Creation of the World According to the Mayans: SIMPLE EXPLANATION

All the classical mythologies of our planet have a history related to the origin of the world. Generally, the stories about the creation of our world are related to the deities of their respective pantheons, and serve so that the inhabitants of those societies understand the world better than the surrounds.

To know the origin of the world of one of the most important cultures in history, in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to comment on the creation of the world according to the Mayans.

The Mayan culture It is one of the most important in the history of humanity, since although it was separated from the cultures westerners, had elements very similar to these, and were even quite ahead in many cultural and scientific.

This culture was located in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and it remained alive for an enormous number of years, existing from 20,000 a. C. until the arrival of the Europeans and his conquest of the Mesoamerican area. Here you can learn more about What are the Mesoamerican civilizations.

It should be noted that they were not a huge civilization during all this time, since for centuries only They were a series of small villages scattered throughout this wide area due to a series of cultural similarities and social.

But to understand the great mythology of this culture, we must know the different characteristics they have, some of these being main characteristics of the Mayans the following:

• Agriculture was the base of their economy, being able to produce enough to be able to sell to other towns.
• His favorite agricultural product was corn, followed by beans and squash.
• They were able to create an enormous number of machines and inventions to improve their life and work. Some examples are the instruments they used for their crops, greatly improving irrigation and harvesting systems.
• His writing was ahead of its time, even possessing a numbering system that the other Mesoamerican peoples did not have.
• Religion was very important, using elements such as sacrifices or temples to worship the gods.
• They were polytheists, so they believed in many gods, some of which were related to the creation of the world.
• Society was divided into the elite and the commoners, the former being related to religion.

Learn more about this culture in this other lesson on The Mayans: religion and culture.

In all the beliefs of the world there are gods, some with a single god and others with many more, the Mayans being an example of the latter. In civilizations with many gods there are some that are marked as more important, since their participation in the creation of the world is vital to these mythologies.

The mayan mythology It is full of gods of all kinds, but the ones that interest us in this particular lesson are the so-called creator gods, being all those who participated in the origin of the universe according to Mayan beliefs. These three Mayan gods are the following:

• Kukulkan: Called in other cultures feathered serpent, it is a very respected god both for the Mayans and for the rest of Mesoamerican cultures, being possibly the most repeated god in all of them. He is considered the deity of wind and water, and it is said that it was from this last element that he was able to create life.
• Hurricane: he was a Mayan god to whom wind, fire and storms are related. His name is what gives name to hurricanes, since he was capable of causing these phenomena. He is considered one of the three creator gods, which is why he was very important to the Mayans, although perhaps he is the one that had the least relevance in the creation of the three.
• Tepeu: Mayan sky god, being one of the gods who had the idea of ​​creating humanity. His role with Kukulkán was vital, but he is generally placed on the back burner.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we explain everything about The main gods of the Mayans - summary.

To conclude this lesson on the creation of the world according to the Mayans, we should talk about mayan myths in which it speaks of the emergence and creation of everything from the powers of the three gods mentioned above.

In Mayan mythology it is believed that originally the whole world was made of water, and it was not until the gods Tepeu and Kukulkán intervened that the earth, plants and animals began to appear on the surface of the Earth. But these creations were insufficient, since the gods needed people to praise them to increase their power, and neither animals nor plants had the gift of language to do so.

Tepeu and Kukulkán were joined Hurricane, and the three together looked for the best way to create human beings. The former were created using clay, but the element was too basic for such a creation, and the first humans were clumsy and were destroyed by the constant rains of the area Mesoamerican.

As a consequence of this it was decided that the following humans were made of wood, and these could survive for years, and even reproduce. These humans did not worship gods, as they were unable to remember their divine past. After many years, a great rain ended the lives of these humans, leaving the apes as an inheritance. It is thought that this great rain was caused by Hurricane, since he thought that these human beings did not were perfect, and needed to be born again of better material, so that they could worship the gods.

The three gods sought the best way to create man with their third attempt, uniting corn and wood. These were capable of surviving and reproducing and, in addition, they had enough memory to be able to remember the gods that had created them and thus be able to worship and praise them.