Maya Mythology's Original Texts 2: The Hero Twins and Xibalba

Thank you for visiting. This article is the second installment in a series explaining the original texts of Maya mythology.

This time, I look in detail, following the original text, at the greatest story of Maya mythology, which occupies the center of the scripture “Popol Vuh” — the story in which the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque challenge the underworld “Xibalba.”

For an overview map of the original texts of Maya mythology as a whole, please see this summary article.

Maya Mythology's Original Texts: The Popol Vuh and All Articlesen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-maya/

This story is a grand tale of revenge spanning generations. First, let me show the flow in a diagram.

The False Sun Vucub Caquix

While the world was still dim, there was a being who arrogantly insisted, “I am the sun and the moon.” It was a great bird with gorgeous feathers and metallically shining teeth and eyes, “Vucub Caquix (Seven Macaw).” In the twilight before the true sun had yet risen, he mistook his own brilliance for the world’s light and grew haughty.

The ones who stood up to correct this arrogance were the hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. When Vucub Caquix came to a tree to eat his favorite fruit, the two shot through his jaw with a blowgun. The fallen, struggling Vucub Caquix tore off the arm of Hunahpu, who had grabbed at him, and fled home.

So the twins devised a scheme. They disguised themselves as an old couple (grandparent gods) and approached Vucub Caquix posing as “dentists.” Saying they would heal his aching teeth, they secretly removed the shining teeth and eye-ornaments, and Vucub Caquix lost his light and strength and died. Thus the false sun was slain, and Hunahpu’s torn-off arm was restored. Further, the twins, using all their wit, also defeated Vucub Caquix’s sons — the giant who makes mountains, “Zipacna,” and the earthquake giant who shakes mountains, “Cabracan.” Striking down the haughty with wisdom — this is the basso continuo of the hero twins’ story.

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The Fathers’ Defeat — the Trap of the Underworld Xibalba

Here the story goes back to the generation before the twins were born. In fact, the twins’ father and his brother too were excellent ballgame masters and heroes. They were the father “Hun Hunahpu” and his brother “Vucub Hunahpu.”

The two spent their days at the sacred Maya ballgame (a sport of hitting a rubber ball with the hips). But its rumbling sound reached the underground underworld “Xibalba (the place of fear).” The lords of the underworld, “Hun Came” and “Vucub Came,” displeased by this, summoned the two to the underworld.

What awaited the fathers who descended to Xibalba were many cunning traps. The lords of the underworld had wooden dummies made to look like themselves to be greeted, had them sit on burning-hot stone chairs, and shut them in a pitch-dark house to test them. The inexperienced fathers failed to see through all these ordeals and at last lost their lives. The lords of the underworld cut off Hun Hunahpu’s head and hung it on a calabash tree as a warning. Then, strangely, that tree, which had never borne fruit, bore fruit abundantly.

The Maiden Xquic — the Skull Spits onto Her Hand

Hearing the rumor of this fruiting tree, a maiden who was the daughter of an underworld lord, “Xquic (Blood Woman),” visited the tree out of curiosity.

When Xquic reached out for the fruit, Hun Hunahpu’s skull hanging on the branch spat into the palm of her hand. And the skull spoke: “This spittle is my mark. Though my figure may vanish, my being is inherited in the form of a child.” By this spittle, Xquic became pregnant. The essence of the man (the skull) is inherited to the next generation through spittle (word) — it is one of the finest scenes in mythology, telling of the connection of death and life.

Blamed by her father, an underworld lord, for the pregnancy she had no memory of, Xquic was commanded to tear out her heart and offer it, and was nearly executed. But she skillfully persuaded the owls who were her executioners with words, and had them present, in place of the heart, a fake heart hardened from red sap, and cleverly escaped the underworld. And she fled to the earth and took shelter with the old goddess Xmucane, the mother of her late husband. In time Xquic gave birth to twin boys — Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

The Twins’ Growth, and the Brothers Who Became Monkeys

The grown twins were wise and full of strength from birth. But in the house were the half-brothers, children of the father’s former wife, who bullied and drove the twins about. These brothers were excellent artists, skilled in flute, song, painting, and sculpture, but envious in character.

So the twins chastised the brothers with wisdom. When they had the brothers climb a tree, saying “please get the bird that fell on the tree,” the tree grew taller and taller, and the brothers could not come down. When the flustered brothers untied their loincloths, those turned into tails, and the two became “monkeys” just as they were. These brothers who became monkeys later came to be revered as guardian gods of art, music, and writing.

