The Mayan Creation Story

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The “Creation Story” has been told countless times with countless views on how it happened. In this assignment we are asked to compare the Mayan account of the beginning of the world to that of another ancient civilization. I have decided to compare them to the Inca civilization. The Maya, like most other civilizations, has a sacred text known as the Popul Vuh. This text describes the creation story told by the ancient Maya people. They believed that before the earth was the earth there was nothing. There was silence and darkness. The world consisted of the sky and the placid sea. In this placid sea you would find the forefathers, Tepeu and Gucumatz. Tepeu and Gucumatz were great thinkers and great sages, according to the Popul Vuh. They came together and through deep meditation they arrived at the conclusion that “man must appear”. They planned and arranged the creation of life. This plan was carried out by the Huracan in the darkness of the night. Huracan was made up of three entities; Caculha Huracan, Chipi-Caculha , and Raxa-Caculha. These three entities made up what is called the Heart of Heaven, or God. The Incan account of the beginning of the world was recorded by priests gathering the information from iconography on pottery and architecture and the surviving myths among the natives. They believed that nothing existed but darkness until their first god, they were polytheists, emerged from water. Con Tiqui Viracocha egressed from the Collasuyu (modern Titicaca). Con did not come alone. This god came out of the sea accompanied by some humans. When he arose he created the Sun (Inti), the moon, and the stars to light the world. Later Inti is also a god that is worshiped. He continued to create more humans out of great rocks. Some of them were men and the others were women who were already pregnant. He dispersed these humans to all the corners of the world and

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