Unsuccessful Attempt at Making Man

A constant moral throughout the Popol Vuh is the need to avoid pride, or what the Popol Vuh calls "Self-Magnification." After the second attempt when the gods tried making man out of wood, the wooden men " . . . just went and walked wherever they wanted. Now they did not remember the Heart of Sky" (Popol Vuh 83). The gods sent floods, dogs and other weapons to punish the wooden men for their pride. The wooden men were so mutilated that they became monkeys, which " . . . is why monkeys look like people: they are a sign of a previous human work, human design--mere manikins, mere woodcarvings" (Popol Vuh 86).

Xbalanque and Hunahpu Bringing Down "Self-Magnifiers"

Before the account of successfully creating man from corn, the Popol Vuh gives an account of the relations among the different gods and the adventures of the twins Xbalanque and Hunahpu. The twins first battle Seven Macaw. Seven Macaw "magnifie[s] himself" and states, "I am great. My place is now higher than that of the human work, the human design. I am their sun and I am their light, and I am also their months" (Popol Vuh 86). The Macaw is a bird with many bright feathers, and Seven Macaw boasts of his magnificent appearance-- " . . . yet he magnifies himself, his wings, his metal" (Popol Vuh 86).

Xbalanque and Hunahpu " . . . saw evil in his attempt at self magnification before the Heart of the Sky" (Popol Vuh 89). Seven Macaw also had two sons, Zipacna and Earthquake. Zipacna boasted in his making of mountains and Earthquake boasted in his "avalanche of all the earth." The Popol Vuh then gives the account of "the defeat of each one of those who engaged in self-magnification" (Popol Vuh 90). Xbalanque and Hunahpu conspired to bring down Seven Macaw by shooting him with a blowgun. They only succeed in injuring his jaw, but then doctors conspired with Xbalanque and Hunahpu to remove all "the jewels and gems that had made him arrogant" (Popol Vuh 94). Seven Macaw lost his great appearance and "his greatness left him."

Zipacna's story contains a contrast between morals. 400 boys were trying to carry a large log to make their hut, but could not carry it. Zipacna did them a favor by coming and carrying the log all by himself and setting it up to make their hut. The boys saw no good in this and said, "What if he had gone on with his deed, his works? He would've made himself first among us and taken our place" (Popol Vuh 96). They did not oppose Zipacna's just helping them, but in the fact that he lifted the log all by himself and would make himself "first among them." Preventing his "self-magnification" was considered more important than their having received help. The boys conspire to kill Zipacna, but they fail and Zipacna succeeds in killing them. Xbalanque and Hunahpu got word of this and put an end to Zipacna by placing a fake crab at the foot of a mountain and luring Zipacna in to eat it--then they trapped him in the mountain.

Xbalanque and Huanahpu then set out to defeat "the third to magnify himself"--the second son Earthquake. Earthquake boasts "I am the breaker of mountains," and the gods complain of his attempting to surpass "the sun in size, in weight, and [state] it should not be that way" (Popol Vuh 99). The twins tell Earthquake of a large mountain to the East and tempt him to go and destroy it. On their way the boys bake a bird in dirt and feed it to Earthquake. Earthquake gets sick from eating the bird and cannot destroy the mountain; the twins then tie him up and bury him in the earth. Thus Xbalanque and Huanahpu succeeded in bringing down Seven Macaw and his two sons for their self-magnification.

The Popol Vuh now transgresses into the upbringing of Xbalanque and Hunahpu. Their mother became pregnant from the twins' dead father's skull spitting into her hand. So, obviously not being able to take her husband along, the mother goes to live with her stepmother. The twins' two older brothers lived there and became "flushed with jealousy" (Popol Vuh 119). After a long series of abuses against the twins, the two older brothers " . . .became monkeys, because they magnified themselves, [when] they abused their younger brothers" (Popol Vuh 124). Commenting on the pride of the older brothers, the Popol Vuh states, "The anger in their hearts came down on their own heads" (Popol Vuh 120). Allen Christenson explains the meaning of this verse "Thus envy and jealousy harm no one but the person who harbors these feelings" (90).

Man Successfully Made Out of Corn

After successfully making man out of corn, the gods were pleased that the men can speak and think, but became concerned when they found that the corn men " . . . understood everything perfectly" (Popol Vuh 166). Worried that the men would "become as great as gods," the gods "took back their knowledge" (Popol Vuh 166).

Though the Popol Vuh expresses the importance of thought, the gods were worried that the corn men would magnify themselves and forget the gods entirely. Miguel Léon Portilla explains, "In this last creation the Dual God and the other gods finally succeeded in creating beings capable of understanding, worshipping, and giving thanks, but the fact that the human ancestors confessed that they knew everything great and small displeased their creators very much" (León-Portilla 126). Having some of their knowledge taken away, the corn men do not magnify themselves and plead with the gods, "don't let us fall, don't leave us aside" (Popol Vuh 170).

Throughout the Popol Vuh, those who magnified themselves ". . .were brought low" (Popol Vuh 124). The gods bless those who look to them and avoid "self-magnification." This moral pervades throughout the Popol Vuh.

Next Mayan Moral: V. The Value of Courage
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FOOTNOTES

Léon-Portilla, Miguel. Native Mesoamerican Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1980.

Popol Vuh the Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Translated and Edited by Dennis Tedlock. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.

Image of Hunahpu with blowgun taken from The Maya Pantheon