Episode 42 - Hunahpu and Xbalanque

You made your way toward the house at the edge of town, like you did nearly every morning. The old woman who lived there, and her two grandsons, had been there as long as you could remember. The woman was severe, but her grandsons were both incredibly talented artists and musicians. It was truly one of the perks of the job, working around their land, the chance to listen to their music for a few hours while you worked.

But today, something was different. No music was being played. Instead, you could hear the sounds of tense conversation from within the house. You normally started your morning by greeting the family within before continuing on your day, although this time you decided to avoid it. Whatever was going on within the house, it didn’t seem like your place to interrupt. You continued on your day. Then, a few hours later, you heard children crying. Not the grandsons. They were too old for that. These were the cries of new-born children. The sounds of two. Of twins.

Central figures to many Mayan myths are the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Their stories are primarily recorded in the Popol Vuh, the oldest Mayan myth to have been preserved in its entirety during colonizing and conquering by the Spanish.

They are present in Mayan Art, appear in myths outside the Popol Vuh, and were generally used as characters and symbols of many dual forces, such as the sun and moon, life and death, and the earth and sky.

Their journey would have them using trickery and miraculous powers to overcome hardships, restore life from death, and eventually defeat the kings of Xibalba, Lords of the Underworld in the Mesoamerican ballgame, a sport of great ritual importance.

Twins appear in many myths. Often, they are presented as two halves of one entity. They provide balance and compliment one another. That is true of the Hero Twins that appear in Mayan myth and the myth of several cultures of South and Central America. Together, Hunahpu and Xbalanque face terrible dangers, overcome impossible odds, and appear in creation and other myths.

I am Andrew Eagle, and I am excited to invite you to join me in exploring a piece of the stories of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the Hero Twins of Mesoamerican myth.

Years went by. Eventually, you learned who the cries had belonged to. They were more grandchildren, half-brothers of the two artists. When they were children, old enough to help out, they joined your cadre. They worked long days alongside you while their half-brothers played music and made art within the house. It was not your place, but it seemed to you that their grandmother was particularly cruel to them. They worked while their half-brothers lounged. They cleaned while their half-brothers ate. As they grew older, they grew strong and clever. They worked hard and it showed. Even when their half-brothers left them out in the jungle with no protection, the two not only survived, but returned to the house without any obvious spite toward their siblings.

One morning, when they were young men, you arrived and discovered they were nowhere to be found. And the house was quiet. You knew one of the tasks the brothers fulfilled was hunting to provide food for the family, and they were occasionally gone to that task, but it was strange and rare that the older ones would be gone too.

When the younger ones came home, they were laughing heartily. Carrying a bundle of birds. They passed by, greeting you with a nod before continuing on their way, laughing and joking. It was the most you’ve ever seen them laugh.

The half-brothers followed after… Was it really them?

They seemed transformed. As they got closer, it became obvious how much they had been changed. They were like a hybrid creature, half man and half howler monkey. They had tails, and thick fur. You couldn’t help but laugh.

They were obviously not pleased, but they simply hurried past you, not so much as glancing at you as they made their way inside. When you heard the grandmother’s laugh from inside, you were surprised. Even she couldn’t resist laughing at their strange forms. They fled the house and into the jungle. You didn’t think you’d be seeing them anytime soon.

The Hero Twins of Mayan myth experience a great number of adventures, trials, and competitions in their rise to their destiny.

They have, throughout their stories, met and dealt with a number of strange and powerful creatures. They are often depicted as associated with the Mayan maize god or gods, specifically the tonsured maize god. Although a maize goddess is actually more common in Mayan oral tradition, in the cases where the figure is male, the Hero Twins often show up as companions or associated figures.

Additionally, they are attributed with creating the Howler Monkey gods, gods of art and music and performance. In the Popol Vuh, these gods are created from their older Half-Brothers.

While the Popol Vuh specifically tells one of their myths, there are others, taking them on all manner of adventure. They face many foes, triumph over gods, and rely upon their wit and one another to survive and find victory.

