of the Grandmother and the Grandfather, whose names are Xpiyacoc, and Xmucané,[4] helpers and protectors, twice grandmother, twice grandfather, so called in the Quiché chronicles. Then we shall tell all that they did in the light of existence, in the light of history.[5]
This we shall write now under the Law of God and Christianity; we shall bring it to light because now the Popol Vuh, as it is called,[6] cannot be seen any more, in which was dearly seen the coming from the other side of the sea and the narration of our obscurity, and our life was
Tepeu, "king" or "sovereign," from the Náhuatl Tepeuh, tepeuani, which Molina translates as "conqueror" or "vanquisher in battle"; the Maya form is ah tepehual, and was probably taken from the Mexicans. Gucumatz, a serpent covered with green feathers, from the Quiché word guc (kuk in Maya), "green feathers," particularly those of the quetzal, and cumatz, serpent; it is the Quiché version of Kukulcán, the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec king, conqueror, culture hero, and god of Yucatán during the period of the Maya New Empire. The profound Mexican influence in the religion of the Quiché is reflected in this Creator-couple who continue to be invoked throughout the book until the divinity took the bodily form of Tohil, who in Part III is specifically identified with Quetzalcoatl.
U Qux Cho, the heart, or the spirit of the lake. U Qux Paló, the heart or spirit of the sea. As will be seen, the divinity was also called the Heart of Heaven, u Qux Cah;
Ah Raxá Lac, the Lord of the Green Plate, or the earth; A Raxá Tzel, the Lord of the Green Gourd or of the blue bowl, as Ximénez says, meaning the sky.
The name Hunahpú has been the subject of many interpretations. Literally it means a "hunter with a blowgun," a "shooter"; etymologically it is the same, and is a word of the Maya tongue, ahpú in Maya meaning "hunter," and ah ppuh ob, the plural form, the "hunters," who go forth to the chase, according to the Diccionario de Motul. It is evident, nevertheless, that the Quiché had to have some more plausible reason than this particular etymology for giving the name to their principal divinity. The hunter in primitive times was a very important personage; the people lived by the products of the chase and the wild fruits of the earth before the beginning of agriculture. Hunahpú would be, consequently, the universal hunter who provided man with food; hun in Maya also has the meaning of "general" and "Universal." But possibly the Quiché who descended directly from the Maya, wished to reproduce, in the name Hunahpú, the sound of the Maya words Hunab Ku, "the only god," which they used to designate the principal god of the Maya pantheon, and which could not be represented materially since he was incorporeal. The painting of a hunter might have served in ancient times to represent the sound of Hunab Ku, which contained the abstract idea of a spiritual and divine being. The procedure is common in pre-Columbian pictographic writing. Hunahpú is also the name of the twentieth day of the Quiché calendar, the day most venerated by the ancients; it is equivalent to the Maya Ahau, "lord" or "chief," and to the Náhuatl Xóchitl, "flower" and "sun," symbol of the sun god or Tonatiuh.
[4] Xpiyacoc and Xmucané, the old man and the old woman (in Maya, xnuc is "old woman"), equivalents of the Mexican gods Cipactonal and Oxomoco, the sages who, according to the Toltec legend, invented their astrology and arranged the counting of time, that is, the calendar. Although in the Quiché legend there was also the other abstract pair previously mentioned, Xpiyacoc and, above all, his consort Xmucané, this pair had a more direct contact with the things of this world; together they were what the Mexican archaeologist Enrique Juan Palacios calls "the active Creator-couple who are directly concerned with the making of material things."
[5] Ta x-qui tzihoh ronohel ruq x-qui ban chic chi zaquil qolem, zaquil tzih.
[6] Popo Vuh, or Popol Vuh, literally the "Book of the Community." The word popol is Maya and means "together," "reunion," or "common house." Popol na is the "house of the community where they assemble to discuss things of the republic," says the Diccionario de Motul. Pop is a Quiché verb which means "to gather," "to join," "to crowd," according to Ximénez; and popol is a thing belonging to the municipal council, "communal," or "national." For this reason Ximénez interprets Popol Vuh as Book of the Community or of the Council. Vuh or uúh is "book," "paper," or "rag" and is derived from the Maya húun or úun, which means at the same time both paper and book, and finally the tree, the bark of which was used in making paper in ancient times, and which the Nahua call amatl, commonly known in Guatemala as amatle (Ficus cotinifolia). Note that in many words the n from the Maya is changed to j or h in Quiché. Na, "house" in Maya, is changed to ha, or ja; húun or úun, "book" in Maya, becomes vuh or úuh in Quiché.
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