"This is the account of when all is still silent and placid. All is silent and calm. Hushed and empty is the womb of the sky. These, then, are the first words, the first speech. There is not yet one person, one animal, bird, fish, crab, tree, rock, hollow, canyon, meadow, or forest. All alone the sky exists. The face of the earth has no yet appeared."

 - Allen J. Christenson, Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya

The Creation of the Earth, page from Popol Vuh

Perspectives on Popol Vuh: The Creation Myth of the Maya 

        This film tells the story of the Mayan myth of creation with visual aids taken directly form classic Maya pottery. The film covers the myth from beginning to end, detailing the creation of the world, humans, and animals. The myth and film even gives an explanation of the underworld, called Xibalba, and a popular ball game. The narrative of the story follows a fast paced and steady chronological order throughout the film. Popol Vuh explains all of this through the story of Hunter and Jaguar Deer and their family. 

        The opening credits of the film set an example of the style of film for the rest of the movie. Traditional music played in the background as a man spoke the opening credits in the native language. The creation story begins by Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth thinking all of hearth and creation into existence. I thought this was a very visually appealing portion of the movie as the film showed what looked like different constellations representing Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth. They then turn into recognizable creatures who then began thinking the world into existence.  Minutes 2:40 to 4:12 in the video show this portion.    

        Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth called on Xmucane, Our Grandmother, and Xpiyacoc, Our Grandfather, to create humans who would be obedient and respectful to Heart of Sky and Heart of Earth. This took several attempts, the first was destroyed and the second attempt was washed away in a flood and turned into monkeys. Then One Hunter and Seven Hunter were born to Our Grandmother and Our Grandfather. One Hunter and Seven Hunter then had two sons of their own, One Howler and One Monkey, who were artists and magicians. The family played ball together daily. The evil lords of Xibalba heard the family playing the game and became jealous. There were several different evil lords of the underworld, all representing terrible sicknesses and sins. They challenge One Hunter and Seven hunter to a game, and sacrificed them. 

          

        One Hunter's head was hung in a barren tree and instantly the tree began producing the fruit. Little Blood, a daughter of a Lord of Xibalba, went to the tree. Suddenly One Hunter's head begins to talk to her. Little blood then carries One Hunter's twins and escapes her father though trickery, who wants to kill her. Little Blood then goes to Our Grandmother seeking help. Grandmother then tells her to gather a full bag of corn to prove that she is her daughter-in-law. 

        Little Blood then gives birth to Hunter and Jaguar Deer, the hero twins. The myth states that the twins were unwanted by their grandmother, and that One Howler and One Monkey tried to kill them. They grew up in the mountains hunting for their family, and never cared for. I believe that this part of the twins life is used to help the audience relate to the hero twins and humanize them. One Howler and One Monkey were lazy and mean, so Hunter and Jaguar Deer tricked them and turned them into monkeys. Though the myth we begin to understand that trickery was an improtant part of Mayan culture and story telling.  

Photographs © Justin Kerr

Maya vase K1789  depicts three monkeys holding stones, a Maya metaphor for the 3 hearth stones of Maya creation.

        Hunter and Jaguar Deer then grew to be young men, and offered to tend the fields for Grandmother. They only did this to trick grandmother into feeding them. The fields are robbed in night after ever attempt to plant corn. This part of the myth explains why certain animals look the way they do. The animals would come into the fields and tell the plants to rise and walk away form the fields. In an attempt to stop the animals hunter and Jaguar Deer pulled on the tails of deer and rabbit, causing them to fall off. They then grabbed rat and squeezed him, burned his tail, and made his eyes bulge. Rat told them about their fathers and explained that the twins are not farmers, but ball players. 

        Rat then helped the twins get the ball equipment that was hidden by grandmother by tricking her and Little Blood. The twins took the ball equipment and begin practicing. The Lords of Xibalba heard the twins practicing and invited them down for a challenge. The twins decided to go to avenge theri father's deaths. The twins planted corn stalks in the houses of Little Blood and Grandmother. If the corn stalk bared a tassel then the twins were still living, if the stalk was dead, so were the twins. 

        Hunter and Jaguar Deer went down into the underworld. The twins told mosquito to learn the names of all the Lords for them. When the twins met with the Lords they already new their names, therefore taking away some of their power. The twins were not tricked like their fathers and passed the first trial of Xibalba, The House of Darkness. The twins then won the first ball game. The next trail of Xibalba was The House of Knives, which the twins also passed. The twins were the locked in the House of Cold, the third trial of Xibalba. The fourth trail was the House of Jaguars, and the twins passed. Next was the house of Bats. The twins slept in their blow guns, but when the twins awoke they couldn't see the dawn. Hunter's head was then taken by a bat. 

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Lords of Xibalba

        Jaguar Deer called the animals to him and put a pumpkin on Hunter's body to trick the Lords. They then went down to play the final game. Jaguar Deer then found Hunter's head on the ball court and put it back on hunter's body. Hunter and Jaguar Deer then won the final game, but they knew that they would die in Xibalba anyway. Hunter and Jaguar Deer arranged for heir bones to be ground and thrown into the river after they died. Then the hero twin jumped into the fire and died, unwilling to let the Lords of the Underworld kill them. 

          A short time later two old beggars came into Xibalba. They danced, and preformed. They would burn down houses and kill themselves, only to reappear and come back to life. The Lord of hte underworld then invited the beggars to the House of the Lords. The beggars began to preform for the Lords and the Lords were fascinated by their magic. The Lords had their houses burned, to watch it reappear, and had their dogs and friends killed to see them come back to life. The Lords then had the beggars sacrifice them selves, and then had a longing to be part of the sacrifice themselves. The beggars sacrificed the Lords, but did not bring them back to life. The beggars then revealed their true selves as Hunter and Jaguar Deer. They then left the underworld, after avenging their fathers deaths. The hero twins then became the sun and the moon to lite the heavens and the earth for all eternity.

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Hero Twins/

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         The intent of the film was to show the story of the creation myth in a new way. Throughout the film the audience is constantly pushed to root the twins and their well being, and I believe that this represents a "triumph over evil" type of theme. A power and control theme could also be applied to the myth because Xibalba tries to control what happens outside of the underworld, but the twins end up winning in the end. The twin overcome the odds set in front of them, and gain eternity though living as the sun and moon.