownP,r or he who fertilizes the young
growing maize seven times, but to have the latter meaning the
growing maize must be regarded as an animal or bird. lt is in
this sense that Ah Uuc Cheknal copulates with ltzam-Kab-Ain,
mounting on his back. Creation as a result of pairing of a
celestial deity of light with a terrestrial goddess of darkness,
with frequent references to "the lust" of creation, is narrated
in passages in the Ritual of t'he Bacabs (Roys, 1965) and a
similar pairing of the sun god with the moon goddess, who is
also a deity of the soil and the crops, is a feature of the Mopan
myth of the creation outlined below.
A sixteenth century source (Relaciones de Yucatán, 1 :51)
says the Maya knew of the flood and the fall of Lucifer (the
<lownfall of Oxlahun ti Ku ?) and that the present world would
end with fire.
In support of the suggestion made above that the roen of
the first creation according to the Books of Chilam Balam were

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of clay because they disintegrated, another sixteenth-century

source (Relaciones de Yucatán, 1 :79) informs us that God
made the first man of ear th, and he was called Anon, and in
confirmation of this the Motul dictionary has the entry "Anom,
the first man, Adam." However, the Ritual of the Bacabs (Roys,
1965) has Anom in the plural, indicating that the creation was
not of a single man, and that is in agreement with most pre-
Columbian myths.
Another source (López de Cogolludo, 1867, bk. 4, ch. 7)
says that the flesh and bones of the first man were of earth
mixed with dry grass and his hair was of the same dry grass.

Yucatec. Present Day

From material collected by Tozzer (1907:153-54) and

Redfield and Villa (1934: 330-31) a Yucatec series of four
creations and three destruc6ons of the world may be recons-
tructed:
First Creation. The Sayamuincob built the now ruined
archaeological sites and the great stone roads while the world
was still in darkness, before the sun was created. They were
dwarfs but they could carry great loads on their backs. They
were also called P'uz, huncbback or bent in Yucatec, but in
other Maya languages, e. g. Tzotzil, the word signiíies dwarf.
They had magical powers and needed only to wlústle to bring
together stones in their correct positions in buildings or to
bring firewood from the bush to the hearth by itself. The people
became wicked and it was announced that there would be a
fl ood. Tbe little people built great stone tanks like the
underground storage reservoits as boats, but as they did not
float the people were drowned. According to the version
recorded by Tozzer there was then a great road suspended in
the sky stretching from Tulúm and Cobá to Chichén Itzá and
Uxmal, a detail remininiscent of the great Cobá-Y axuná road.
When the sun appeared the dwarfs were turned to stone. Their
images are to be seen today in many of the ruins. Tozzer
illustrates one of these. It is an Atlantean figure írom Chichén
Jtzá and is of short stature.
The story oí the P'uz is told also in .Socotz, British Hon-
duras (Thompson, 1930: 166). On old village si tes in the

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forest one comes upon old metates worn by use to trough-like

pilas. These are the boats of the P'uz, the tiny folk. They forgot
to worship God and He told them he would send a flood to
destroy them. They decided not to make boats of wood as
those might rol before they were needed, so they made them
of stone. When the flood carne the P'uz got in their stone boats~
but as these did not float all the little folk were drowned.
ZaJranuincob is translated as "the adjusters" by Tozzer,
but I suspect that was due to his misunderstanding the word
ajustar given in the Pío Pére.z dictionary for zay. Zayanuincob
[ sic l can be translated as "the twisted men" or "the disjointed
~en\ suggesting a connection with hunchback. The word may
also be connectecl with zay, 'ant', for there is also a Yucatec
tradition of an ancient race called chac za,y uincob, red ant
men. They were industrious Jike the ants whlch takes out the
red earth and make straight roads through the forest. The old
people also spoke oí those people as yichobe bei yichob colelcab,
those with eyes like of bees, or canal ubaacilob, the meaning
of which is uncertain, although canal would be 'on high.' The
flood which ended this creation was haiyokocab, water over the
earth, comparable to the terms haycabal and haycabil used in
the books of Chilam Balam.
The belief that peoplf. were turned to. stone when the sun
rose presents an interesting parallel to the events narrated in
the Popol Vuh in connection with the rising of the sun.
Second Creation. Next there lived the dz'olob, a term Tozzer
renders as "the offenders', but I have not succeeded in finding
that meaning. A flood also ended this age.
Third Creation. The mar.ehuals came into being. The age
ended with yet another flood, this one called hunyecil or
bulcabal. M acehual, a nahua loan word, means the common
people, and here probably indicates that the people were the
same as the present-day Maya. The Motul dictionary, a six-
teenth-century source, says of hunyecil "general flood, in which,.
the Indians used to sa y, onl y a maguey [ henequen] point
separated the water from the sky." In fact hunyeci means one
point of a henequen (leaf) .
F ourth Creation. This is the present world in which we
live. It contains a mixture of all previous peoples to inhabit
Yucatán.

