Exploring the Maya Underworld (1)

12th Feb 2024

Mexicolore contributor Jim Reed

We are hugely grateful to Jim Reed, Independent Maya Researcher, Board Member of The Institute of Maya Studies, and The Maya Conservancy, and Editor of both the IMS Explorer and Aztlander e-newsletters, for this important introduction to the little understood Maya Underworld - complementing our recent major exploration of the Aztec Underworld. Special thanks to friends Jim and professional illustrator Steve Radzi...

The piecing together of ancient Maya mythology and cosmology, whatever difficulties it may involve, is not the utterly impossible challenge it once may have seemed. Broad new insights often seem to manifest themselves almost overnight. In a field of inquiry to which only social anthropologists and ethnohistorians seemed capable of making much of a contribution, we find new insights being provided by iconographers, epigraphy, linguists, archaeoastronomers, and even dirt archaeologists (MacLeod, B., Puleson, D., 1978). In this article, I intend to bring together aspects of several of these fields, with the intention of shedding some new light on the still only dimly perceived Underworld of the ancient Maya.

The ancient Maya people conceived of their world as a three-tiered universe, consisting of a sky creating the dome of the heavens, the four-sided earth that is the abode of humans and the world beneath the earth – the Underworld (Freidel, D., Schele, L., Parker, J., 1993). The earth itself floats on a watery base, often associated with the Underworld. Connecting the three levels is the axis mundi, World Tree, or center of the universe, usually represented by a tree whose branches are in the sky, whose trunk rises through the earth, and whose roots extend down into the Underworld (pic 2). Therefore, the Underworld is characterized as a watery place beneath the earth associated not only with fear and death, but the life-giving properties of plants that spring from the earth itself, like the World Tree (and maize).
NOTE on the cosmogram shown (pic 2): The Hero Twins ignite a sacred fire at the base of the sacred tree that permeates all levels and dimensions of the Maya cosmos. Depicted are the five (or nine) levels of the Underworld as well as the thirteen levels of the Upper World. The pathways of the daytime and nighttime suns (double-headed serpents) are superimposed over the four directional colours of the Maya universe.

Ethnohistoric Sources on the Underworld
Let’s summarize some of what is already known of the Maya Underworld. In the Yucatan of Mexico, the Underworld was known as Metnal and was one of the abodes of the dead. In other parts of the Maya lowlands, and in the Popol Vuh, it was called Xibalba (pic 3) (MacLeod, B., Puleson, D., 1978).
Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson (1898–1975) was a leading English Mesoamerican archaeologist, ethnohistorian, and epigrapher who dominated Maya studies until well into the 1960s. Following Thompson (1970:30), the Maya Underworld occupied the lowest of five levels beneath the earth’s surface. He argues convincingly that the famous nine levels actually refer to the four steps or stages down to a fifth level where Xibalba or Metnal was located, and four more coming up and out (as can be noted in pic 2).

The sun on its journey through the Underworld after sunset followed these nine steps to the eastern horizon where it re-emerged at dawn. The dead also followed this path, at least the first part of it. The road into this land was lengthy and hazardous. The Chamula Tzotzil include in the graves of their dead a pair of new shoes that will stand up to the rigors of the journey. Dogs were believed to aid one in crossing a body of water (pic 4). Food for the journey and magical defenses against perilous animals and birds were also placed with the deceased (Thompson 1970: 300-301).
What kind of place was this Underworld? For the K’iche’ Maya of the highlands of Guatemala, Xibalba was an underground region inhabited by the enemies of man (Recinos 1950:109). The Popol Vuh characterizes the Lords of the Underworld as tyrannical, hypocritical, envious, and cruel. They were not immortal, however, and therefore they may not have even been deities in the usual sense of the word. Despite the fact that they lived beneath this world, their land was not unpleasant and dark; they had night and day; their land had trees and animals; they grew maize, ate, slept, made love, and died seemingly as the mortals of this world do.

Ethnohistoric sources apart from the Popol Vuh frequently characterize Xibalba as a less desirable place. Diego de Landa tells us evildoers went to Metnal, where they were tormented, while the good went to a delightful heaven (Tozzer 1941: 131-132). Christian beliefs are most probably influencing Landa’s interpretation here, as well as many of those in other ethnohistoric sources which depict the Underworld as a suspiciously hellish place, frequently opposed by an equally suspicious celestial paradise.

The Popol Vuh
The sky, the earth, and the Underworld were all homes to deities. Ancestors inhabited the sky. Beneficent deities, mischievous or dangerous spirits lived in crevices and canyons, and the Underworld was the home of the dreaded Lords of the Underworld (pic 5) who were the bringers of death and disease described in the ancient Maya creation myth, the Popol Vuh.

