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.
[3] A Verapaz myth preserved by Las Casas in his 'Apologética Historia Sumaria'[4] assigns the creation of humankind to artisan gods similar to the Popol Vuh monkey brothers.
[6] 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.
[12] 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.
The surviving Mayan books are mainly of a ritual and also (in the case of the Paris Codex) historical nature, and contain few mythical scenes.
As a consequence, depictions on temple walls, stelae, and movable objects (especially the so-called 'ceramic codex') are used to aid reconstruction of pre-Spanish Mayan mythology.
Especially influential in this respect was one of Coe's students, Karl Taube, who equated the so-called "tonsured maize god" with Hun-Hunahpu, the father of the Popol Vuh hero brothers.
More recently, two major works by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos (2011, 2017) opened up new horizons of iconographic interpretation by considering a great variety of Mayan and Mesoamerican tales in addition to the Popol Vuh.
The following is an overview of ancient myths that connect, in grand part, to the broad narrative themes of early-colonial and more recent oral traditions outlined above.
A water-spewing, deer-hooved celestial dragon on page 74 of the Dresden Codex is generally believed to be causing a deluge.
[23] A myth transmitted by Las Casas puts these acts in their proper, transcendent perspective by describing how previous efforts at creation failed, until two artisan brothers, Hun-Ahan and Hun-Cheven, received permission to create humankind and, indeed, the present universe, through their artifice.
[24] Tales about the Hero Brothers whom the Popol Vuh calls Hunahpu and Xbalanque (the iconographical 'Headband Gods') already circulated in the Classic Period,[25] albeit in versions only partially coinciding with the sixteenth-century narrative.
The first one, corresponding to the isolated Vucub Caquix tale in the Popol Vuh, is the defeat of a bird demon already illustrated in Late-Preclassic Izapa and the earliest ball court of Copan, and found all over Mesoamerica.
A down-lying jaguar deity associated with war and terrestrial fire has a boulder thrown onto his belly, perhaps belonging to a trap; alternatively, he is tied and put to the torch, in one scene while being seated on a boulder-like altar.
[40] The group with the wounded old man has been explained by concepts and tales relating to the hunt,[41] but also by the abduction episode of Hummingbird myth, in a reconstructed Classic version.
The Twins reconcile with Itzamnaaj and bring him gifts.” Another reconstruction,[43] however, casts an antlered maize deity ('Maize-Deer God') in the role of the presumed abductor.