The

is the single most important book written by the ancient Maya to have survived the Spanish conquest. It is one of the world’s great works of literature, containing an account of the creation of the world, the acts of gods and heroes at the beginning of time before the first dawn, and the history of the highland Maya people themselves. In addition to being a valuable resource for scholars, it is also a sublime work of literature, comparable with other great epic poems of the ancient world such as the Iliad and Odyssey of Greece, and the Ramayana and Mahabharata of India. The

was written by anonymous members of the K’iche’ nobility, a branch of the Maya that dominated the highlands of western Guatemala prior to the arrival of Spanish conquerors in 1524. Their…

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Citation: Christenson, Allen. "Popol Vuh". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=27762, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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