Deities who early arrest our attention are Tepeu, Gucumatz and
Hurakan. The name of the first signifies "king." According to Brinton
this in Kiché applies to rulership chiefly, inasmuch as the conjugal
prowess often ascribed to monarchs by savage people is concerned. A
creative faculty is obviously indicated in the name, but Brinton
assumes that this Kiché generic name for king can also be rendered
"syphilitic," especially as the name of the Mexican sun-god Nanahuatl
has a similar significance.
That Tepeu was a generative force, a creative deity, there can be no
doubt, but strangely enough in certain passages of the "Popol Vuh"
we find him praying to and rendering homage to Hurakan, the "Heart
of Heaven." We also find the latter along with Xpiyacoc, Xmucane
and Tepeu jointly and severally responsible for the creation of the
mannikins, if not for the whole cosmological scheme. This, of course,
bears out the assumption of a composite origin of the creation-myth in
the "Popol Vuh," but it is nevertheless strange to find Hurakan, whom
we must reckon an alien deity, at the head of these Olympic councils.
Cucumatz is one and the same with the Nahuatlacan--or, more properly
speaking, Toltecan Quetzalcohuatl. The name is compounded from two
Kiché words signifying "Feathered Serpent," and its meaning in the
Nahuatl is precisely the same. Concerning the nature of this deity,
there is probably more difference of opinion than in the case of any
other known to comparative mythology. Strangely enough, although
unquestionably an alien in the mythology of the Aztecan branch of
the Nahuatlacâ, he bulks more largely in the myths of that people
than in the legends of the Kichés. To the Aztecâ he seems to have
appeared as a half-friendly Baal, to worship or revile according to
the opportunism of national fortune. If he were here to be dealt with
as his importance demands the limits of this monograph would speedily
be surpassed. Although unquestionably the same god to both Mexicans
and Kichés, he had acquired a significance in Aztecan eyes quite out
of all proportion to his Kiché or Mayan importance. To the Aztecan
mind he was a culture-hero, unalterably associated with the sun,
and with the origins of their civilisation. To the Toltecs he was the
"Man of the Sun," the traveller, who, with staff in hand, symbolised
the daily journey of the Sun-god. In all likelihood Quetzalcohuatl
was evolved upon Mexican soil by the Toltecs, perhaps adopted from
some older cultus by them. He was at least worshipped sedulously
by aboriginal or pre-Aztecan tribes in Anahuac. Mr. Payne writes:
[11] "The fact that the worship of Quetzalcohuatl under the name of
Cuculcan or Gucumatz was extensively prevalent in Yucatan and Central
America, while no trace is found of the worship of Tezcatlipoca,
strongly suggests that the founders of the Central American
pueblos (the Toltecs) were, in fact, devotees of Quetzalcohuatl,
who preferred exile and adventure in strange lands to accepting a
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