Within a few years, you weren’t needed much around the house anymore. The twins were powerful and quick. They could conclude a day’s chores in a moment. However, while you had seen for yourself one of them fell an entire days worth of clearing with a single swing of an axe, nothing ever seemed to get done. Each morning you arrived and found their work of the day before undone.

The brothers, frustrated, decided to keep watch that night, to discover who was undoing their work. Out of curiosity, you remained as well. Deep into the night, the three of you waited, when suddenly, from the darkness came the creatures of the forest. They began undoing the work the two had done throughout the day. You all leapt from your hiding spot and tried to catch the animals. You caught a rabbit by the tail, and one of the brothers caught a deer’s tail. The tails broke off and the creatures escaped. The other caught a rat.

In vengeance for their work, they singed the fur from its tail. In exchange for stopping at the tail, the rat offered a secret. The equipment that the twin’s father had used in his ill-fated game against the Lords of Xibalban was stored and hidden. Their grandmother blamed the equipment and the game for the death of her sons.

The twins devised a plan. Using trickery, they convinced their grandmother and their mother to leave the house to go fetch water with a jar that had been sabotaged. When they were alone in the house, save for your watchful gaze, they sent the rat to where the equipment was hiding where it gnawed the ropes that held the gear in its hiding spot. Quickly, playing the game would become one of their favorite past-times.

Quickly, the racket they produced playing the game during their epic bouts earned them a dire invitation. A summoning from the Lords of Xibalba, the rulers of the Underworld. A challenge, much like their father and uncle had once received.

The Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque feature in a number of stories adjacent to their main myth. While the focus of the Popol Vuh is certainly their life, and eventual challenge by the lords of Xibalba, other stories are told along the way. One in particular tells of their dealings with a number of gods.

Huracan, a god of the sky, wind and fire, as well as one of the creator gods that helped to create humanity, asked the twins to help deal with an arrogant god named Seven Macaw. Seven Macaw had developed a following among the people of earth, but was doing so by lying. He was claiming to be either the sun, or sometimes the moon. He adorned himself with metal and wore gem stones as teeth.

While they attempted to kill him by ambushing him with a blowgun, Seven Macaw was only wounded when the darts struck his jaw and teeth, and the brothers were forced to flee. Hunahpu’s arm was torn clean off during the escape.

Aware now that a frontal assault would not work, the twins made a plan. They invoked a pair of gods, who they disguised as a doctor and a dentist. The gods went and offered their services. Seven Macaw agreed, allowing them to fix his eyes and teeth, although it is never made clear what exactly was wrong with his eyes.

The disguised gods stole the gems he had made his teeth from and replaced them with corn, and they stole the metal and gems he had decorated his eye brows with. As they left, they stole back Hunahpu’s arm and returned it for the brother’s help defeated Seven Macaw who later died of shame at the loss of his resplendent form.

Later, Seven Macaw’s sons would also raise trouble and be defeated by the twins. The oldest, Zipacna who claimed to be the Creator of Mountains, would be buried beneath a mountain. The younger, Cabrakan the Earthquake, who claimed to be the Destroyer of Mountains, would be tricked, poisoned, bound, and buried forever in a deep hole in the earth.

Although their grandmother feared their fate would be the same as their father and uncle. The brothers prepared to leave on their journey to Xibalba. But before they left, they told you of their plan. You would, of course, only find out later that it had worked.

Before they went on their way, they made a deal with the creatures of the jungle, sending a mosquito to the Lords’ house in Xibalba. The mosquito bit the lords and learned the secret of which trails on the road would be real, and which would be illusions. With the knowledge in hand, the brothers easily arrived in Xibalba, much to the dismay of the Lords there. The brothers, with the help of the same mosquito, identified the true Lords from the decoys.

The boys correctly identified several more traps. Including a bench they were meant to sit upon to be cooked, and a ball for the game with a spiraled blade meant to kill them. And finally, facing the first Trial of Xibalba, the Dark House. Shamed at the discovery that they had meant to kill the brothers, the lords allowed the brothers to use their own ball when they played the game. A game ensued, which the twins purposefully lost. They were sent to a House to face a Trial.

