Xmucane’s Family Tree

About Xmucane →

Family

• Xpiyacoc(spouse),Hun Hunahpu(child),Vucub-Hunahpu(child)— Marriage

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

• Hunahpu(child),Xbalanque(child)— Adopted

  Xmucane raised her grandsons Hunahpu and Xbalanque in her home after their mother Xquic arrived pregnant from Xibalba, serving as their guardian and provider through childhood.

Allied with

• The Hero Twins,Xpiyacoc

  Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, the grandparent deities, aided the Hero Twins against Vucub-Caquix by disguising themselves as wandering healers and extracting the false sun's jeweled eyes and teeth while pretending to cure his wounded jaw.

Associated with

• Alom,Huracan,Kukulkan,Qaholom,Tepeu,Xpiyacoc

  In the Popol Vuh, the creator gods — Huracan, Q'uq'umatz, Tepeu, Alom, and Qaholom — consulted the divine daykeepers Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, who cast maize kernels and coral seeds to divine that corn was the substance from which true humans should be fashioned.

• Hun Hunahpu,Hunahpu,Xbalanque

  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.

• Hunahpu,Xbalanque,Xquic

  Xquic fled Xibalba while pregnant with Hunahpu and Xbalanque, then proved her legitimacy to Xmucane by miraculously harvesting corn from a single plant, as told in the Popol Vuh.

• Hun Batz,Hun Chouen

  Hun Batz and Hun Chouen were raised in their grandmother Xmucane's household after their father Hun-Hunahpu's death in Xibalba. Xmucane mourned when the Hero Twins transformed them into monkeys, as told in the Popol Vuh.

• Alom

  Xmucane ground the white and yellow maize nine times to produce the dough from which Alom and the creator gods fashioned the first true humans, her labor transforming sacred grain into the substance of humanity.

• Owl Messengers of Xibalba

  In the Popol Vuh, the Owl Messengers of Xibalba arrive at Xmucane's home to deliver the death lords' summons to her grandsons the Hero Twins, just as they had previously summoned her sons to the underworld.

• Qaholom

  Xmucane ground the white and yellow maize nine times to produce the dough from which Qaholom and the creator gods fashioned the first true humans, her labor transforming sacred grain into the substance of humanity.

• The Four Progenitors

  Xmucane ground the white and yellow maize into dough from which the Four Progenitors were fashioned. The divine grandmother's labor provided the sacred substance of their bodies.

• The Hero Twins

  Xmucane, the divine grandmother, raised the Hero Twins in her house after their mother Xquic arrived from Xibalba. She kept their father's ballgame equipment, which the twins later discovered and used.

• Xbaquiyalo

  After Xbaquiyalo's death, her mother-in-law Xmucane raised her sons Hun Batz and Hun Chouen. Xmucane became the sole guardian of the boys before the Hero Twins' birth.