The stories that make up Popol Vuh consist of creation accounts as well as heroic tales involving god like characters. A theme that is seen throughout Popol Vuh is the idea of heroism, which is embodied in the characters of the Twin Gods Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Now these heroes are nothing like the heroes that we know of today. They don’t wear macawspandex suits while saving damsels in distress. Nor do they go on huge adventures slaying huge mythical beasts in order to save the day. They do, however, fight for what is good while stamping out what they know to be evil.

“Being gods, the two of them saw evil in his attempt at self-magnification before the heart of sky.” – Popol Vuh

This in and of itself classifies the twins as heroes. One particular story involving the twins has to do with the Seven Macaw, who is a macaw that has metal eyes and jewels in his teeth. He is guilty of self-magnification, comparing himself to the sun and the moon. Knowing they must defeat Seven Macaw, they trick their way into his home by posing as the small children of an elderly couple. Once in his home the couple convince Seven 61lp-nttsel-_sy344_bo1204203200_Macaw to let them remove his teeth because they had been hurting him due to the fact that he had been shot in the jaw by the twins earlier. He allows them to remove his teeth, which were his pride and joy, and they proceed to pull the metal from his eyes as well. When they had finished, he was no longer the magnificent creature he had previously been and he died, defeated by the twins.

For many writers Popol Vuh is an important read because it gives one of the best glimpses into Mayan culture and their beliefs. For cultural writers, or anyone for that matter, it is helpful to know about other culture’s beliefs, especially about something as important as the creation of the world. It is also simply an interesting read that can add greatly to your world knowledge. For high school teachers at religious schools (Christian, Catholic, etc.) it would be very helpful to do a comparison of Popol Vuh and the book of Genesis. It is interesting to see how many similarities the two stories actually contain, although the differences between are many. For high school teachers at public schools, the kids could draw out what is happening in some of the sections in order for them to gain a better understanding of the happenings in the stories. To bring this story into the 21st century and to connect it more to the students, you can also have them make short films acting out one of the stories while having them make their own, more modern script and giving the characters their own personalities. Of course, this is not limited to public school teachers, teachers from any high school can use this method.