ABSTRACT
From 1554 to 1558, unknown Quiche Maya lords wrote down the Popol Vuh using glyphic texts and oral renditions. They penned this work in the European Latinate alphabetic script, which they had learned from the Christian friars, but hid the book from the Catholic clergy. The first part of the Popol Vuh begins with the origin story of the world in which Cucumatz, the Quiche Maya name for Quetzalcoatl, who is submerged in a perfectly placid ocean, converses with the Heart of Heaven. The third part which is roughly one-half of the Popol Vuh, is a historical account of noble lineages, wars, migrations, and events up until 1550. The Popol Vuh was once viewed as “the Maya Bible.” However, the third section, which is studied much less often, suggests that the rulers who wrote the Popol Vuh intended it to be the Quiche Mayas’ own origin story, not that of all Maya cultures, let alone all of humanity’s.
