grupo de deidades

The messengers of Xibalba, or “vzamahel Xibalba” are a group of four owls, each with distinct, surreal features. The text introduces them when the Lords of Xibalba first summon Jun Junajpu and Wuqub’ Junajpu to play with them in Xibalba, and they serve the Lords of Xibalba several times in the text thereafter. According to Ximénez, the messengers are named “chabi tucur” or “saeta tecolote”; “huracan tucur” or “tecolote de vna pierna”; “caquix tucur” or “guacamaya tecolote”; and “holom tucur” or “tecolotecabeza” (13v).

Jun Kame (One Death) and Wuqub’ Kame (Seven Death) are the principal deities of the realm of Xibalba. Their names represent the K’iche’ calendar dates of Kame, a day generally associated with the word for death (kämikal). They are first introduced in Popol Wuj when they are disturbed by the ball playing of Jun Junajpu and Wuqub’ Junajpu. Their most important moment in the text is arguably their defeat by the Hero Twins Junajpu and Xb’alanke, marking the end of their powerful rule over the existing world.

When the first four K’iche’ men, Balam K’itze’, Balam Aq’ab, Majuk’utaj and Ik’ibalam, begin their sacrificial killings to the gods Tojil, Awilix, and Jakawitz, the enemies of the K’iche’ plan to defeat the K’iche’ and thus avenge the deaths of their people. Their plan involves sending two of their best maidens, Xtaj and Xpuch’, who will wash their clothes in the river where the gods are, and thus offer themselves and their bodies to the gods.

Lady Blood [Ixkik’] (brackets inserted to provide modern naming according to K’iche’ linguist Sam Colop) is the daughter of the lord of Xibalba Gathered Blood [Kuchuma Kik’]. She becomes impregnated by the skull of One Junajpu [Jun Junajpu] in the ballcourt where he and his brother Seven Junajpu [Wuqub’ Junajpu] lost to the Lords of Xibalba. As a result of this pregnancy, she escapes Xibalba to avoid facing sacrifice by the Lords.

The importance of maize to Mayan cultures is well represented in the Popol Wuj. Below we provide insights from other primary and secondary sources so that readers may appreciate the profound technological and sociohistorical implications of maize cultivation in daily life and spiritual paths, including the creation of the first human beings -- "las primeras gentes creadas y formadas," Balam Ki'tze', Balam Aq'ab, Majuk'utaj, e Ik'i Balam (Colop 2011: 130).

Junb’atz’ y Junchouen son hijos gemelos de Xbaquiyalo y Jun Junajpu, pero son mejor conocidos como los Hermanos Artesanos, destacados por su sabiduría y sus habilidades en varias áreas artesanas (Recinos 1976: 60). Los sabios abuelos les enseñaban "las artes y el trabajo," tal como Sam Colop (2008: 62) traduce la expresión del idioma k'iche' al castellano, incluso las artes bellas (la música, la escritura-pintura) y las artes técnicas (la ofebrería en plata, oro y sagradas piedras preciosas como el jade).

The lords of Xibalba are a group of deities. Within the group, each deity is paired with another lord, both having a specific combined way of killing or torturing humans. In turn, the pairs are ruled by two main deities: Wuqub’ Kame and Jun Kame. Tedlock (1996: 136) and Christenson (2007: 162-63) maintain the parallelism of the naming of the lords of Xibalba in a critical scene in which a mosquito, named Xan, bites all the lords on the Black Road.