Sexual images in the Popol Vuh

Abstract

Sexual encounters have received little attention in previous studies of the Popol Vuh. This article is a study of sexual connotations conveyed through figures of speech in four passages of the k’iche’ text. The figures of speech include metaphors, allusions, and double entendres, whose meanings are not evident at first glance. The present analysis is based on studies of the lexicon, combined with comparisons with parallel passages in other myths from Mesoamerica, and comparisons with ethnographic data compiled in modern communities. As noted in multiple studies around the world, literary figures in the Popol Vuh are based primarily on the links between sexuality with food. The identification of sexual contents in these passages opens a new perspective in the study of the Popol Vuh. Sixteenth-century Maya myths are consistent with other Mesoamerican myths, in which the primordial creative processes often involve genesic themes and sexual transgressions.