Maya Hero Twins
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The Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial Kʼicheʼ document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Kʼicheʼ language, the Twins have also been identified in the art of the Classic Mayas. The twins are often portrayed as complementary forces.
Two lively were-jaguar babies on the left side of La Venta Altar 5. The two were-jaguars depicted on Altar 5 at La Venta as being carried out from a niche or cave, places often associated with the emergence of human beings, may or may not be mythic hero twins essential to Olmec mythology and perhaps, or perhaps not, forerunners of the Maya Hero Twins.
The Hero Twins shooting a perched bird demon with a blowgun. Izapa Stela 25.
The Hero Twins and steeply descending bird impersonator, Izapa Stela 2.
Mississippian Hero Twins emerging from a crack in the back of a raccoon-faced Horned Serpent. Redrawn from an engraved whelk shell by artist Herb Roe.
Popol Vuh
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Popol Vuh is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people of Guatemala, one of the Maya peoples who also inhabit the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as areas of Belize, Honduras and El Salvador.
The oldest surviving written account of Popol Vuh (ms c. 1701 by Francisco Ximénez, O.P.)
Tonsured Maize God and Spotted Hero Twin
Image: Empiezan las historias(titlepage)
Image: Empiezan las historias(preamble)