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Bacabs aná Bees

The moment is opportune to note sorne links between the

Bacabs and other creatures of these creation myths. In the
material just given it was remarked that the dwarfs of the first
creation were also known as the people with eyes like those
of bees. In a Quiché creation story from Chichicastenango
recorded by Tax (1949: 129) it is said that before the flood
the people decided to go unrlerground to save themselves. God
in disapproval changed them into bees. Moreover, among
cleities associated with the creation in the books of Chilam
Balam, as noted are the Ah Muzencah, who are the patron
deities of the bees and have the bodies of bees (Redfield and
Villa, 1934: 117). Landa informs us that beekeepers regarded
the Bacabs and especially the Bacab called Hobnil as their
special advocates. Hobnil is a name for the hollow logs the
Maya use as beehives.
The Atlantean figures so common at Chichén ltzá wear
l oincloths which termínate in unusual elongated oval tassels,
the interiors of which are cross-hatched or, rarely, decorated
with patterns. There are gro,mds for identifying these as bees
wings. In a much illustrated vase in the British Muscum from
Isla de Sacrificios (Joyce, 1914, pl. XVIII, nQ 10; Seler,
1902-23, 5:323) an anthropomorphized bee has wings of the
same type, and one can see that this is the common way of
illustrating insect wings other than those of the butterfly on
the Mexican plateau.
This peculiar ornament is found in the Maya Classic period.
The relieís in Temple 22, Copan, depict two individuals who
hold up a celestial dragon, and as the dragon represents the
sky, they are, in fact, skybearers. Both have knotted cloths with
cross-hatched areas in their headdresses (Thompson, 1966).

Mopan

The Mopan Maya of southern British Honduras have a long

story of the life of the sun and moon on earth, in which there
.are references to the creaticm of the world. As noted, the
Kekchi have the same cycle of legends and they may have
-0btained these from the Manche Chol ( p. 19).

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 .MAYA CREATlO~ MYTHS 27

According to the Mopan version (Thompson, 1930:11~-40 )

the son of Adam and Eve was placed in heaven and wore the
sun's crown, but it was too hot for him. At the end of seven
years he caused a flood into which he plunged to cool off.
Once more cool, he resumt'd his solar duties. The people
complained to Adam that many had been drowned and they
feared the same thing would happen again. Adam suggested
that one of three brothers living with their grandmother Xkitza
might take on the job. The st'cond son was agreeable, and was
sent to travel across the sky to see how he liked it. He did not
like it at all, for he found the landscape very monotonous;
it was a dull, flat plain without hills or valleys, seas or rivers.
Were the world more interesting, he said, he would be bappy
to be the sun for ever. The me¡:;senger reported this.
The world became dark for a short while; the hills and
valleys, the rivers and seas were made. The hoy tried again
and at journey's end he was P,nthusiastic. "Now the world is
beautiful. I will be the sun f0r ever; I will never grow old,
but will always be strong and do my work. "The messenger
told bim the time bad not yet come; for the present the first
sun would continue to do his work.
Sun wooed tbe girl who was to become the moon. They were
the first people to have sexual intercourse, and for that reason
the moon is mother of mankind, goddess of love and of
childbirth. Af ter many adventures on earth, sun and his
wife and bis brotbers ascended to the sky to take up their
duties, the two brothers becoming morning and evening stars.
However, in contradictioo to this, we are also tol d that the
younger brother was turnP.d into a monkey, an incident in the
creation stories which will be discussed in Part 2.
Another story of the Mopan (Tbompson, 1930:150) nar-
rates that jaguars existed before man was made. The creator,
taking sorne mud, started to fasbion men. Tbe jaguar was
watching, but the creator did not wish him to observe the
process. He gave the jaguar a jar and a calabash full of boles,
and sent him to fetch water from the river, hoping to finish
the creation wbile the jaguar tried to fill the jar with water
scooped up with the leaking calabash. The jaguar was unsuc-
cessful in fi lling the jar till the frog called to him "Chohac,
chohac, chohac. Smear mud over the holes." By the time he
had thus filled the jar, the creRtor had made thirteen men and

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twelve guns. The jaguar learned after being shot twice m the
paw that man was to be the master.
The incident of the leaking calabash has a parallel in the
Popol Vuh: the twins send their grandmother with a leaking
jar to fetch water while they search for the ball-game
equipment.

