Zipacna- Maya CreatureCreature · Monster"Maker of Mountains"

Son of the False Sun

Zipacna was the elder son of Vucub Caquix, the false sun who ruled the world before the current creation. Along with his brother Cabrakan, he formed part of a family of primordial giants whose power and arrogance preceded the proper order of things. His crocodilian nature connected him to the Maya conception of the earth: a great crocodile floating in the primordial waters. His boast was to match. He claimed credit for creating the mountains, declaring that he could move and shape the earth with his bare hands. The earthquakes that shook the ground were his doing.

The Four Hundred Boys

Before Zipacna encountered the Hero Twins, he came into conflict with the Four Hundred Boys, a group of young heroes who were building a house and needed a massive log for the ridgepole. All four hundred of them together could not move the timber. Zipacna carried it on his shoulders without effort. Fearing what such power meant, the Four Hundred Boys plotted to kill him by luring him into a pit and dropping the log on top of him.

Zipacna was not so easily destroyed. He escaped the pit, waited for the boys to celebrate their supposed victory, and then collapsed the entire house upon them, killing all four hundred at once. The slain youths rose into the sky to become the Pleiades, a star cluster whose yearly appearance recalled their fate.

The Fake Crab

The Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, devised a plan that relied not on strength but on Zipacna's appetites. Knowing he loved crabs, they fashioned a convincing imitation at the base of a great mountain and waited. Zipacna spotted the false crab and pursued it into a narrow canyon, wedging himself deeper as he reached for his prey. The twins brought the mountain down on top of him. Trapped beneath the stone, Zipacna was transformed into part of the mountain itself. The maker of mountains became a mountain, his boast turned into his tomb.