Through the following Mayan myths, this civilization orally transmitted explanations for natural phenomena, human behaviors, and their relationship with nature. These are fascinating stories that will surprise you. Don't miss them!
The Mayan creation myth
The various translations and copies of the Popol Vuh or "Book of the Community" of the Mayans (a Mesoamerican civilization that survived 18 centuries) have allowed the content of the most important text to understand the culture of that people, their conception of man, and their relationship with the world and nature to reach our days.
According to the Mayan creation myth contained in the Popol Vuh, the world was preceded by a void formed by silence and calm in which the gods of Creation lay in wait, adorned with blue and green feathers, and presided over by Tepeu and Gucumaz.
Gathered at the edges of the night, the creator gods agreed to give life to man, and for this, they withdrew the waters, made the earth emerge, and joined it to the sky while forests and mountains appeared on it. The gods populated the earth with animals, but they could not speak, so they created a man of clay.
But the clay was weak, and although it could speak, it could not think. Therefore, they destroyed it and created a man of wood, which was still too limited. So they swept it away with a flood. Finally, they created man through a corn cob, which could see and knew too much, so their understanding was limited.
Then the woman was created, and thus Creation was completed, with the making of a human being more intelligent than animals but less capable than the gods.
The most important Mayan myths
Among the great variety of Mayan myths that exist, these are the most important and those that occupied a central place in Mesoamerican culture thousands of years ago.
1. The myth of the lotus flower
Mythology was the way ancient cultures explained natural phenomena. This is the most famous legend of Mayan mythology and explains the origin of the lotus flower from the intervention of the gods in nature.
The legend says that in the jungle of Mayab, Prince Chacdziedzib (cardinal bird in the Mayan language) fell madly in love with the daughter of the guardian of the cenote (spring water deposit). This maiden was named Nicté-Ha (lotus flower in the Mayan language). But her father's opposition led the gods to decree the girl's death.
A court jester, aware of the gods' plans, warned his master, who chose the best of his knights to rescue the maiden. But he died in his attempt, and then Chacdziedzib personally took on the challenge. He reached the maiden and saved her, but while they were embracing, an arrow pierced Nicté-Ha's heart.
Thus, the girl died, and her body sank into the water, filling the prince's heart with indescribable pain. To redeem him, the god of waters and the god of birds turned the prince into a cardinal bird and the princess into a lotus flower. Since then, every morning the bird sings its sincere love to the flower.
2. The Mayan moon myth: Ixchel
According to Mayan mythology, when the gods were still mortal, there was a beautiful maiden named Ixchel. Among her many offers, a young man named Itzamná and another of unknown name stood out.
To solve the situation, the beautiful girl's sister, named Ixtab, summoned the two offers and challenged them to a fight in which only one could remain standing. Itzamná was more skillful and fought more bravely, but when he already had his opponent subdued, in a moment of carelessness, the latter turned and defeated him.
Grieved by the death of her beloved, Ixchel ran to her sister and said that her soul would always be with Itzamná. Immediately afterward, she committed suicide, and then Ixtab, to avenge her death, decided to kill the man who had killed Itzamná.
Thus, Itzamná became the god of the Sun, Ixchel the goddess of the Moon, and Ixtab, who until then was the Moon goddess, became the deity of suicide. The Mayans believed that when Ixchel and Itzamná, the sun and the moon, coincide in the sky, the love of the lovers is fulfilled.
3. The Mayan fire myth
Mayan mythology tells the legend of an angel who informed one of the creator gods of the existence of a world inhabited by humans in the vastness of the cosmos. After a lightning visit, the god found that humans lived in a partially frozen world, so he blessed them with a gift: he gave them Fire.
To do this, the god sent a lightning bolt that struck a tree and turned it into a great bonfire, but the men were frightened and fled, letting it turn to ash. As a second attempt, he sent them a meteorite that burned all the forests. The men fled, letting the forests turn to ash.
Only a curious man decided to approach, and upon touching the ash, he realized it burned. When he threw the ashes onto a pile of dry grass, they ignited, and then he understood the power of fire. The light and heat accompanied the men for many days until a torrential rain extinguished it again.
