Tepeu

Tepeu, a K’iche’ Maya word meaning ‘sovereign’, was a creator god of the K’iche’ of the Guatemalan highlands. According to the Popol Vuh, he made the world and humanity together with the Feathered Serpent Q’uq’umatz, and was a god of lightning and fire.

The two were held to be the mythical ancestors of the K’iche’ nobility in the male line. The Popol Vuh was recorded in K’iche’ around 1550, after the Spanish conquest.