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Junajpu and Xbalamke, which is also written as Huanhpú and Ixbalanqué, are two twin brothers, characters from Mayan mythology, whose legend is told in the Popol Wuj.
The Popol Wuj, or Popol Vuh, the Council Book or Community Book , collects the Mayan legends that describe their worldview and customs through the stories of the myths about the origin of the world and various events related to the Mayan civilization. and nature. The Popol Wuj was written around the year 1550, in the early days of the Spanish conquest, in K’iche’(the Mayan language) and in Spanish. But the records of the legends that it tells go back to the Olmec culture and the first stages of the Mayan culture. The mythological twins of the Popol Wuj appear together with the god of maize in the wall paintings found in San Bartolo, Guatemala, which, created around the year 100 BC, are to this day the oldest in Mayan culture and show an aesthetic continuity between Late Olmec and Maya iconography. The Azuzul twins, two similar human figures positioned in front of two jaguars, found near San Lorenzo, one of the two main Olmec urban centers, have also been associated with the mythological twins of the Popol Wuj.
The purpose of the Popol Wuj is made explicit at its beginning: « Here we will write, we will establish the ancient word; the origin, the beginning of everything that happened in the k’iche’ people, nation of the k’iche’ people. Here we begin the teaching, the clarification and the relationship of the hidden and the revealed by Tz’aqol fütol,’Alom, K’ajolom, names of Junajpu Wuch’, Junajpu Utiw; Saqi Nim Aq Sis;·Tepew Q’ukumatz; Heart of the lake, Heart of the sea… »
Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu, the first twins of the Popol Wuj
In the mythological chronology of the Popol Wuj, before Junajpu and Xbalamke appear Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu.
«… In the darkness at dawn Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu of Xpiyakok and Ixmukane were born. Now, Jun Junajpu fathered two sons, two sons: Jun Batz’ was called the firstborn Jun Chowen was called the second …»
Like all Mesoamerican cultures, the Maya believed in temporal cycles, in cyclical cosmic destruction and renewal that were called the ” ages of the world .” Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu were the maize twins and lived during the second world.
«… They were great sages, they had great knowledge, they were soothsayers here on the face of the Earth; of good nature and good manners. They taught the arts and work to Jun Batz’ and Jun Chowen, sons of Jun Junajpu. In flutists, in singers, in blowpipe makers, in writers; Jun Batz’ and Jun Chowen became likewise sculptors, jade goldsmiths, silver goldsmiths …»
Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu were invited to the Mayan underworld, Xibalba, by the lords Jun Kame and Wuqub Kame to play the ball game.
« …As it was the way to Xibalba where they played, they were heard by Jun Kame and Wuqub Kame, Lords of Xibalba: What is happening on the face of the Earth? They are jumping and running making noise. Let them bring them! Let them come play ball here, we will have to defeat them. They no longer defer to us, they do not respect us and they are not ashamed either. That they are going to pull them from up there, said all those from Xibalba when they made a joint decision. The so-called Jun Kame and Wuqub Kame were the supreme judges… »
In Xibalba, Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu were subjected to various tests and deceived. « …What the people of Xibalba wanted were the game accessories of Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu: their leather protectors, their belts, their arm protectors, their headdresses, their protective handkerchiefs… In short, the attire of Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu… ” Among the many tests they were subjected to, on the eve of the game they were sent to the Dark House and given cigars and torches, and told to keep them burning all night without consuming them. They failed this test and the punishment for failure was death. Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu were sacrificed and buried, but Jun Junajpu’s head was cut off and only his body was buried next to his younger brother’s.
The Lords of Xibalba placed the head of Jun Junajpu between the branches of a tree on the road, and the tree bore fruit. « …This is the Jícaro tree that we call it now, head of Jun Junajpu it is said…». The Lords of Xibalba forbade the cutting of the fruits and that nobody visit the tree. But the maiden Ixkik’, daughter of Lord Kuchuma Kik’, was amazed by the story of the tree and went alone to see it. She there she spoke to the skull of Jun Junajpu, who asked her to extend her hand, and the skull spat on her hand.
« …There the maiden returned to her house, after being given many advices. Immediately the children were conceived in her womb by the mere virtue of saliva and thus Junajpu and Xbalamke were engendered… »
The myth of the gestation of the docella Ixkik’ raises the continuity of life in her children, in the twins Junajpu and Xbalamke, transcending the betrayal of the Lords of Xibalba. As Jun Junajpu tells the maiden Ixkik’:
« …The face of the Lords, of the men, of the wise, of the orators does not go extinct, does not disappear; it stays in his daughters, his sons. So be it! This is, then, what I have done with you. Go up to the surface of the Earth that you will not die, because you enter the word… »
Junajpu and Xbalamke
After the maiden Ixkik’ escaped from Xibalba deceiving the Lords who had ordered her killed as punishment for her pregnancy, she went to live on Earth with Ixmukane, the mother of Jun Junajpu and Wuqub Junajpu, who was raising the two sons of Jun Junajpu, Jun Batz’ and Jun Chowen. « …Only playing the flute, only by singing they entertained themselves. Only to write and only to sculpt they dedicated themselves every day. This comforted the heart of the grandmother… ». This is how Junajpu and Xbalamke are born.
