Block 2: Ancient Maya Hero Twins Myth

The Hero Twins myth is mostly a hero myth, but it is also a nature myth and an underworld myth. A hero myth is a myth that tells the story of a hero on his or her heroic journey or quest. In this myth,  Hunahpu and Xbalanque are two heroes who go into the Underworld to finish the ballgame their father and uncle did not finish. A nature myth is a myth that explains in a supernatural manner how animals and the natural world came to be. When the Hero twins held the tail of a rat they caught in their garden over a fire, it lost all its hair on its tail. This is what the Mayan people thought happened to the rat that made it have no hair on its tail. Though parts of the myth took place in the Underworld, Underworld myths are about what happens after death. This myth talks about the defeat of the Lords of the Underworld, who were death and sickness.

This is a picture of the Lords of the Underworld.

One and Seven (their names are One and Seven) Hunahpu were the 1st generation of the Hero Twins. They were passionate ballgame players. Their skill and noise about the ballgame caught the attention of the Lords of the Dead, the rulers of the Underworld. They sent messengers to summon the twins for a ballgame and to bring their gear and ball. One and Seven traveled with the messengers to Xibalba; the kingdom of the Lords of the Underworld. On the way, they had to cross three rivers: a river of spikes, a river of blood and a river of pus.

Once they entered the throne room, carved wooden replicas of the Lords greeted them by name. Failing to realize they were not the real Lords, they sat down on a burning bench. Immediately jumping up, they were sacrificed by the Lords of the Underworld for failing such test. Their bodies were buried underneath the ballcourt in Xibalba.

This is a picture of One spitting on the Blood Woman

But, One Hunahpu’s head was placed on the branch of a tree. A maiden named Blood Woman walked by and his head began to talk to her. When he was done, she reached out her hand and One Hunahpu spat on it. The saliva in her hand grew into the Hero Twins; Hunahpu and Xbalanque (2nd Generation).

A person wearing ball game gear, the same type of
gear that the hero twins wore.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque tried to make a living by growing a garden, but even the animals knew they were bad at it, and kept on messing the garden up. The twins tried to shoo them away but even that did not work. Until one day, they caught a rat in their garden and held it’s tail over fire (this is why rats do not have hair on their tail). The rat told them that they were destined ballplayers, like their father and uncle.The rat found the hidden ballgame player’s gear that the twin’s father and uncle had hid before in their house.

With that, Hunahpu and Xbalanque began to play like their father and uncle, making lots of noise that caught the attention of the Lords of the Underworld, who sent messengers to summon them the ballcourt in Xibalba. The Hero Twins succeeded in what their 1st generation failed in. Knowing the lords wanted to be greeted by their names, one of them pulled out a piece of hair that turned into a mosquito. Then the mosquito bit a lord and no noise came out, they knew it was the wooden replica. When the mosquito bit one of the real lords he would cry out, then another lord would ask what was wrong using his name. This is how they found the names of all the lords.

The twins entered the throne room. When they got there the lords were very angry so they gave the twins to many challenges to go through. They had to go through many houses that each had a different challenge in it. The twins went into every house and successfully defeated every challenge. But in the last house, the bat house, Hunahpu made the mistake of looking out to see if it was day yet and a bat chopped of its his head and it rolled into the ball court. Xbalanque took a squash and made it into a replacement head for Hunahpu.

Usually balls for the ball game were
made out of hard rubber

After they came out of the bat house the lords challenged the twins to a ball game. They used Hunahpu’s real head as the ball. When the lords hit the ball Xbalanque hit it to where there was rabbit hiding. The rabbit jumped away and the lords ran after it thinking it was the ball. The twins got Hunahpu’s head back and switched the head and the squash. When the lords returned, Xbalanque booted the squash so hard that it split and the seeds went flying and the twin won.

The Hero Twins sacrificing someone before
bringing them back to life

After losing, the lords of death gave the twins one last challenge the twins would have to jump over an oven four time, but instead of jumping over they went inside the oven. The lords of death then ground their bones on a grinding stone and sprinkled it into the river. This act allowed the twins to be able to come back to life. When they did come back they became performers. They would do amazing things. They would sacrifice animals and then bring them back to life. They would even sacrifice each other and then bring each other back to life. People were so excited about them that the lord of death heard about it. The lords summoned them to perform for them. The twins first sacrificed a dog then brought it back to life. The lords then demanded that the same were to be done on a human, so Xbalanque sacrificed his brother and danced. Hunahpu soon got up and danced beside Xbalanque. The lords were so excited that they wanted it to be done on them. The twins took the two highest lords and sacrificed them, but they did not bring them back. At that very moment the twins had truly defeated the lords of death. Honored for their cleverness, the twins became the sun and the moon.

An Ancient Mayan ball court that was used by the
              Maya to play the ball game

The hero twins myth had multiple functions in the Mayan culture. The twins were believed to be the ones that made the sun and moon rise every day and night. The twins were honored not only because they rose the sun and moon but because they defeated death and sickness. The Maya thought that since they had defeated the gods of the dead that twins allowed them to have eternal life. The ball game was a very popular sport in Maya because every time it was played it was thought to be a reenactment of cheating death.

This is a picture of the Twins in their catfish form

The Hero Twins myth is important today because it gives evidence that the Maya had great knowledge of death and what happens to the remains of the diseased once they are left in the environment. In the myth the twin’s ashes are put into the river and then the twins resurrect. In other variations of the myth the ashes become a catfish and then the twins. The process of ashes to catfish to humans is very similar to modern theorems of evolution. Although this may be a coincidence the hero twins myth can be considered a nature myth which means it describes something they saw in nature. This means that the Mayans must have observed and understood this process thousands of years before others did. This myth shows us that they had knowledge above anything we thought they did.

Works Cited

"Ancient Cities of the Maya." American Egypt. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.

"Hero Twins." Hero Twins. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.  

"Hero Twins." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 07 Oct. "Maya Civilization The Hero Twins Myth." Maya Civilization for Kids: Hero Twins Myth. 
                N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014      
                <http://www.ducksters.com/history/maya/hero_twins_maya_mythology.php>.
Rubber Ball. N.d. 
            Http://592f46.medialib.glogster.com/media/7a068db43bedbe2b025516ec9c39ce349e84327b
            f3f7bc897e7004566117fe17/rubber-ball.jpg, n.p.
Mayan Sacrafice. N.d.            Http://www.askpins.com/pics/3/did-the-mayans-sacrifice-their-own-people.jpg, n.p.
Blood Woman. N.d.
            Http://www.chapala.com/chapala/magnifecentmexico/herotwins/mitomaya1.jpg, n.p.
Hero Twins Catfish. N.d.            Https://ferrebeekeeper.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/catfish.jpg, n.p.
Lords of Xibalba. N.d.
            Https://ferrebeekeeper.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/lords.jpg, n.p.
Ball Court. N.d.           Http://traveljunkiejosh.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/p7092512.jpg, n.p.
Ball Player. N.d.           Http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Maya_Vase_Ballplayer.png, n.p.