Myths of the Maya. From sacrifices and sacred cacao to the Book of Popol Vuh and the underworld of Xibalba

The Creator and the Maker — the united Tepeu and Kukumatz in the endless waters. The Triune Heart of Heaven and the Feathered Serpent Kukulkan. The twins from the epic "Popol Vuh," who turn their brothers into monkeys and defeat the lords of death Xibalba. Flesh-corn, blood-cacao, and immortal souls.

All of this is the amazing world of Maya mythology. In the first millennium, they created the brightest civilization of the New World — with hieroglyphic writing, astronomy, and precise sciences. It suffered greatly from neighbors and European colonizers, but crumbs of its precious heritage have been preserved in bizarrely dark legends, artifacts, and written monuments.

The new book by Galina Ershova — a leading specialist on the peoples of America and a student of the legendary scholar Yuri Knorozov, who deciphered the Maya hieroglyphs — is a stunning excursion into this half-forgotten, yet vibrant and dazzling universe.

The Maya Indians also serve the author as guides into the deeper layers of culture as a whole, where at the boundary between reality, the archetypes of the psyche, and elusive dreams, myth produces a comprehensive vision of the cosmos and social existence.