[1] “History of the Fur Trade,” Mackenzie, p. 83. [↑]
[2] Schoolcraft, “Indian Tribes,” i. p. 266. [↑]
[3] Cushing, “Zuñi Creation Myths.” [↑]
THE PANTHEON OF THE “POPOL VUH”
It must be remembered that we are dealing with Kiché and not with Mayan mythology. Although the two had much in common, it would be most unsafe in the present state of knowledge to attempt to identify Kiché with Mayan deities; such an attempt would, indeed, assume the bulk of a formidable treatise. Scholarship at the present time hesitates to designate the representations of Mayan gods on the walls of “buried” cities otherwise than by a letter of the alphabet, and it is therefore wise to thoroughly ignore the question of Mayan affinities in dealing with myths purely Kiché. This does not apply to the Kiché-Mexican affinities. Mexican and Kiché deities are mostly known quantities, but this cannot be said of their Mayan congenors. The reason for this is that until Mayan myth is reconciled with the evidence of the Mayan monuments no certitude can be arrived at. This cannot well be achieved until the Mayan hieroglyphs give up their secret, a contingency of which there is no immediate likelihood. Bearing this in mind, we may proceed to a brief consideration of the Kiché pantheon and its probable Mexican affinities.
Almost at the beginning we encounter a pair of masculine-feminine beings of a type nearly hermaphroditic, named Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, who are credited with a considerable share of the creation of organic life in the Kiché cosmogony. These, we will remember, appeared in the myth of Vukub-Cakix and elsewhere. The first appears to apply to the paternal function, whilst the name Xmucane is derived from words signifying “feminine vigour.” The Mexican equivalents of these gods were probably Cipactonatl and Oxomoco, the “father and mother gods.”[1]
Deities who early arrest our attention are Tepeu, Gucumatz and Hurakan. The name of the first signifies “king.” According to Brinton this in Kiché applies to rulership chiefly, inasmuch as the conjugal prowess often ascribed to monarchs by savage people is concerned. A creative faculty is obviously indicated in the name, but Brinton assumes that this Kiché generic name for king can also be rendered “syphilitic,” especially as the name of the Mexican sun-god Nanahuatl has a similar significance.
That Tepeu was a generative force, a creative deity, there can be no doubt, but strangely enough in certain passages of the “Popol Vuh” we find him praying to and rendering homage to Hurakan, the “Heart of Heaven.” We also find the latter along with Xpiyacoc, Xmucane and Tepeu jointly and severally responsible for the creation of the mannikins, if not for the whole cosmological scheme. This, of course, bears out the assumption of a composite origin of the creation-myth in the “Popol Vuh,” but it is nevertheless strange to find Hurakan, whom we must reckon an alien deity, at the head of these Olympic councils.