Although considered to be a Postclassic document, Preclassic Maya iconography suggests that the mythic creation narratives of the text date as far back as 100 BCE (Saturno, William A., et al, 2005), and may have deeper antiquity as evidenced in the monuments at Izapa in the piedmont area of Guatemala. The earliest known hieroglyphic version of the Popol Vuh was first translated into Spanish orthography in the 16th century, probably no later than 1558 CE. Between 1701 and 1703 CE, a Spanish priest, Francisco Ximénez, copied the text and added his Spanish translation (pic 6).
The Popol Vuh, or Popol Wuj in the K’iche’ language, is the story of creation of the universe by Creator Gods (pic 7) and the eventual creation of the Maya, men of corn. Members of the royal K’iche’ lineages that had once ruled the highlands of Guatemala recorded the story in the 16th century to preserve it under the Spanish colonial rule.

The Popol Vuh, meaning “Book of the Community,” narrates the Maya creation account, the tales of the Hero Twins, and the K’iche’ genealogies and land rights. In this story, the Creators, Heart of Sky and six other deities including the Feathered Serpent, also known as Quetzalcoatl, wanted to create human beings with hearts and minds who could “keep the days”.
But the first three attempts failed. When these deities finally created humans out of yellow and white corn who could talk, they were satisfied. In another epic cycle of the story, the Death Lords of the Underworld summon the Hero Twins to play a momentous ball game where the Twins defeat their opponents. The Twins rose into the heavens and became the Sun and the Moon. Through their actions, the Hero Twins prepared the way for the planting of corn, for human beings to live on Earth, and for the Fourth Creation of the Maya (MacLeod, B., Puleson, D., 1978).

The mythic pages of the Popol Vuh describe a journey of two pairs of Hero Twins and their descent to Xibalba, arguably through the mouth of a cave. The first set is a man Hun (One) Hunahpu) and his brother, Vucub (Seven) Hunahpu and the second set are his twin sons (Hunahpu and Ixbalanque). In the story, the twins are summoned to the Underworld to play ball with evil lords of death and disease. The lords have names such as One and Seven Death, Gathered Blood, Pus Demon, Jaundice Demon, Skull Staff, and Bloody Teeth to name a few (Christenson, A. 2007). The first set of twins lose the game and are sacrificed by the evil lords, but after many trials and tests, the second set of twins defeat the lords and destroy their power over humans. They resurrect their father who arises as the Maya maize deity but remains to dwell in the Underworld. Their acts clear the way for the universe to be set into motion, the sun to rise, and the stars to begin their journey across the sky (Freidel, D., Schele, L., Parker, J., 1993).

The Legend of Hunahpu and Ixbalanque
The birth of twins in the Maya culture is something very rare and therefore magical. The Maya gods Xpiyacoc and Xmucane had two twins, Hun (One) Hunahpu and Vucub (Seven) Hunahpu (known as the “first twins”). The first of them, Hun, eventually also has two twin sons with the Maya goddess Xbaquiyalo, these twins were called Hun Batz and Hun Chouen, they were known as the “monkey twins” (pic 12).
Father, sons and uncle spent a lot of time together and often played the sacred Maya ball game called Pok ta Pok. According to the story in the book, the playing field was just above the entrance to the Underworld realm Xibalba (a world of evil gods and demons). The gods of evil, disturbed by the noise caused by the games of the “first twins”, devised a plan to kill Hun Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu.

They decided to invite them to a ball game in the Underworld realm, but along the way, the demons set them multiple traps and eventually the brothers lost their lives, burying their bodies on the underworld pitch. From the tomb of Hun Hunahpu a tree is born, whose fruits were shaped like a skull, among the skulls with time the head of Hun Hunahpu appeared, who spoke at will when he considered it appropriate.
After a while, the daughter of the lord of Xibalba, Princess Ixquic, heard about the legend of the Hun Hunahpu tree and intrigued by the story, wanted to see the tree with her own eyes. Finally, she found him, discovering that the stories were true.

Then Hun Hunahpu spoke to the princess, asked her to come closer and spread her hands in front of him. It was then that Hun Hunahpu performed a spell that would make the princess of the underworld become pregnant (pic 11). The princess, fearing discovery, escapes to the outside world where she meets Hun Hunahpu’s mother who helps her give birth to the “second twins”, Hunahpu and Ixbalanque.
Among the Maya gods, Ixquic is essential insofar as it represents the feminine evolution in the history of the Popol Vuh, name means women’s blood, strength, vigor, or vigorous blood. She represents the purity, beauty, strength, value, and evolution of women in Maya culture. Her mission was to procreate the two twin heroes, and being the only woman in Xibalba, she represents the union of the Underworld with the Overworld.

The two brothers wander for a long time without a place to settle, aimlessly and abandoned by their mother and family until their older stepbrothers take them as servants, enslaving them and forcing them to hunt and work for them while they play and dance. After a while, the “second twins” discover that by inheritance they have magical powers, which they decide to develop and enhance. One day, fed up with the mistreatment of their older brothers, Hunahpu and Ixbalanque make their evil stepbrothers climb a tree, a tree that they make grow very tall with their magical powers. Although the evil stepbrothers begged for mercy, the “second twins” decided to punish them, in this way the brothers Hun Batz and Hun Chouen became monkeys and were called “the monkey twins” (pic 12).

