Balam-Quitze- Maya HeroHero"First Man"

Creation from Maize

Balam-Quitze was the first of four men fashioned from white and yellow maize by the creator gods. The divine grandmother Xmucane ground the maize nine times, and from this sacred dough the gods shaped beings who could at last speak, reason, and worship their makers. Earlier attempts had failed: animals could not pray, and mud beings dissolved in the rain. Maize proved to be the substance worthy of human flesh.

The four first men were so perfectly made that they could see across the four corners of the sky and the four corners of the earth without moving from where they sat. This alarmed the gods. They dimmed human sight, breathing upon it like breath on a mirror, until people could perceive only what lay immediately before them.

The Journey from Tulan Zuyva

The first men journeyed to Tulan Zuyva, the place of Seven Caves and Seven Canyons, where each received a patron deity. Balam-Quitze was given Tohil, the fire and thunder god who would become paramount among the K'iche'. Through Tohil, the first men gained access to fire, which other peoples lacked. In exchange, Tohil demanded blood sacrifice.

The journey from Tulan was arduous. The first men and their followers crossed the sea, passing through it on stones as if walking on sand. They carried their patron gods on their backs through forests and along mountain paths, fasting and praying as they searched for a homeland where they could see the first dawn.

The First Dawn

The first men climbed to the summit of the mountain Chi Pixab and waited. When the morning star appeared, they burned incense of Mixtan copal, weeping with joy. Then the sun rose. It dried the mud of the wet earth and turned the original animal-form gods, including Tohil, into stone. The gods would no longer walk among people. They had become things to be approached through prayer and sacrifice.

Balam-Quitze founded the Kavek house. Balam-Acab founded the Nijaib. These lineages formed the political and ceremonial structure of the K'iche' kingdom.

The Pisom Q'aq'al

Before his death, Balam-Quitze left behind the Pisom Q'aq'al, the "Bundle of Flames," a sacred object wrapped in cloth that was never unwrapped or opened. The Popol Vuh calls it a memorial of their father. The Kavek lineage venerated it as the seat of Balam-Quitze's authority.

Balam-Quitze and the other first men did not die in any ordinary sense. They departed. They vanished, leaving the sacred bundles and their wives and children behind. Their sons then traveled eastward across the sea to receive the insignia of kingship, and returned with the titles that made the K'iche' rulers.