Editing Maya mythology (section)

==Important Early-Colonial and recent narrative themes==
{{Maya civilization}}

In Maya narrative, the origin of many natural and cultural phenomena is set out, often with the moral aim of defining the ritual relationship between humankind and its environment. In such a way, one finds explanations about the origin of the heavenly bodies (Sun and Moon, but also Venus, the [[Pleiades]], the Milky Way); the mountain landscape; clouds, rain, thunder and lightning; wild and tame animals; the colors of the maize; diseases and their curative herbs; agricultural instruments; the steam bath, etc. The following more encompassing themes can be discerned.

===Cosmogony===
The ''[[Popol Vuh]]'' describes the creation of the earth by a group of creator deities, as well as its sequel. The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel relates the collapse of the sky and the deluge, followed by the slaying of the earth crocodile, the raising of the sky and the erection of the five World Trees.<ref>Roys 1967: 98-107; Taube 1993: 69-74; Knowlton 2010: 53-85</ref> The Lacandons also knew the tale of the creation of the Underworld.<ref>Boremanse 1986: 39-48</ref>

===Creation of Humankind===
The ''Popol Vuh'' gives a sequence of four efforts at creation: First were animals, then wet clay, wood, and then last, the creation of the first ancestors from [[maize]] dough. To this, the Lacandons add the creation of the main kin groupings and their [[totem|'totemic']] animals.<ref>Boremanse 1986: 30-38</ref> A Verapaz myth preserved by Las Casas in his 'Apologética Historia Sumaria'<ref>Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 30, 55-56</ref> assigns the creation of humankind to artisan gods similar to the ''Popol Vuh'' monkey brothers. The creation of humanity is concluded by the Mesoamerican tale of the opening of the Maize (or Sustenance) Mountain by the Lightning deities.<ref>Thompson 1970: 349-354; Bierhorst 1990: 86-90</ref>

===Actions of the Heroes: Arranging the World===
The best-known hero myth, included in the ''Popol Vuh'', is about the defeat of a bird demon and of the deities of disease and death by the [[Hero Twins]], Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Of considerable interest is also the parallel narrative of a [[Maya maize god|maize hero]] defeating the deities of Thunder and Lightning and establishing a pact with them.<ref>Foster 1945: 191-196; cf. Nicholson 1967: 61-64</ref> Although its present spread is confined to the Gulf Coast areas, various data suggest that this myth was once a part of Mayan oral tradition as well.<ref>Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017</ref> Important mythological fragments about the heroic reduction of the jaguars and the acquisition of jaguar power have been preserved by the Tzotzil<ref>Guiteras Holmes 1961: 182-183, 262</ref> and Chol Maya.<ref>Morales Bermúdez 1999: 61-62</ref>

===Marriage with the Earth===
This mythological type defines the relationship between humankind and the game and crops. An ancestral hero - Xbalanque in a Kekchi tradition - changes into a hummingbird to woo the daughter of an Earth God while she is weaving, or to abduct her; the hero's wife is finally transformed into the game, bees, snakes and insects, or the maize. If the hero gets the upper hand, he becomes the Sun, his wife the Moon.<ref>Braakhuis 2010; Danien 2004: 37-44; Thompson 1970: 363-366;</ref> A moralistic Tzotzil version has a man rewarded with a daughter of the Rain Deity, only to get divorced and lose her again.<ref>Guiteras Holmes 1961: 191-193</ref>

===Origin of Sun and Moon===
The origin of Sun and Moon is not always the outcome of a marriage with the Earth. From Chiapas and the western Guatemalan Highlands comes the tale of Younger Brother and his jealous Elder Brethren: Youngest One becomes the Sun, his mother becomes the Moon, and the Elder Brethren are transformed into wild pigs and other forest animals.<ref>Bierhorst 1990: 110-111</ref> In a comparable way, the Elder Brethren of the ''Popol Vuh'' Twin myth are transformed into monkeys, with their younger brothers becoming Sun and Moon. To the west of the Maya area, the transformation of two brothers into sun and moon is the main subject of many tales.<ref>Chinchilla Mazariegos 2017: 164-168</ref>