The Hero Twins' Story
The Hero Twins' Story
The Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People, which was translated by Allen J. Christenson tells the story of the creation of the Maya, which was shaped by the gods and their people, as well as mythology which descended from the Mayan people. Some of the major characters which drive the stories are Hunahpu, Xbalanque, One Hunahpu, Seven Hunahpu, Xpiyacoc, and Xmucane. Xmucane and Xpiyacoc are considered two of the oldest figures in Mayan mythology. As explained by the graphic, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane birthed One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu. According to page 99 of the Popol Vuh, “It was in the darkness, in the night, when One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu were born to Xpiyacoc and Xmucane” (Christenson, 99). Seven Hunahpu didn’t have any children, because he was merely a secondary “character” in comparison to his brother. However, One Hunahpu created two sets of sons- One Batz and One Choeun, and Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Xbalanque and Hunahpu, known as the Hero Twins, dedicate themselves to destroying the evil that plagues the world. On page 82, readers get a glimpse of how the Hero Twins regarded their position in the world when it states “The boys, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, therefore saw evil in them before the creation of our first mother and our first father. Thus the boys planned their deaths and their loss” (Christenson, 82). This proves that they fully accepted their role as heroic protectors of the pre-human world. Dedicated to ridding their environment of evil, they spent a portion of their lives fighting the Death Lords, led by One Death and Seven Death. They were almost fatally deceived by the evil figures, but were triumphant against them time and again. The Hero Twins were determined to find a way to outsmart the death lords without having to die themselves, but were unable to make that a possibility.
They both knew that they would have to die in order to truly defeat them and achieve a higher status, so they let the death lords win and kill them. After they were killed, they were able to come back to life as more powerful beings and, according to the Popol Vuh, they “...arose as the central lights…straight into the sky. One of them arose as the sun, and the other as the moon. Thus the womb of the sky was illuminated over the face of the earth, for they came to dwell in the sky” (Christenson, 177).
The actions which best represents the creation of the Mayan people is their decision to give up their lives during the ballgame against the Death Lords. Their sacrifice restored not only their lives, but the lives of others before them which, in turn, prompted the success of Mayan civilization. On page 177, it states that they were “...merely the avengers of… death and… loss, for the affliction and misfortune that were done…” (Christenson, 177). This proves that they were simply the ones who were making the sacrifices to restore and repair the earth after all of the death and damage that had occurred.
Popol Vuh - Mesoweb. https://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf.
“The Twins Who Tricked The Maya Gods of Death - Ilan Stavans.” YouTube, 11 Nov. 2021, https://youtu.be/s-kDttqywJ4.
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