Popul Vuh

3 Pages 654 Words

The Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh are Hunahpu and Xpalanque, the sons and nephew of two other ill-fated twins.The story begins long before their illustrious appearance. It tells of the three other creations before this one. Each previous world was destroyed because of grave faults in their characters. The older twins, Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu, were ballplayers called down to Xibalba by the Lords of Death because they were making too much noise with their ball playing. The lords challenge the twins to a game which they have no intention of losing. They defeat the twins by cheating and then sacrifice them. One head was buried under the ball court and the other was hung from the calabash tree as a warning not to offend the Lords of Xibalba. The daughter of one of the lords is fascinated by this head on the tree and goes for a closer look. The head tells her to stretch out her hand and he spits into her palm, magically impregnating her. Learning of her condition, the lords order her sacrifice but she convinces the executioner to release her and she escapes to the Middle world where she seeks out her mother-in-law. After initial skepticism, the mother-in-law takes her in and she gives birth to the Hero Twins.The twins do not know of their identity; instead they believe that they are farmers and after many adventures, they find out that they are ballplayers. They retrieve their father's gear which the grandmother had hidden and take up ball playing. Surely enough, they disturb the lords and are called to answer for their indiscretion, but unlike their ancestors, they outwit the lords. The first trial was to keep a torch and two cigars lit all night in the Dark House. They trick the lords by putting fire flies on the tips of the cigars and passing off a macaw tail as the flame of the torch. The following day the twins play ball against the lords and allow themselves to lose. That night, they have a second challenge and the following days an...