Popol Vuh: the Hero Twins’ journey through Xibalba

Record summary

The Popol Vuh narrates Hunahpu and Xbalanque’s descent into Xibalba, where they confront underworld lords, dangerous houses, trials, sacrifice, and eventual transformation. It is a K’iche’ Maya myth preserved in a colonial-era manuscript, not a modern report of an otherworldly journey. The episode matters for comparing boundary-crossing motifs, especially ritual death, deception, resurrection, and the underworld as a structured political realm. Questions remain about oral transmission, Christian-era recording, translation choices, and how closely the surviving text represents precolonial forms.