Xibalba

In Mayan mythology, Xibalbá or Xib'alb'a (from Quiché: Xibalbá 'Hidden Place''xibil, hide') is the world underground ruled by the divinities of disease and death: Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé. It forms an important part of the mythical cycle of the twins Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué, narrated in the Popol Vuh of the Quiché Mayan culture. In the 16th century, it was traditionally located at the entrance of a cave near the town of Alta Verapaz, near Cobán, Guatemala.^{[citation required]}

Mythology

The Xibalbá is known mainly from the description of it in the Popol Vuh ("Pop wuj", in Quiché), whose translation would be Book of the Council or Community Book, discovered after the Spanish conquest, in the 18th century, translated into Latin by Fray Francisco Ximénez from a Catholic perspective. Hence, it refers to Xibalbá very similar to the hell of Christianity, consisting of a telluric world, ruled by the Ajawab of Xibalbá or the "lords of the underworld".^{[citation required]}

However, the concept of "evil" it is represented explicitly in the characteristics of other beings in Mayan mythology: for example, Wuqub Qak & # 39;ix and his family, or through defects in the personalities of the first human beings created. Xibalbá is not then hell, since it represents death and disease, seen as part of existence and not as punishment. It is more accurate to refer to Xibalbá as the underworld.^{[citation needed]}

One of the parts of the Popol Vuh narrates the confrontation between the Lords of Xibalbá and two pairs of divine twins: first, Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú; and then, after being defeated, the sons of the first of them: Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, who will emerge victorious thanks to their ingenuity and their knowledge of magic.^{[citation required]}

In both cases, the twins are called by the main lords of Xibalbá Hun Camé (One Death) and Vucub Camé (Seven Death), due to the scandal they caused when making the ball game, so they challenge them to play in their domains.

The defeat of Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú results in death and subsequent dismemberment, and they place their heads on the branches of a tree of the lower world that, after this, flourished and bore fruit. From one of those fruits would come the sap that Ixquic, also lady of Xibalbá, would touch, with which she would become pregnant with Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué.

Description

Capital of the Maya Underworld. Represented in a polychrome ceramic dish of the Classic Period. Balamkú, Campeche, Mexico.

During the account of the adventures of the heroes of the Popol Vuh, a description of Xibalbá and the path that must be followed before reaching it is made:

"Then they went down to the road leading to Xibalbá, with steep slopes. Having descended thus, they came to the edge of the rivers enchanted by ravines called Barranco Cantante Resonante, Barranco Cantante, which passed over rivers enchanted with spiny trees; countless [they were] the spiny trees, passed without being hurt. They immediately reached the edge of the Blood River [and] there they passed without drinking. They came to another river, of water only; having not been overcome, they passed it also. Then they came there where four paths crossed: there they were overcome, where four paths crossed. A red road, a black road, a white road, a yellow road; four paths. »

Popol Vuh. 12.

In this way, the path to Xibalbá is described as a descent down some very steep stairs that end at the bank of a river, which runs through ravines and thorny gourds. Next, there are other rivers and even one of blood, and then a crossroads of four roads opens up: one red, one white, one yellow and one black. The latter is the one that goes to Xibalbá, exactly to the council room of the Lords of Xibalbá.^{[citation required]}

Regarding the tests that the Lords of Xibalbá put them through, the Popol Vuh recounts that there were many places of torment and punishment in Xibalbá:

• The first was the Dark house, "in whose interior there was only darkness";
• The second was the House of the coldwhere "a cold and unbearable wind blowing inside";
• The third was the House of the jaguarswhere the jaguars "they rolled, piled, grunted and moffed";
• The room was the House of batswhere "There were nothing but bats that shook, yelled and rolled in the house";
• The fifth was called the House of the knives, "within which there were only knifes cut and sharpened".^{[chuckles]required]}

In another part of the Popol Vuh, it says that there is a sixth house, called the House of Heat, "where there were only embers and flames ".^{[citation required]}