The Popol Vuh is the single most important book written by the ancient Maya to have survived the Spanish conquest. It is one of the world's great works of literature, containing an account of the creation of the world, the acts of gods and heroes at the beginning of time before the first dawn, and the history of the highland Maya people themselves. Most previous translations have relied on Spanish versions rather than the original Maya text. The fruit of more than ten years of research, this translation and the supplementary materials by a leading scholar of Maya literature and art reveal the richness and elegance of this sublime work, comparable with other great epics of the ancient world such as the Iliad and Odyssey of Greece, and the Ramayana and Mahabharata of India. This collection is an invaluable contribution to the field of Maya studies, representing the most accurate transcription and translation ever produced, available for the first time in a fully-searchable electronic format including high-resolution scans of the oldest known manuscript of the Popol Vuh text.



This CD-ROM is composed of a comprehensive electronic database of cross-linked texts, images, and audio files related to the Popol Vuh. The powerful search capabilities of WordCruncher (R) software will allow users to find any occurrence of words and phrases in any or all of these files quickly and easily, while multiple screens can support simultaneous views of hundreds of photographs, images of ancient Maya art and architecture, maps, and extensive notes on Maya culture, history, and language.



System requirements: Windows 2000 or XP.