>>2368595he Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial K'iche' document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque [ʃɓalaŋˈke] in the K’iche’ language, the Twins have also been identified in the art of the Classic Mayas (200-900 AD). The twins are often portrayed as complementary forces. The complementary pairings of life and death, sky and earth, day and night, sun and moon, among multiple others have been used to represent the twins. The duality that occur between male and female is often seen in twin myths, as a male and female twin are conceptualized to be born to represent the two sides of a single entity (Miller and Taube 1993: 81).
The Twin motif recurs in many Native American mythologies; the Maya Twins in particular could be considered as mythical ancestors to the Maya ruling lineages.