The second house was the Razor House, where knives moved of their own accord. Each time they conquered a trial they sought a rematch against the lords and lost again. They faced the Cold House, the Jaguar House, the Fire House and finally the Bat House. While within the Bat House, the bat god Camazotz decapitated Hunahpu, but his brother was able to fashion a replacement of a gourd until they could reclaim Hunahpu’s head.

Finally, the two brothers defeated the Xibalban lords in the game, and embarrassed, the Xibalban lords attempted to trick the brothers into their dooms. The twins knew what would occur, and had devised a plan. Thusly, they allowed themselves to be killed, and their remains spread in a river.

Hero Twins are common in myth, particularly in the stories and traditions of many Native American cultures. In particular, the creation myth of the Navajo people features the hero twins Monster Slayer and Born of Water who receive lightning bolts from their father, the Sun, which they use to face and defeat monsters that would prey upon the people of the world.

Other tribes have other stories. A wide number in the American midwest region feature Red Horn and his twin sons.

Twin myth shows up across groups and cultures around the world. Greek, Vedic, Latvian, Celtic, Germanic, Welsh, and many more feature the idea of Divine Twins.

The Lords of Xibalba celebrated and feasted, having defeated the twins. Little did they know of the twins plans. They had arranged a deal. From their remains in the river formed two catfish. Eventually these catfish rose from the water to stride the land as a pair of young boys. The twins, resurrected.

They snuck into Xibalba, anonymous and undetected. Then they began performing miracles. They would burn down homes and then restore it from the ashes. They would kill one another and rise from the dead. After hearing the stories of these miracles, the twins were summoned by the Lords.

They, of course, answered the summons. The Lords asked them to show them miracles.

The boys burned down the Lords’ house. Then restored it from the ashes. They killed a dog, to bring it back. And Xbalanque even killed and cut Hunahpu apart as a sacrifice to the lords, only to shortly bring Hunahpu back from the dead.

Entirely enthralled, but not yet convinced it was not somehow a trick, the two highest of the lords of Xibalba, One Death and Seven Death, demanded the brothers perform the miracle upon them. The brothers killed the Lords, but did not restore them to life, instead revealing their identity, and casting a great shame upon all of Xibalba for the murder of their father, their uncle, and themselves. Xibalba would no longer be a great kingdom, nor would it receive offerings from the people of the Earth above.

They retrieved the remains of their father, and then began climbing back to the surface of the earth. They left their father’s remains there with you and their grandmother before continuing to climb, straight into the sky.

One became the sun, the other the moon, and there, the twins watch down on you and all the people of the world.

Divine Twins appear all over the world in myth. Two sides of one coin. Two halves of one whole. They are sometimes seen as gods or demi-gods, at other times they are heroes of humble origin but almost always powerful.

The twins of Mayan myth demonstrate a great deal of cleverness, always preferring a trick or outsmarting their opponents rather than facing them head on. They are powerful warriors and hunters, but they always prefer to let their enemies defeat themselves, with just a small nudge to help them along. They show a great deal of magical power throughout their story, although the origin of that power is never clearly described in the Popol Vuh. Some scholars believe it is a manifestation of their will, that they were powerful of their own accord. Some believe it is from their mother, who is often described as a goddess, one of the daughters of the lords of Xibalba.

Still others think that the strange powers they demonstrate are not truly theirs, but instead, a manifestation of miracles by the many gods who viewed the Twins as important, and who they relied upon for favors.

Regardless of the source of their strength, the Hero Twins were certainly a powerful force, and not a good enemy to have.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Through the Veil. I hope you enjoyed. I encourage you to subscribe to receive new episodes weekly wherever you listen as we continue our exploration of folklore, myth, and magic.

Music this episode was Erhu Adventure by Bulent Ozdemir and Heroic by Pianhorus.

If you are enjoying the show, and have subjects you would like to hear covered, please email me at throughtheveilpodcast@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter, you can find me @ThroughVeil.

As always, thank you, for listening.