Hun Batz- Maya DemigodDemigod"Patron of Artists"

The Elder Brothers

Hun Batz and his brother Hun Chouen were the sons of Hun-Hunahpu and his first wife Xbaquiyalo, older half-brothers to the Hero Twins. Before the twins were born, the two brothers were accomplished artists and musicians. They lived in their grandmother Xmucane's household, comfortable in their position.

Then Xquic arrived pregnant with the Hero Twins, and everything changed. Hun Batz and Hun Chouen refused to share food with the younger boys. They made Hunahpu and Xbalanque eat scraps after they had finished. They sent them out as laborers and denied them shelter. The Popol Vuh makes the cruelty specific and sustained: the elder brothers treated their half-brothers as servants, and Xmucane did not intervene.

The Tree

The Hero Twins planned their revenge. They invited Hun Batz and Hun Chouen to help retrieve birds lodged high in a great tree. The elder brothers climbed. As they climbed, the trunk stretched taller beneath them. They could not come down.

Trapped at the top, Hun Batz and Hun Chouen loosened their loincloths to use as ropes. The loincloths became tails. Their bodies changed. They were howler monkeys.

Xmucane begged the twins to bring her grandsons back. The twins agreed to try: they would summon Hun Batz and Hun Chouen with music and dance, and Xmucane must not laugh at what they had become. The monkey brothers appeared, dancing and grimacing. Xmucane laughed. They fled. This happened four times. After the fourth, the transformation held.

Monkey Scribes

As monkeys, Hun Batz and Hun Chouen kept their talents. Classic Maya pottery shows monkey scribes hunched over bark-paper books, painting with evident skill. The day sign Batz in the Maya calendar stayed connected to artistic work, and children born under it were expected to show creative gifts. The howler monkey's resonant cry through the forest canopy was the sound of artists at their labor.