What is the name of the Mayan creation epic?

The Popol Vuh is the Mayan creation epic. More precisely, it is a sacred narrative of the Kʼicheʼ Maya of Guatemala that combines creation stories with mythology, genealogy, cosmology, and the history of the Kʼicheʼ people.

Its opening describes a world that is silent and empty before creator beings shape the earth and attempt to make living humans. The narrative recounts failed creations from mud and wood before humanity is successfully formed from maize, the crop at the heart of Maya life. It also tells the adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, who confront the lords of the underworld, Xibalba.

The work was preserved through oral tradition and recorded in writing around 1550, after the Spanish conquest had destroyed many Indigenous documents. The surviving Kʼicheʼ text was transcribed and translated by the Dominican friar Francisco Ximénez in the early 1700s. “Popol Vuh” is often translated as “Book of the Community” or “Book of Counsel,” while the Chilam Balam books and Dresden Codex are different Maya works.