Enraged, the man returned to the mountains and, striking one stone against another, realized that sparks appeared, and this again ignited the fire. The god sighed in relief and withdrew again to his chambers. Since then, Mesoamerican culture considers fire a gift from the gods.
Mayan love myths
Mayan myths contain a great wealth of elements and original narratives from which some love stories worthy of the best writers can be extracted. Don't miss the most fascinating Mayan love myths.
4. The legend of the Zací Cenote
Two families shared power over the town of Zací: the Cocom and the Cupules. The leader of the Cocom was the town's sorceress, who had a granddaughter named Zak-Nicté (white flower). The leader of the Cupules, Halach Huinic, had a son, Prince Hul-Kin, who, after a beautiful friendship with Zak-Nicté, began a love story.
However, Hul-Kin's father could not allow his son to unite with the granddaughter of his great enemy, so he arranged a marriage with a maiden from a neighboring town and sent the prince there. After her beloved's departure, Zak-Nicté fell into a depression and, in despair, confessed to her grandmother that she was pregnant with Hul-Kin.
The sorceress did everything possible to attract the young prince back, but he had married and was happy with his new wife. Desperate, Zak-Nicté tied her hair to a large stone and threw herself into the cenote, sinking with it. A hunch made Hul-Kin return to his town, and upon learning of the girl's death, he also threw himself into the cenote.
Thus, the sorceress, standing before the cenote, dedicated a few last words to her granddaughter: "My promise has been fulfilled, I have brought Hul-Kin back to you." She also cast a curse on the Zací Cenote, as it should claim the life of a young person to honor the lovers.
5. The legend of the Maquech
The legend features Cuzán, a beautiful princess with hair like the wings of swallows. When she was of marriageable age, her father betrothed her to the future king of the city of Nan Chan.
One day, upon returning from war, Cuzán's father gave his daughter several jewels from the spoils. When the princess went to the Great Hall of the palace to thank her father for the gesture, she saw him accompanied by one of his entourage's warriors, a young man with fiery red hair named Chalpol. They fell madly in love and promised each other eternal love.
When her father discovered they were lovers, he became enraged and ordered Chalpol's execution. After his daughter's pleas and when everything was ready for the sacrifice, the king pardoned his warrior under the oath that Cuzán would lock herself in her room from which she could not leave, or else Chalpol would die.
In the middle of the night, the princess was called by the great priest, who placed a beetle in her hands: "Your father spared Chalpol's life, but he asked me to turn him into a beetle. Here is your beloved, Maquech (beetle in the Mayan language)."
Cuzán asked the royal jeweler to adorn it with precious stones and tie its little legs to a chain. Since then, Cuzán carried it forever next to her chest.
6. Canek and Zak-Nicté
Here again appears the figure of Zak-Nicté, the white flower. In this legend, she is a princess who lived during the truce between the three great Mayan cities: Mayapán, Uxmal, and Chichen Itzá.
The young Canek had become king of Chichen Itzá, and he fell in love with Zak-Nicté just by seeing her, promising that their lives would be united forever. But the girl's father, king of Mayapán, had promised her to Ulil, the heir prince of Uxmal. When Canek received the invitation to the wedding, he accepted and promised not to miss the event.
Then, a dwarf came to him and whispered in his ear: "The white flower awaits you among the green leaves, don't let another pluck it."
On the wedding day, everything was ready, but Canek, the king of Chichen Itzá, did not appear. When the betrothed were at the altar, he burst in with his warriors and, snatching the princess, they fled at a gallop. This caused the truce to break, and Mayapán and Uxmal united against Chichen Itzá, declaring war on it.
Before the war broke out, the city's inhabitants, led by their king and the princess, fled to the mountains. The kings of Mayapán and Uxmal, upon reaching Chichen Itzá and seeing that the city was empty, became enraged and burned everything. But its inhabitants lived in the mountains in peace, blessed with the eternal love of their king and the princess.
