Mythology Book

THE AMERICAS 245

beneath the ball court in the

Underworld. Hun-Hunahpu was

decapitated and his head hung

from a calabash tree as a warning

to those who might cross them.

Even after death, he retained his

potency. His spittle dripped into

the hand of the moon goddess

Xquic and impregnated her.

Xquic, fleeing her angry father

in the Underworld, sought refuge

with Hun-Hunahpu’s mother on

earth. Xmucane accepted her ❯❯

See also: The adventures of Thor and Loki in Jötunheim 146–47 ■ The epic of

Gilgamesh 190–97 ■ The legend of the five suns 248–55

Xquic picks Hun-Hunahpu’s head

from the forbidden tree, mistaking it for

a gourd, in this illustration by Gilbert

James for The Myths of Mexico and

Peru, by Lewis Spence (1913).

Xpiacoc

Hun-Hunahpu

Hun-Chowen

Xbaquiyalo Xquic

Xmucane

Vucub-Hunahpu

Hun-Batz

The Popol Vuh

The Popol Vuh provides the

fullest account of many key

Maya myths, and is perhaps

the most important sacred

Mesoamerican document still

in existence. It is divided into

three parts: the first concerns

the world’s creation, the

second focuses on the tale of

Hunahpu and Xblanque, and

the third depicts the founding

of the Quiché dynasty.

Drawing on centuries of

oral tradition, the Popol Vuh

was originally written in Maya

hieroglyphs from 1554–1558. It

was consulted whenever the

Lords of the Quiché gathered

in council (Popol Vuh means

“Book of Counsel”). After the

Spanish arrived in the early

16th century, they burned

Maya hieroglyphic books, but

the Popol Vuh survived and

was secretly transcribed into

Quiché, a Maya language,

using the Roman alphabet.

A copy of the transcribed

document found its way to

Chichicastenango, a town in

the Guatemalan highlands.

From 1701 to 1703, the parish

priest, Francisco Ximénez,

translated the text in parallel

Quiché and Spanish columns.

His manuscript remains the

oldest surviving written

account of the Popol Vuh.

Extracts from the Popul Vuh

manuscript, as translated by

Ximénez, are kept in the Rossbach

Archaeological Museum in

Chichicastenango, Guatemala.

The divine lineage

of the Hero Twins is

described in the first

half of the Popol Vuh.

Hun-Hunahpu and

his wife, Xbaquiyalo,

had twins, but he

conceived the Hero

Twins through Xquic.

Hunahpu Xbalanque

US_244-247_Hero-Twins.indd 245 01/12/17 4:23 pm