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‹Better GutenbergThe Popol VuhNote 4. (Page) · 22 of 23Contents›

The Popol Vuh

by Lewis Spence

22 of 23 · Contents · Download EPUB

Note 4. (Page)13

There appear to be grounds for believing that the parent deities Xpiyacoc and Xmucane are but derivations from Gucumatz, and represent the male and female attributes of that god. In the “Popol Vuh” they are spoken of as being “covered with green feathers,” the usual description of Gucumatz; but it is, of course, possible that they may have received some of his attributes in the general jumble of myths which, we have attempted to show, exists in the first book. Gucumatz, it will be remembered, is Quetzalcohuatl in another form, and the latter is often represented in the papyri as having a woman sitting opposite to him. She does not, however, appear to be at all analogous to Messrs. Förstemann and Schellhas’s “Goddess I,” whom I take to represent the Mayan equivalent of Xmucane, and who wears on her head the knotted serpent, a reptile characteristic of Quetzalcohuatl.

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