Today I would like to tell you about how, according to the ancient Maya, the earth and people appeared. The set of legends about it seemed to me terribly interesting and original, so now I will try to convey it to you as simple and colorful as possible.
Before there was land and people, there was nothing in the world but endless water and the sky above it. They were enveloped by an impenetrable darkness and deafening silence.
It was in such an empty and bleak world that the three gods existed: Hurakan the Heart of Heaven, Great Mother Tepeu and Great Father Kukumats.
For an incomprehensibly long time the world remained silent, until Hurakan from heaven called out to Tepeu and Kukumats, who lurked in the abyss of the waters.
The gods held a council. They were tired of the eternal darkness and decided to create the earth, making it beautiful.
By the power of just one word of the gods, light appeared in the world and dispersed the darkness, and the endless water parted, and in its place appeared the land, solid and strong. Mountains immediately rose above it, rivers and streams flowed. Then shoots of all imaginable plants sprouted. The world was covered with grass, flowers and trees.
But there was no one to praise the deeds of the creators. There was no one to tend the young earth and offer sacrifices to the gods.
Then the gods created birds, deer, jaguars and other animals of all kinds. At first they all lived in harmony and peace. But the gods were frustrated that they could not utter a word to praise their creators. Even though the animals were given voices, they could not utter anything but screams.
The gods were angry and ordered them to live in fear, to devour each other without disgust, to become prey and food for other creatures.
After Harukan, Tepeu and Kukumats created people out of clay, but the bodies of clay people were not very smart and they were not able to reproduce themselves, and even less able to glorify the gods and help them. Realizing this, the creators wiped them off the face of the earth.
Distressed by the two failures, the gods asked for help from Shmukane and Shpiyakoku, who had come into the world with the light of Old Dawn and Old Day. They cast lots on grains of corn and advised to create new servants out of wood. The decision was made. The gods created a man out of the cité wood and a woman out of the heartwood of the reed.
Wooden people turned out to be strong, could reproduce and even speak. But still, in their dry bodies, which had no blood, there was no soul. They wandered the world aimlessly breeding their own kind, unwilling to glorify and honor the creators.
Hurakan, Tepeu, and Cucumatz became angry. A great flood befell the earth, a black rain of tar opened up and poured down day and night. Demons descended from heaven and began to destroy the wooden people, breaking their bodies, plucking out their eyes. Even the animals rebelled against a race that did not honor the gods. Soon the wooden men were destroyed every last one of them.
After the world recovered from the flood, the creators decided to make another attempt at creating intelligent and obedient servants.
They told a fox, a coyote, a parrot, and a raven to each bring a cob of corn. Shmukane, the Elder of Dawn, ground flour from it, mixed it with his own blood, kneaded the dough, and from it molded beautiful young men. They were extremely intelligent, obedient and grateful to their creators, but their eyes were too piercing. It allowed them to contemplate everything, even the gods in the heavens. Too powerful, the new people seemed to the gods and they put a veil over their eyes, allowing them to see only close to themselves. But the new people were so good that instead of sharp eyesight the gods gave them a pair of beautiful companions who became faithful wives.
Then they traveled to the sacred place of the Seven Canyons and Seven Caves, where they swore to serve the gods faithfully and received their patrons.
With the rising of the sun, people dispersed to different sides of the world and no longer spoke a single language – each nation had its own dialect.
So, according to the ancient Maya and there were people who had to glorify the gods and offer them sacrifices.
At the end I would like to note that the legend of the creation of the world in the Maya was not uniform in accuracy. Many city-states of the time had different visions of this myth in major and minor details. For example, some Maya believed that after the wooden people existed and people made of meat, but you were evil and fierce that the gods had to wash them away with a flood.