New Popol Vuh edition highlights women in Maya creation myths

A new edition of the Popol Vuh, titled ‘Popol Vuh. Las mujeres del amanecer’, offers a revised reading of the Maya-Quiché sacred text by focusing on the central roles of female figures. Researchers Cristina Vidal Lorenzo and Miguel Rivera Dorado have produced this work, which is a co-edition between the Universitat de València and the UNAM Directorate General of Publications and Editorial Promotion.

The edition revises the 1947 translation by Adrián Recinos using philological and semantic criteria to ensure historical rigor and accessibility. The text emphasizes characters such as Ixmucané, an elderly seer linked to creation and the preparation of maize, and Ixquic, who escapes sacrifice in Xibalbá to give birth to the hero twins Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué.

In addition to the narrative, the volume includes a preliminary study analyzing the manuscript's history and structure, extensive explanatory notes, and six original illustrations by Érika Meijide Jansen.