In time the twins found the fathers’ ballgame gear stored in the house. When they began playing the ballgame absorbedly, like their fathers, its sound again reached the underworld. Thus the twins too came to be summoned by the lords of Xibalba: “Come to the underworld.” The same fate as their fathers drew near to the twins.

The Ordeals of Xibalba — Dodging Traps with Wisdom

But the twins were different from their fathers. They prepared thoroughly in advance, and saw through the traps one by one by quick wit.

At the entrance to the underworld, the lords set the same trap as for the fathers. The twins, getting ahead, had released a mosquito to sting the lords, and heard out the name of each from their screams. So they instantly distinguished the wooden dummies from the real lords, did not sit on the hot chairs, and cleverly outwitted them. The dumbfounded lords sent the twins one after another into the ordeals of fearsome “houses.”

The twins used all their wit and got through most of these. They made fireflies and the red feathers of parrots look like the torch flame, calmed the blades by speaking, “I will give you a feast, so do not move,” and dodged the jaguars by throwing them bones.

But in the last, the “House of Bats,” an incident occurred. Just before dawn, the moment Hunahpu quietly stuck out his face, the killer bat Camazotz cut off Hunahpu’s head. The lords of the underworld, overjoyed, tried to use the head as a ball for the ballgame.

In this desperate situation, the younger brother Xbalanque used his wit. He gathered the forest animals and had them carve a squash (gourd) exactly like his brother’s head as a stand-in head, secretly retrieved the real head, and revived Hunahpu. And in the next day’s ballgame, he smashed the stand-in squash head and cleverly outwitted the lords.

Death and Rebirth — Defeating the Lords of the Underworld

At the twins, who rose again no matter how many times they were struck down, the lords of the underworld grew exasperated. So the twins made their greatest gamble. They tried to defeat the underworld itself by daring to die of their own will.

The twins secretly gave instructions to two diviners: “Grind our bones to powder and scatter them in the river.” And before the watching lords of the underworld, they leapt of their own will into a great blazing oven (a pit of fire) and died. The delighted lords ground the two’s bones to powder and floated them down the river.

But that was exactly the twins’ aim. From the bones scattered in the river, the twins were revived five days later. At first in the figure of merman-like beings, in time disguising themselves as shabby traveling performers (magicians), they appeared again in the underworld.

Their performance was astonishing to people. Burning a house and restoring it to its original state, killing a creature and at once reviving it. At last, one of the twins cut up and killed the other, and splendidly revived him. At this miracle, the underworld lords Hun Came and Vucub Came became absorbed and cried out, “Cast that art on us too. Kill us, and revive us.”

This was the very moment the twins had awaited. The twins cut up and killed the lords, just as they said — and never revived them. Thus the lords of the underworld who had treacherously killed the fathers were struck down, and Xibalba was defeated. The twins declared to the remaining inhabitants of the underworld, “You may no longer demand proper offerings from humans. You may receive only the guilty,” and greatly weakened the underworld’s power.

To Sun and Moon — and the Father’s Rebirth

The twins, having defeated the underworld, at last finished their role and ascended to heaven. And it is held that Hunahpu became the “sun,” and Xbalanque the “moon.” The story that began with the false sun Vucub Caquix is concluded with the birth of the true sun and moon.

And the twins did not forget the father Hun Hunahpu, who had fallen in the underworld. The father was held to be the maize god, and was mourned and revered by the twins. As a sprout comes from a seed buried in the ground (= the dead father) and ripens, the maize god is reborn every year. This theme of “death and rebirth” resonates deeply with the story of the humans born from maize (Article 1). The story of the twins, who overcame the father’s death, defeated the underworld, and became light, was the very prayer for life of the agricultural Maya.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

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Conclusion

In this article, I explained in detail the story of the hero twins, the core of the “Popol Vuh,” following the original text. How was it?

Beginning with the slaying of the false sun Vucub Caquix, the revenge on the underworld Xibalba that treacherously killed the fathers, the mystery of a skull impregnating a maiden, many ordeals and death and rebirth, and the twins becoming the sun and moon — I think you have felt how full of the drama of wisdom and rebirth Maya mythology is.

In the next Article 3, I will explain what became of the humans born from maize after — receiving the guardian god Tohil, awaiting the dawn, and building the K’iche’ royal line (the latter half of the “Popol Vuh”).

Maya Mythology's Original Texts: The Popol Vuh and All Articlesen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-maya/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.