From that moment on, Hunahpu and Ixbalanque begin to overcome a series of adventures such as the one that confronts them with Vucub Caquix, a gigantic bird with airs of greatness whom they defeat, displaying surprising regenerative and healing powers that they developed with great skill.
The twins discovered what happened to their father and uncle in the Underworld some time ago and decided to avenge their deaths by planning an elaborate revenge against the dark gods of Xibalba. As part of their plan, the brothers learn to play the ballgame on the same court as their father and uncle long ago and that bothered the demons of the Underworld at that time. Again, the gods of the Underworld challenge those who disturb the entrance of their world. The twins arrive at the same crossroads that their father and uncle once reached and where they fell into the trap that took their lives. But using a magic trick, the twins turned one of their hairs into a mosquito to see which is the correct path to take.

They finally reached the palace of the Underworld, where the demons were surprised by their arrival since their traps had no effect. The gods then offer them the hospitality of their palace during the night to have the game in the morning of the next day. But during the night, the twins are attacked and Hunahpu is beheaded, but he does not die. The next morning, the brothers report to the game and the Demon God presents Hunahpu’s head as a ball for the game. Ixbalanque manages to recover the head of his brother and places it back on the body of his brother, magically restoring it (pic 14). The lords of Xibalba then challenge them to a last test to demonstrate their bravery, before which, even knowing the impossible of the challenge, the twins are not able to refuse to demonstrate their honor and courage. The test consists of jumping a huge fire pit into which the twins fail in their attempt. The lords of death then crush their charred bones and throw them into the river, but again magically the ashes do not flow with the water, instead they settle on the riverbed and the twin brothers return to life back again.

Five days later, they return to the kingdom of Xibalba disguised as old sorcerers and perform tricks resurrecting animals and people. Two astonished minor Underworld lords demand to be part of the game and ask to be killed so that the old sorcerers will later resurrect them. Hunahpu and Xbalanque kill the first of the dark gods and refuse to resurrect him, and when they go imposingly to kill the main Lord of Darkness, he realizes what is happening and crying begs for mercy, since he sees that the old sorcerers’ power surpasses him. Then all the vassals of Xibalba seeing the humiliation to which their lord is subjected are outraged and repudiate their dark kings. Hunahpu and Ixbalanque reveal their identity and subdue all the demons and evil geniuses who believed they were dead.

The triumphant twins (pic 15) spare the lives of the inhabitants of the Underworld in exchange for taking away all their dark powers to do evil and in a show of necromancy they communicate with their father and uncle, promising them the respect and veneration of future generations (Diane Wirth 2002).
The Hero Twins left Xibalba and climbed back up to the surface of the Earth. They continued up into the sky, becoming the Sun, and the Moon. Now that the Sun and Moon were in the sky and illuminated the Earth, the Creator Gods created the final form of human beings using white and yellow corn. Corn is the precious substance that ultimately succeeds in producing true, and enduring, humans. (pic 16).

Caves as Portals to the Underworld
Based on the Popol Vuh as well as on ethnographic accounts reported by J. Eric Thomson (Thomson, J. Eric S., 1990), archaeologists B. MacLeod and D. Puleston were the first to argue that the ancient Maya conceptualized caves as entrances to the Underworld (MacLeod, B., Puleson, D., 1978).
Among the ancient Maya, caves were thought of as Underworld places as well as transitional spaces beneath the earth that were, and in many traditional communities today still are, conceptualized as some of the most sacred features of the natural landscape. Archaeological research as well as ethnographic accounts demonstrate that caves were not spaces to be revered from afar, but places where humans could propitiate and placate both beneficent and dangerous deities.

The archaeological record attests to their use among the ancient Maya and elaborate architectural modifications at some sites suggest that they served as salient backdrops for large public ceremonies.
The utilization of cave environments for the production of visionary experiences of the type described above has at least one modern ethnographic parallel, and therefore the suggestion that such experiences were sought by the ancient Maya may be based on more than empty speculation. In the enactment of a cave ceremony at Balankanche in 1959, the h-men, Romualdo Hoil of Xcalakoop, ordered one of his retinue to remain seated on a rock facing offerings in total darkness while all other participants in the ceremony moved to a different part of the cave.

Alfredo Barrera-Vásquez (1970: 75) records that later when they returned, they found the assistant seated in the same spot where he had been left. “The h-men questioned him to find out what he had heard. He responded that he had felt cold, and that four times there were noises from the water, as if something were moving on its surface. The h-men commented, ‘you were listening to the Balames.’”
NOTES on pic 19: I have not seen any publications that discuss this painting, so I will hazard a description for those who have trouble seeing what is depicted. There seems to be a large face on the right which may be wearing a dark mask. In front of this face is an effigy vessel with a human head as an effigy adornment. This effigy head is wearing a bird headdress. An object that may be a stirrer is sticking out of the top of the effigy vessel.
Archaeologists say the Maya believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers - including an underground road stretching some 330 feet - was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.