Hun Hunahpu’s Family Tree

About Hun Hunahpu →

Family

• Chac Xib Chac(child),Jaguar God of the Underworld(child),Unen K'awiil(child)— Miraculous

  The Palenque inscriptions name Hun Hunahpu, the Maize God, as the father of the Triad deities — Chac Xib Chac, Unen K'awiil, and the Jaguar God of the Underworld — linking the city's patron gods to the primordial cycle of maize death and rebirth.

  ⚠ The identification of the Popol Vuh's Hun Hunahpu with the Classic Maya Maize God who fathers the Palenque Triad rests on epigraphic interpretation (Stuart, Taube). Some scholars question whether the K'iche' and Classic Maya figures are the same deity.

• Xbaquiyalo(spouse),Hun Batz(child),Hun Chouen(child)— Marriage

  Hun-Hunahpu and Xbaquiyalo were married and had two sons, Hun Batz and Hun Chouen, who became the elder half-brothers of the Hero Twins.

• Xmucane(parent),Xpiyacoc(parent),Vucub-Hunahpu(sibling)— Marriage

  Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, the first grandparents and diviners of the Popol Vuh, bore Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu as their sons.

• Xquic(spouse),Hunahpu(child),Xbalanque(child)— Consort · Miraculous

  Hun-Hunahpu's severed skull magically impregnated Xquic in Xibalba, conceiving the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque as told in the Popol Vuh.

Slain by

• Hun Came,Vucub Came

  Hun Came and Vucub Came killed Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu after defeating them in the ballgame in Xibalba, as told in the Popol Vuh.

Equivalent to

• Centeotl(Aztec)

  Hun Hunahpu and Centeotl are the Maya and Aztec maize deities, cognate figures descending from the Preclassic Mesoamerican Young Maize God tradition whose death-and-rebirth cycle mirrors the agricultural planting-to-harvest sequence.

Associated with

• Hunahpu,Vucub-Hunahpu,Xbalanque

  Hunahpu and Xbalanque descended to Xibalba to avenge their father Hun-Hunahpu and uncle Vucub-Hunahpu, who had been lured, defeated, and sacrificed by the death lords a generation earlier.

• Hunahpu,Xbalanque,Xmucane

  Hunahpu and Xbalanque found their father Hun-Hunahpu's ballgame equipment hidden in the rafters of Xmucane's house. When they began playing, the noise summoned the Lords of Xibalba, repeating the pattern that had doomed their father.

• Owl Messengers of Xibalba,Vucub-Hunahpu

  The Owl Messengers of Xibalba delivered the death lords' summons to Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu, commanding them to appear in the underworld for a ballgame, as told in the Popol Vuh.

• Vucub-Hunahpu,Xibalba

  Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub-Hunahpu descended into Xibalba after being summoned by the death lords, failed its trials, and were sacrificed beneath the underworld ballcourt as told in the Popol Vuh.

• Itzam Cab Ain

  In Classic period iconography, Hun-Hunahpu the Maize God emerges reborn through a crack in Itzam Cab Ain's back, the earth-crocodile's body splitting open to release maize and renewed life.

• The Hero Twins

  After defeating the Lords of Xibalba, the Hero Twins found their father Hun Hunahpu's buried remains at the ballcourt and spoke to his reviving head, restoring the Maize God so he could rise again from the cracked earth like corn sprouting from the ground.

• Xquic

  Xquic visited the calabash tree where Hun-Hunahpu's severed skull hung, and the skull spoke to her and spit into her palm, magically conceiving the Hero Twins as told in the Popol Vuh.