The Popol Vuh ("Book of the Community") is the ancient text that contains the mythology and history of the Maya people of Mesoamerica (Central America). In the beginning, the Creators included the Heart of Sky, the Feathered Serpent, and 4 other deities. Simply by speaking, they brought the world forth and planned for the dawn of life. They created the land and seas and the animals that inhabit them. Then they tried to create a creature that could be nurturing and respectful and that could "keep the days" and praise the makers. First they tried to make them of mud, but the bodies disintegrated in the water. The Heart of Sky called on the wise ones, the Grandparents, who told them to make humans of wood. The wooden humans talked and multiplied, but there was nothing in their minds and hearts, no memory of their builder, no memory of Heart of Sky. So Heart of Sky sent a great flood to destroy the wooden beings. The monkeys in the forest are a sign of this. They look like the previous people — mere wooden carvings. Finally, the Creators made humans of yellow and white maize and were satisfied.
Mayan time was cyclical, with periodic creations and destructions of the world. In each world, there was a set of Hero Twins who were semi-gods. When the second set of Hero Twins—Hunahpu (One Blowgunner) and Xbalanque (Jaguar Sun)—are born in the third world, they seek to avenge the deaths of the Hero Twins who came before them. The Death Lords of the Underworld summon the Hero Twins to play a momentous ball game (called Pok a Tok), where the Twins defeat their opponents. The Twins then rise into the heavens and become the Sun and the Moon. Through their actions, the Hero Twins prepared the way for the planting of corn, for human beings to live on Earth, and for the Fourth Creation of the Maya.