[The following is the account from the Popul Vuh, great creation epic of the Quiche Mayan, of the culture-hero actions of the twins. These follow an earlier phase in creation when the gods finally succeed, with the help of the animals, in acquiring worshippers, in the form of the first four human couples spontaneously produced from ears of corn. The story of the twins is the story of limiting the powers of death and disease, as well as the story of shamanic journeys to the "other world".]
The lords Xibalba [underworld]
are free to wander the earth, killing men and causing disease. Hun Hunahpu
and Vucub Hunahpu are children of the creators. Vucub Hunahpu is a bachelor.
The two
continually playball
with Hun Hunahpu's sons, Hun Baatz and Hun Chouen .The lords of Xibalba
invite Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu to play ball in Xibalba. They are
tricked and defeated in the trial House of Darkness and sacrificed. Hun
Hunahpu's head is hung in a tree and becomes its fruit, now called
the "skull" of Hun Hunahpu
and Vucub Hunahpu. Xqiq, the daughter of one of the lords of Xibalba, violating
a prohibition, visits the tree and is impregnated by the skull's saliva.
Under threat of execution, she escapes Xibalba to live with Xmucane, the
Hunahpu's mother, and gives birth to Hunahpu
and
Xbalanque.
An interval occurs during which the arrival of Xqiq at the home of Xmucane
is described, and some events in the upbringing of Hunahpu and Xbalanque
are related. (The younger twins suffer considerably at the hands of the
older twins but survive. Eventually they trick the older twins and eliminate
them.)
Later the twins enlist
the aid of a rat to locate the ball of their fathers, using a meal prepared
by their mother and grandmother as a distraction. [The twins first torture
the rat, making his tail bare and his eyes bulge, but in the end they allow
a share of each ahrvest for the rats as a reward.] They go on to play ball
in the court of their fathers. The lords of Xibalba hear the playing and
send a messenger to Xmucane ordering the twins to come to play them as
their fathers did. Xmucane sends the message by animal couriers. The boys
take leave of Xqiq and Xmucane, leaving a life-token of two cornstalks
in the middle of their house. They refer to the corn as a sign of their
word. Carrying their blowguns, the twins head for Xibalba, passing down
in front of a cliff.
They pass obstacles with
the aid of their magical blowguns. They send a mosquito created from a
hair of Hunahpu's leg to spy out the names of the lords of Xibalba, thereby
gaining power over them. [For this help mosquitos are rewarded with human
blood in the future.] The boys are given a series of tests in various houses,
surviving each time until the last trial, when Hunahpu's head is stolen
by a bat and given to the lords to use as a ball in the final match. In
all, the boys play three times during this series of events, using magical
aids to escape the tests in the houses. [The houses are darkness, cold,
knives, etc. and in each case the twins make a deal with helpers: using
macaw feathers to imitate lighted cigars, ants cut flowers for them, jaguars
may eat the bones of animals,etc.] In the first game, they allow the lords
to win. The second game is a draw. The third game, once animal helpers
- especially the rabbit - allow retrieval of Hunahpu's head, is a victory
for the twins. Foreseeing their deaths, the twins scoff at the lords' suggestion
that they jump four times over an oven and joining hands, they leap into
the fire. Their burned bones are ground up and scattered in the river.
After five days, they reappear as fish, then as beggars in the upper world.
Performing dances and wonderful magical feats, they are invited to the
underworld to perform for the lords. Here they perform various miracles
(decapitations and dismemberments of animals
and themselves from which they recover whole). Some of the anxious lords
insist on becoming a part of the act and the twins willingly sacrifice
them but do not bring them back to life. In this way the lords are defeated
and hope is given to humankind. The others
flee. One lord begs mercy. The people surrender, paying tribute. They reveal
their names and their ancestry and give the lords of Xibalba the terms
of their defeat. (From this point forward the Lords of Xibalba will have
limited power over humanity, causing illness and eventually death but not
as whimsically as before this.) Xmucane observes the revival of the life-token
(the corn stalks left behind by the twins in the upper world), worships
it, and names it. The boys attempt to revive their father, but cannot completely
restore him. [From this time forward humans cannot come back to life after
death but they do live on in their children and as ancestors of the family.]
Leaving his "heart" at Xibalba's ball court and promising to honor it,
they leave. They ascend into heaven becoming the sun and moon.
FAMILY TREE
[Grandmother]
Xmucane = Xpiyacoc
i---------------------------------------i
Hun-Hunahpu
Vucub-Hunahpu [FATHER
TWINS]
[1-Hunter]
[7-Hunter]
(2nd mating)
(1st mating)
Xqiq ===
=== Xbaquiyalo
i -------------------- i
i----------------i
Xbalanque Hunahpu
Hun-Baatz Hun-Chouen
[Jaguar Deer/shaman] [Hunter]
[1-Monkey] [1-Monkey]
[HERO TWINS]
[OLDER BROTHER TWINS]