The Hero Twins and the Lords of Death

The Challenge from Xibalba Hunahpu and Xbalanque were great ballplayers, much like their father and uncle before them. The noise of their game on earth disturbed the Lords of Xibalba (the Maya Underworld), who were the deities of disease and death. The Lords sent an invitation—a summons—to the twins to play a ballgame in the underworld. Knowing that their father had been tricked and killed there, the twins accepted the challenge, but they relied on their cunning to survive.

The Trials of the Underworld To reach the ball court, the twins had to pass through several "Houses of Ordeals" designed to kill them.

• In the House of Cold, they survived by huddling together.

• In the House of Jaguars, they fed the beasts bones so they wouldn't be eaten.

• In the House of Bats, Hunahpu sadly lost his head to a giant bat, but his brother Xbalanque used a turtle to fashion a temporary head until they could win the real one back during the ballgame. The twins realized that the Lords of Death were not all-powerful; they were merely masters of deception. To defeat death, the twins had to out-trick the tricksters.

The Ultimate Sacrifice and Rebirth After many games and trials, the twins allowed themselves to be "defeated" and burned in an oven. Their ashes were scattered in a river, where they were reborn first as fish-men and then as traveling performers. They returned to Xibalba in disguise, performing amazing miracles, such as killing each other and bringing one another back to life. The Lords of Death were so impressed that they asked the twins to kill and resurrect them. The twins obliged—they killed the Lords of Xibalba but refused to bring them back. Having defeated the power of death, the twins ascended to the heavens to become the Sun and the Moon.