72 pages 2 hours read

Anonymous

Popol Vuh

Nonfiction | Scripture | Adult | Published in 1554

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Section 1

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“The Creation of the Effigies of Carved Wood” Summary

Heart of Sky, along with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent, tell Xpiyacoc and Xmucane to begin the divination ceremony to create better people who can worship them. Xpiyacoc and Xmucane cast grains of maize and tz'ite, red seeds from a coral tree. They call upon these materials to create wooden effigies of people. As they are doing so, they tell Heart of Sky to be more patient with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent, as their failed creations have caused them much grief. Xpiyacoc and Xmucane reassures Heart of Sky that the process of creation will be over soon. They then speak the wooden effigies into creation.

The wooden effigies can speak and reproduce. They appear to be slightly more successful than the last mud people. However, they have no knowledge of the deities who created them and “still did not possess their hearts nor their minds” (72). They are also stiff, dry, and possess no blood. As the wooden effigies lack the ability to understand how to properly worship, the deities deem them failures once again.