Tepew
K'iche' · deity · K'iche' traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Tepew, whose name is a Nahua honorific for a conqueror or sovereign, is one of the paired creator deities of the Popol Vuh. He appears almost always joined to Q'uk'umatz, the Plumed Serpent, and together the two lie in the primordial sea beneath a sky void of everything but water. Through spoken deliberation they call forth the earth, raise the mountains, populate the world with animals, and attempt the successive creations of humankind, discarding the beings of mud and of wood before the successful people of maize. Tepew embodies the aspect of majesty and dominion within the creative pair.
Domains
- creation
- sovereignty
Powers
- frames and shapes the world by thought and word
Epithets
- Tepew — the SovereignRecinos, Adrian. Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiche Maya. University of Oklahoma Press, 1950. (secondary)
Relations
- companion: Q'uk'umatzInseparable co-creator with whom Tepew is almost always named as a pair.Ximenez, Francisco. Popol Vuh manuscript, c. 1701-1703 (transcription of the c. 1554-1558 K'iche' original). (primary)
Sources
- Tepew is one of the primordial framer-shaper deities who deliberate the creation of the world in the opening of the Popol Vuh.: Ximenez, Francisco. Popol Vuh manuscript, c. 1701-1703. (primary); Christenson, Allen J. Popol Vuh. University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. (secondary)