Lacandon

Creation myths of the Lacandon have been recorded by

Bauer and Bauer ( 1952 :233-36). The gods once lived on earth
and built the great buildings now in ruins.
As for the first creation, Hachacyum, the creator, made the
Lacandon men, bis wife made the women; Ah Metsabac, collec-
tor of black dye to form the rain clouds, made the Tzeltal
Maya, the Mexicans and the Guatemalans; Acyanto, 'our
helper,' created the Americans. These people were of clay.
Hachacyum made the people of each totem of a different
clay. The figures had red ey('brows and green beards, and
were dressed like the gods. Cisin, god of the underworld, in
mischief made their eyebrowf: and beards black. He also made
figures in imitation of those of Hachacyum. Hachacyum passed
a palm leaf over the fire and waved it over the clay figures.
Thereupon all carne to life, but those Cisin had made turnecl
into the totemic animals of the Lacandon.
The world was then flat. Cisin and lús two sons killed
Hachacyum and buried him, but Hachacyum carne to life and
created the underworld with the aid of two other gods. One
of them, Acanchop, made secure the foundations of the earth
(acan means founded) with huge rocks and cross beams. When
the underworld was completed Hachacyum burst open the
ground beneath Cisin so that as the former ascended to make
the heavens the latter fell through into the underworld.
Ah T'up, Hachacyum's youngest son, also made sorne clay
figu rines which carne to l ife. His hrothers were provoked and
shot and kill ed them, but they carne alive again. After this had
happened about fivc times, the brothers beheaded them,
whereupon they stayed dead. When Ah T'up saw the people
he had created they had become palm trees, xaan (Sabal mexi-
cana). The father said the trees would remain on earth and
grow here. One informant said there were four such trees in
heaven.

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 MAYA CREATION l\IYTHS 29

The present world will be ender after the last Lacandon

<líes by the jaguars of Cisin eating the sun and moon ( Cline,
1944) . According to another version (Baer & Baer, 1949) at
the end of the world all the Lancandon will gather at Y ax-
chilan. The gods will behead all single roen, hang them by
their heels, and gather their blood in bowls to paint their house.
The final resting place of souls when the world ends will be
in the highest of the four heavens, that of Chembekur, which
is in complete darkness (Baer & Baer, 1952).
The mention of trees and the other informant's mention of
four trees in heaven makes it reasonably certain that this is a
hroken clown memory of the world directional trees which in
Maya thought were ceiba trees.
Accorcling to Cline (1944) Hachacyum was buried by his
hrother-in-law. On the fourth <lay the body had so swollen that
it split the earth, forming a big crevasse, by which Hachacyum,
who was not really dead, climbed out. He was now more
powerful than Cisin whom he banished to the middle of the
earth. As noted ( p. 21), these details supply an interesting
commentary on, perhaps an amplification of, the fight between
Oxlahun-ti-ku and Bolon-ti-ku. One is also reminded of the
incident in the Popo] Vuh in which Zipacna, believed to lie
<lead at the bottom of a deep pit, frees himself after three days
and kills his opponents (Recinos, 1950:101).

Palencano Clwl

A fragment of a Chol creation myth has been recorded by

Arabella Anderson (1952) . God wanted to destroy men and
replace them with a new race. Therefore, he made darkness.
The jaguars would go forth to kill all men; they would not
sleep because it was always night and thus they would kill all
men. One man closed his house very carefully with thick wall
boards and went up to the ridge of the house. When the god
found him there alive, he tore off the man's head and stuck
it on his anus, and the man was changed into a spider monkey,
perhaps the Spaniards were changed into howler monkeys.
There follows the inódent of Pandora's box to be discussed
l ater. Destruction of all men by jaguars we have noted in
Nahuatl creation myths and, set in the future, among the
Lacandon. The beheading and sticking of the head on the rump

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to form a new being wP- found in the Leyenda de los soles

version of the fourth creation.

