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Today’s AgendaDay 7

Week 4

• Attendance• CANVAS & HUM2461.wordpress.com• POPOL VUH

1. Notes and Interpretation • 2nd Assignment Week 4: HW#2 due

on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014• Pop Quiz

TIKAL

CHICHEN ITZA

TEOTIHUACAN

AZTEC

QUICHE

Reminder: Maya Periods

Pre-Classic: 3500 BCE – 353

Classic: 353 – 900

Post-Classic: 900 – 1523 (1697)

Mayas

Maya art

Terminology

religiomythic stylization / realism admiratiohorror vacuiSyncretism depending on period:

Early: noneLate: lots

TIMELINE Maya

Civilization

Notes on Popol Vuh

The MayaSacred Book is the book of the Quiché People

Writers of the Popol Vuh

What did the Mayas write on?

"writing" (tz’ib’) +

"he who writes" (ah tz’ib’) _____________________________________

It is a description of the act of writing

Notes on Popol Vuh (1)

• 2500 BCE – 1550 CE: oral text• Myth: "gift of Quetzalcóatl to humans"• 353 CE: Mayas invent 365-day calendar• ca. 1550: Maya Quiché

– Diego Reynoso, town councilman– Santa Cruz Quiché, Guatemala

• ca. 1700: Fr. Francisco Ximénez – Spanish translation– Newberry Library, Chicago

Notes on Popol Vuh (1a)

• Three parts:• Part 1 9 chapters• Part 2 14 chapters• Part 3 5 chapters

• The oldest literary/religious printed work in Latin America (16th Century edition).

• Oral text (between 2500 B.C.E. and 1550 C.E.)

Notes on Popol Vuh (1b)

• Religious (creation and gods) [Authority].

• 4 Codex (books) found

1. The Paris Codex (1930s)

2. The Grolier Codex (1970s)

3. The Dresden Codex (1810, Alexander von Humbolt)

4. The Madrid Codex (Under possession of Juan de Tro y Ortolano in Madrid in 1866)

The Peresianus Codex (France)

The Grolier Codex (Mexico,1970s)

The Codex Dresdensis (Germany)

The Tro-Cortesianus Codex (Spain)

Maya Gods

Notes on Popol Vuh (2)

•Retranslation into Maya Quiché• Opening 2 lines:

– Are, u xe 'oher tzih.– Varal K'iche, u bi.

• This is the root of the former word.• Here is Quiché by name.

Notes on Popol Vuh (3)• Genre: near-heroic myth and history

– no single hero– myth and history of a people (Quiché Maya)– origins to 1550

• Coherent literary work–order, scope, unity, episodes

• Popol Vuh: totality of the Maya Epoch

• Next Epoch: "Holy Cross"

Notes on Popol Vuh (4)• 4 Mythic Cycles: 1st Cycle: wood "men" puppets (to line 820) 2nd Cycle: destruction of 7 Parrot & sons (l. 1674) 3rd Cycle: Hero twins become Sun & Moon (l. 4708) 4th Cycle: ½ of whole text (men learn to pray)

– first Fathers to present– Heart of Heaven & Earth

• Quiché people in 4th creation• First Fathers, from corn by creator• Quiché: most powerful Maya in Guatemala in 1550• Modern Quiché call their language Cakchiquel• Quiché society: patriarchal, patrilineal, patrilocal• "God" in Quiché: Dios qahavixel• Public religious drama / private divination

Notes on Popol Vuh (5)

• Quiché (Yucatán, Aztec) calendar: sacred mystery• Quiché "count of days"

– 260 days (13 deified numbers x 20 days)– Solar calendar: 18 months x 20 days) + 5– year cycles only begin on 4 days (of 20 days)– 13-year cycle x 4 beginning days = 52 years

Notes on Popol Vuh (6)

• Toltec / Aztec influence 900 – 1500– military & religious terms

• Place: Utatlán, Guatemala (sacred geography)– Rivers, mountains, highlands, volcanoes, valleys– Quiché came from Tula (myth)

• Popol Vuh: chronicle of one lineage: Kaveks of Quiché• Pedro de Alvarado conquered Quichés 1524-1525

Notes on Popol Vuh (7)

• Three parts:• Part 1 9 chapters• Part 2 14 chapters• Part 3 5 chapters

PART I CHAPTERS 1-9

Notes on Popol Vuh (8)

Chapter 1 Just water. Creation of FLORA begins. Heart of Heaven are 3 gods: 1. Caculhá Huracán 2. Chipi Caculhá 3. Raxa-Caculhá.

Chapter 2 Creation of FAUNA begins. -- Forefathers give ROLES and MISSIONS to animals.

1st DESTRUCTION: FAUNA. THEN IT COMES 1st creation of man: made of mud.

2nd DESTRUCTION: mud man.THEN IT COMES 2nd creation of man: made of wood (tzité)

Chapter 3 3rd DESTRUCTION: wooden man.Chapter 4 VUCUB-CAQUIX reigned. Not face of SUN or MOON, JUST HIM.

Part 1:

Chapter 5 Hunahpú and Xbalanqué (the twin brothers) appeared. What learned VUCUB-CAQUIX is superficial, ambitious and egocentric. “not become vain”

Chapter 6 Description of the DESTRUCTION of Vucub-Caquix and his two sons: Zipacná and Cabracán. VUCUB-CAQUIX was injured by a discharge from Hun-Hunahpú's blowgun which struck him squarely in the jaw.

Chapter 7 Story about Zipacná and the four hundred boys.Chapter 8 Death of Zipacná.Chapter 9 Death of Cabracán “Lure him to where the sun rises”Birth of Hunahpú and Xbalanqué (the twin brothers).

Part 1:

The Hero Twins became catfish

"This is a good death for them, and it would also be good to grind their bones on a stone, just as corn Is refined to flour, and refine them separately, and then:

Spill them Into the river, sprinkle them on the water’s way among the mountains, small and great, you will say, and then you will have carried out the instructions we’ve named for you," said Hunahpú and Xbalanqué. When they gave these instructions they already knew they would die.

...After that they summoned Xulu and Pacan, who kept their word: the bones went just where the boys had wanted them. Once the Xibalbans had done the divination, the bones were ground and spilled In the river, but they didn’t go far ... they just sank to the bottom of the water."

...AND ON THE FIFTH DAY THEY REAPPEARED. They were seen in the water by the people. The two of them looked like channel catfish when their faces were seen by Xibalba.”

Then they rose up in the midst of the light, and instantly they were lifted into the sky. One was given the sun, the other, the moon. Then the arch of heaven and the face of the earth were lighted. And they dwelt in heaven. (Popol Vuh)

Sun head from Rosalila Copán

Another oral text

The myth of Quetzacóatl return

Some of the oral texts kept by the Mayas from the 15th century is found the return of

the god Quetzacóatl.

Quetzalcóatl(968 – 1025)

968 Quetzalcóatl to Tulaarrived from eastlight skinred beard

priest-king became demi-god

monotheismcivilizationpeacedefeated by war priest-god

Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl (968-1025)

968 Quetzalcóatl to Tuladefeated by war priest-god

1000 Quetzalcóatl from Tula to Chichén ItzáKukulkán (in Maya language)did same for Mayan capitaldefeated by war priest-god

1025 Quetzalcóatl from Chichén Itzá on boat sailed east promised to return

similar in Popol Vuh

Tezcatlipoca

2nd Assignment Week 4: HW#2 due on

Thursday

Submit HW on CANVAS

http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/