Mayan and Aztec Mythology

Mayan and Aztec Mythology

The Origin of the Sun and the Moon

This book is called Mayan and Aztec Mythology. Written by Michael A. Schuman. I choose to write my report about this myth because it was the most interesting. I find Mayan and Aztec mythology to be the most grotesque myths I have ever read.

This myth was about two boys by the name of Hunahpu and Vucub. They were twin brothers who loved to play pohatok. Pohatok is game the Mayans played on a court. The objective was to get a ball, made of clay, through a hoop. It is considered to be ancient basketball. A huge difference is the consequence for a losing team was death. Hunahpu and Vucub were actually the best at the game and often played one another because there wasn't anyone else who were any competition.

One day, the lords of death challenged the boys to a game of pohatok. They would play in the underworld or Xibalba. The boys mother begged them not to go, but they disobeyed. When they reached the underworld, they had to cross a river of spikes, blood, and pus. After they succeeded crossing the disgusting rivers, they went through a series of test. The twins were supposed to keep a cigar and two torches lit all night, but there was not enough fuel to keep anything lit. They were unable to complete the task to which they were assigned, so the twins

were sentenced by the Lords of Death to be murdered. The next day, the lords cut off the twin's heads and stuck them on an old tree as a trophy.

All of a sudden, the tree began to grow fruit from its branches. A young, women named Xquic came to the tree. She wanted to pick some of its fruit. The first calabash gourd that she picked turned into Hunahphu's head and he spit into her mouth. She became pregnant. Xquic escaped from the underworld with a flock of owls. She didn't know the man who was the father of her child, and if she had stayed in the underworld her father would have her head. She heard form the owls that her father was looking for her and expected to have her heart in a bowl by sundown. She gave birth to "the Hero Twin Boys" and named them Hunahpu and Xbalanque.

When the twins became older, they wanted to become great gardeners, but the only problem was they couldn't grow anything to save their lives. While they were in their yard a rat told them a secret. Their Dad and uncle were great