In the Popol Vuh their is a story that explains the creation of man. In the myth it describes the four stages that god went through before humans came to be. The first stage explains that earth was completely empty their was no life on earth. There was only land, sea, and sky. Then the great molder set out to marks on the earth, these marks then became the four corners of the world. The second stage is about the great molder starting to shape the landscape, by creating mountains, adding trees, and lakes. He created small mammals and critters. but he was not pleased with these animals for that they could not pray to him and worship. They did not love him or praise him. Unsatisfied with his creations he sought out to destroy the living beings and start again. He caused a great flood upon the land destroying everything in its path and for the great molder to start again. Before the world was even creater, there was only two gods. Tepeu the maker and Gucumatz the feathered serpent spirit. When they were working creating the world they made their thoughts a reality.
They thought of earth, there was land surrounded by darkness. When earth was created they began to add to it with mountains, valleys, lakes, and trees. The two gods looking at what they had just created thought they need beings to live here. They wanted the something to look over their new creations and to pray and love the two gods. But their creations like snakes birds and other animals did not praise them as they wished. There are many creations myths on how man came to be. Every culture has different thoughts and beliefs.
The Mayan had multiple beliefs on how man on earth came to be, they have the creation myth that talks about the great molder and the hero twins challenging the underworld lord. There is another myth called the monkey myth. Long ago men on earth were made of wood, but they were punished by the great creator and the few wooden people that were able to survive were turned into monkeys. The great creator not wanting to abandon his idea on creating life created a man made from corn. In a version of the Popol Vuh the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque had an earlier set of brothers.
Their brothers were a Howler monkey and a Spider monkey. They were jeluose of their brothers the hero twins. The two monkeys took their younger brothers to the forest to hunt for birds. The hero twins knew the intentions of their brothers. As the younger brothers began to climb the tree, the tree began to grow and grow. Until it reached the heaven where then they were turned into the Howler and the Spider Monkey. There is another story in the Popol Vuh about the creation myth, in this creation myth it explains the creation of humans as being an exiled god, vanished away from their home to earth.
The hero twins is the story starts of with the Father and Uncle of the now human race. The Father and the Uncle were two great ball players who were always playing the game. When they played the game they created a lot of noise. The noise bothered the lord of the underworld , he was unpleased with the Uncle and the Father always playing. With the noise continuing he killed the Uncle and father. He had their bodies buried under the ball court. Father had his head cut off and hung from a tree. One day a young girl was walking by Fathers head, Father called to the girl.
When the girl approached he had talked to her for awhile then tricked her in to placing her hand out in front of her. When she placed her hand in front of her he spit on her hand. When he spit on her hand this caused her to become pregnant. Soon after she was then banished by her father from her home the middle world and sent to earth. When she was on earth she gave birth to two twins. As time passed and the two twins grew up they met a rat. They caught the rat stealing food from them. When they caught the rat the rat told them the story of their origin.
The rat told them about their father and their Uncle and about the ball game that they use to play. The rat told them were the find the equipment and ball to play the ball game. When they started to play the game the noise once again disturbed Xibalba. The two twins challenged him, the lord of death was famous for tricking people into dying. The two twins tricked the lord of death into killing himself. The Mayan believed in a world that split into three layers. Heaven the underworld and then the middle world.
The Tree was the symbol for theses three layers. The tree was was connected all tree layers. The roots of the tree was the underworld. The trunk of the tree was the symbol for the middle earth. Then the branches on top of the trees represented the heavens. Then it again describes the people of mud who were destroyed because they could not pray and love the creator properly. Then the people of wood were created they too were destroyed, because they could not worship and pray to him properly. Then finally the great creator finally made people from corn.
