The stories featured in Greaking Out are usually original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features crimes against birds, a severed arm, broken beaks, dental surgery,

medical malpractice, and anthropomorphic astronomy.

Today, we're on the move again, traveling to the Mesoamerican homeland of the Maya people.

We're bringing you another story from the Popul Vu, a Kiche Maya document that tells the story of Earth's creation,

the hero twins, and some other myths.

Now, we've talked about these characters before.

You know the hero twins, Hunapu and Shabalankae.

Remember, they went down into the underworld and had to go through rooms like the House of Nives and the Rattling House?

Remember that?

Anyway, you can listen to that other episode in season seven later if you haven't already.

This story is a prequel, meaning we're going way back before the hero twins went down into the underworld, and I mean way back.

All the way back to the beginning.

13.8 billion years ago, the universe exploded into existence in an event known as the Big Bang.

Yeah, not that beginning, the mythical beginning of the Maya people.

Now, we've talked about the two ways the ancient Greeks said how humans were made.

Either they were made by Prometheus and Epometheus, or they were made from the ashes of the Titans and baby Dionysus,

making humans half divine and half...

Well, something else.

But the Maya had their own story of how this happened.

You see, in the very old days, only gods existed.

They created Earth, which was cool, but it was empty.

...