Tzotzil

The Tzotzil Maya of Larrainzar retain a myth recording

three creations of the world (Holland, 1963 :71-72).
First Creation. ThP, world was completely flat; there was
no sun, only a feehle light. The people were imperfect; they
did not die. This angered the gods who sent a flood to end
the world. Only the priests escaped death because they were
monkeys, both spider anr:l howler monkeys, and so were able
to save themselves by climbing the tallest trees.
Second Creation. People were again imperfect because they
<lid not remain dead; after three days they carne to life again
and lived for ever. This also displeased God who determined
to destroy the world with a torrent of hot water. When the
water began to fall sorne people took refuge in caves, but all
died. The human bones often found in caves are remains of
those refugees.
Third Creation. God decided to try again, and sent his
son, Jesus Christ, to earth to create the third world. The first
inhabitants were three ladino couples. They were wealthy and
occupied themselves in reading and writing. God then created
the Indians to do the hard work.
The Tzotzil of San Andrés Larrainzar retain belief in four
gods who sustain the world on their shoulders. Known as Kuch
[ cuch] Uinahel Balumil, 'sky [ and] earth bearers,' they are
set at the corners of the world. Their slightest movement
produces an earth tremo, or even an earthqµake. The gods of
the four cardinal points occupy positions intermediate between
those of the Cuch Uinahel Balumil. They ate associated with
world directional colors, but not in the arrangement of those in
Yucatán and the Maya codices (Holland, 1963 :92).
Material from another Tzotzil village, San Pedro Chenalhó
amplify the abovP, material (Guiteras Holmes, 1961:156-57,
176,182,186-87, 194,253-54, 282,287).
First Creation. The W()rld was once overrun with jaguars;
it belonged to them, that js why God the father had to kill them.

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fThis seems to have been befo re man was first created. l The
first men were of mud. They could not stand erect and at
first they could not talk. Someone, seemingly a Jew, carne to
teach them, but he taught them to sin. The people die<l from
a floo<l but sorne escaped in a box floating on the water. They
turne<l into monkeys b~cause they ate charcoal when their
food gave out.
Second Creation. People of this [ ?] creation stayed dead
only three days.
Third Creation. God made Adam and Eve of clay. There
are ladinos in the w0rld because the woman sinned with a
white dog, and Indians because she sinned with a yellow dog
and gave birth to Indians. Long ago [this creation?] there was
another sun, Lucibel ! lucifer? J. He gave little heat; soil and
vegetation did .not dry s0 man could not bum the felled land
to make milpa. The chil<l Jesus offered to be the sun, promis-
ing to give more hMt. He and his mother ascended to heaven,
he to be the sun, she thf' moon.
The earth is square and surrounded by sea. The sky rests
on four posts. Beneath is another square on which the dwarf
people, the yohob, live. The sun is drawn in his cart across the
sky by [ dead?] human heings. They hand it over at sunset
to the dwarfs undemeath. Th~ sun continues his joumey below
the earth but just above the dwarfs, and the latter protect
themselves from his heat by covering their heads with mud.

Tzeltal
lnformation from the Tzeltal-Maya village of Oxchuc
(Villa, 1946:570) closP.ly parallels the ahove Tzotzil world
view. In Oxchuc belief the flat earth is supported by four thick
columns, at the bases 0f which live dwarfs only a foot talJ
and black because the sun passcs so close to them in his r
joumey through the underworld]. Four more columns, set on
the earth, hold up tbe heavens. There is sorne doubt as to
whether these are at the cardinal points or at the N.W., N.E.,
S.W. and S.E. "comer~" of the earth.
From Tenejapa, another Tzeltal town, a fragmentary crea-
tion legend has been recovered by Barbachano (1946:34). The
first men were without clothes and, not knowing how to make

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32 ESTUDIOS DE CULTURA MAYA

fire, they were cold. They could not talk. The creator ordered
Mam to make a flood. God [ in a subsequent creation] made
fruit trees so that man could have food and he took maize
from the ants who took it out of hills. When man began to eat,
he began to talk.
The above covers pub]ished material on creations of the
world to the best of my knowledge. Before discussing the
various sources, certain myths attached to them will be noted,
the first of which deals with the discovery of maize.

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