Junajpu means ” the blowgunner “, who wields a blowpipe. Jun means one, aj is the possessive, and pu is short for pub , which means blowpipe. Xbalamke can be interpreted as a small jaguar-deer, where the prefix X is the diminutive, Balam means jaguar and Ke is the apocope of Kej , which means deer. But another interpretation of Balamq’e has been proposed , and according to it it would be composed of Balam , which means ” hidden”, and Q’e , ” sun” .«: hidden or night sun. This interpretation seems more in keeping with the myth, since in the end Junajpu becomes the Sun and Xbalamke the Moon, which can be interpreted as the night sun .
Junajpu and Xbalamke were cruelly treated by their grandmother and brothers, and they survived in the forest hunting birds with their blowguns.
« …They already knew of his birth, they already had powers; they knew that they were the successors of their parents who went to Xibalba and who died there. They were great sages, for Jun Batz’ and Jun Chowen had everything clear in their hearts. However, when his younger brothers were born they did not show wisdom because of their envy and the rancor they had in their hearts fell on themselves. For no other reason were they transformed by Junajpu and Xbalamke, who only sustained themselves by shooting with a blowgun every day. They were not loved by their grandmother nor by Jun Batz’ and Jun Chowen… »
Junajpu and Xbalamke grew and so did their powers, and they punished their older brothers by turning them into monkeys.
« …We are only going to change its nature. This is the content of our words. May it be fulfilled: for the great sufferings they have caused us. They wanted us to die and disappear, we who are their younger brothers. They treated us as subjects, we are going to defeat them in the same way. It’s just a sample of what we’re going to do, they said to each other… »
Junajpu and Xbalamke found the ball that their father, Jun Junajpu, had not brought to Xibalba, and they also found the ball court built by their father. And they were playing for several days, which again annoyed the Lords of Xibalba. After many adventures, Junajpu and Xbalamke descended to Xibalba following the same path of trials that their parents had traveled before. But they avoided the tricks and traps that the Lords of Xibalba set for them thanks to their cunning, defeating them in the ball game. They passed the test of the torches and the lit cigars, deceiving the Lords of Xibalba by making the tail of a macaw pass through like the glow of a torch and putting fireflies on the tips of their cigars.
« …Their names will not be forgotten. So be it! They told their parents when they comforted their hearts. We have only made him pay for his death, his disappearance; the sorrows, the torments that made them! This was, then, his farewell message, after defeating all of Xibalba. Then they ascended here, in the midst of clarity. They immediately ascended to heaven: one was the Sun and the other was the Moon. Then the vault of heaven was illuminated, the face of the Earth, in the sky they settled…
The myth of the twins
In the records of the twins that are identified in sculptures and paintings, Junajpu and Xbalamke are not identical. Junajpu is larger, dexterous, and masculine, with black spots on his right cheek, shoulder, and arms. The Sun and deer antlers are the main symbols associated with Junajpu, although both twins are often associated with deer symbols. Xbalamke is smaller, left-handed, and often with a feminine appearance, the Moon and rabbits being his symbols. Xbalanque has jaguar-like patches on its face and body.
The twins are also present in the Mayan calendar, indicating a relevance that goes back to the Olmec culture and the first stages of the Mayan civilization. The myth of the twins is found in the traditions of most of the indigenous cultures of Central and North America. They are part of myths and legends that count as legendary ancestors need to pass various tests. Death and rebirth is suggested in the depiction of the twins in the form of the fish-man. In many Mesoamerican cultures, for the gods, fish are human embryos floating in a mythical lake. The myth of the twins is also recorded in pottery and wicker artifacts found in the southwestern United States,
Sources
Aleksandar Boskovic. The Meaning of Mayan Myths . Anthropos 84 (1/3) (1989): 203–12.
Bettina L. Knapp. The Popol Vuh: Primordial Mother Participants in the Creation . Confluence 12.2 (1997): 31–48.
Luis Enrique Sam Colop. Popol Wuj CHOLSAMAJ, Guatemala, 2008. ISBN 978-99922-53-70-0 https://popolmayab.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/popol-wuj-kaxlan-tzij.pdf
Mary E. Miller, Karl Taube. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. Thames and Hudson, London, 1997.
Patricia Gilman, Marc Thompson, Kristina Wyckoff. Ritual Change and the Distant: Mesoamerican Iconography, Scarlet Macaws, and Great Kivas in the Mimbres Region of Southwestern New Mexico . American Antiquity 79(1) (2014): 90–107.
Robert J. Sharer. The Ancient Maya. Sixth Edition, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 2006.
