VOTAN, founder of the empire of Xibalbay. He lived, according to Ramon de Ordofiez y Aguiar, in his manuscript " Historia del cielo y de la tierra," about 955 u. c., or, according to Francisco Nufiez de la Vega, in his "Constituciones Diocesanos para el Obispado de Chiapas" (Rome, 1702), about 600 B.C. Votan appears to have been a generic name for sovereigns of the valley of Chiapas. According to Ordofiez, Votan sailed from Cuba with his people, and, after coasting Yucatan, entered the Laguna de Terminos, went up Usumasinta river, and on one of its branches, the Chacamas, founded the city of Nathan or Culhuacan, near the present site of the ruins of Palenque. He conquered the country with little difficulty, and became its legislator, building at Nachan a temple, where he deposited the archives of the nation, which were guarded by priests and nuns, and established also religious mysteries, which were celebrated with great pomp and splendor in the spring and autumn. Votan founded also the cities of Zacatlan or Ciudad Real, Matlan or Quiche, and Huchuetlan or Soconusco. It is also asserted that he promulgated a code of laws for his empire, which attained great prosperity, but it is generally conceded that the legislator of Xibalbay was BALUM-VOTAN, who lived about four centuries after the founder of the empire. He is said to have written the national code of the Quiches, "Popol-Vuh," the original of the "Teomaxtli," or divine book of the Toltecs. The "Popol-Vuh" was first translated into Spanish about 1650 by Friar Francisco Ximenes (q. v.), and Brasseur de Bourbourg published the original text and French translations (Paris, 1861). The traditions of the Tzendales in regard to the Votans are confirmed by Francisco de Burgoa, in his "Palestra Historica: o Historia de la provincia de San Hipelito de Guaxaca" (Mexico, 1670); by Bernardino de Sahagun, in his "Historia de las cosas de la Nueva Espana"" by an anonymous Mexican author of Cuahutitlan, a contemporary of Montezuma II., in Historia de los reynos de Culhuacan y Mexico, a manuscript in the Nahuatl language, which was discovered in 1850 by Brasseur de Bourbourg in the library of the convent of San Gregorio" and by many other authors. Ordofiez asserts that he possessed a manuscript history of the reign of Balum-Votan in the original language" but it is now lost.