7. The turtledove
A brave and very handsome warrior loved hunting above all else, and on one of his expeditions, after several hours of unsuccessful hunting, he decided to approach a spring where animals usually came to drink. There he saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Since then, he barely slept, and instead of hunting, he approached the lake every day, but he never found her and decided to resort to the services of a sorceress. She offered him the possibility of seeing her again in exchange for becoming a dove, with no possibility of ever returning to his human form. The man, madly in love, accepted.
The sorceress stuck a thorn in his neck and turned him into a dove, after which he took flight and headed to the stream. And there was the maiden. The bird approached her, but when she saw him, she removed the thorn from his neck, and the warrior bled to death. The girl, regretful, stuck the thorn in her neck and was turned into a dove that has since mourned the death of her beloved.
Other short Mayan myths
Through the following short narratives, the Mayans orally transmitted stories that help to think and reflect on feelings and behaviors. Discover the most interesting short Mayan myths.
8. The sadness of the Maya
A Mayan man was always sad. One day the animals approached him and asked what he wanted. He replied that he wanted to be happy.
"Make a feasible wish," said the owl. The man asked to know when the rains would come, and the nightingale promised to inform him. He wanted to know all the medicinal herbs, and the snake marked them as he passed. The deer gave him energy not to tire, the vulture good eyesight, the jaguar strength, and the fox intelligence.
So the man left, and the owl, a source of wisdom, told the other animals that although the man could do more things, he would always be sad.
9. The man who sold his soul
A man summoned the demon Kizín and proposed to give him his soul in exchange for obtaining seven wishes, one for each day of the week before disappearing forever. The demon gladly accepted.
As his first wish, he asked for money, on the second day he requested health, on the third power, and on the fourth food. On the fifth day, he demanded to travel, the next day women, and as his last wish, on the last day, he asked to wash some dirty beans to turn them white, as the man knew that beans were black by nature and could not turn white.
Thus, after enjoying a week of wishes, the man managed to delay the outcome. Finally, the demon Kizín discovered the trick and decided to create white and red beans so that he would never be deceived again. This is the explanation the Mayans have for why there are black and white beans.
10. Dziú and the corn
To make the lands fertile and productive again, the god of water and the god of fire agreed to burn everything so that it would be reborn. Beforehand, they asked the birds to keep a seed of each species to replant them later. The bird Dziú, lazy, fell asleep.
When the fire was about to consume everything, the bird woke up and, aware of its mistake, desperately rushed to the plantation to collect the corn seeds. Its eyes turned red, its wings burned, and as recognition, God made it so that from then on, all birds of its species would have red eyes and black wings.
11. The dog and Kaskabal
A man always beat his dog, but it remained faithful. The evil spirit Kaskabal saw the opportunity to steal a new soul and told the dog to escape from its master. The dog agreed but asked for a bone for each of the hairs covering its body, so Kaskabal began to count the dog's hairs one by one.
Kaskabal counted, and when he was about to reach the end, the dog jumped, arguing that the fleas bothered him. The spirit lost count and started over from zero. This happened a hundred times until Kaskabal told the dog it could keep its soul. And so he understood that it was easier to keep a human soul than a dog's.
12. The legend of the hummingbird
This is one of the most beautiful short Mayan myths, explaining the creation of the most beautiful and fascinating bird in the world: the hummingbird.
Once the gods were creating birds, but to create the last one, they had run out of material, so they decided to make it with jade stone, with which they molded a small arrow. Instantly it flew away, and thus the hummingbird was born, a marvel of nature to which the sun gave a green shine to its plumage.
So beautiful was it that men promised to capture it and make it theirs. The gods became angry and gave the hummingbird speed and agility, and the ability to move backward as well. Since then, this bird lives in freedom.
Bibliographic references
Taube, K. (2004). Aztec and Mayan Myths (Vol. 8). Ediciones AKAL.
Popol Vuh. Linkgua digital, 2011.
Florescano, E. (2017). Quetzalcoatl and the Founding Myths of Mesoamerica. Debolsillo.