Key Info

- Predecessors to the Hero Twins

- Tricked into the Underworld, killed and sacrificed by One and Seven Death

- Hun's head was suspended from a tree in the Underworld as a trophy

- Hun fathered the most famous Hero Twins and their half brothers

Brief Bio

Hun Hunahpu "One Hunahpu" (pronounced [hunhunaxˈpu]) is a figure of Late Postclassic Maya mythology whose name connects him to the XXth day of the day count, Hunahpu (corresponding to Classic Ahau "Lord"). His tale is part of the early-colonial "Popol Vuh" manuscript.

According to this source, Hun Hunahpu is the father of the Maya Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. He is also the father of the twins' half-brothers, the patrons of artisans and writers, Hun-Chowen and Hun-Batz. Hun Hunahpu is paired with his brother, Vucub-Hunahpu "Seven Hunahpu". 

These two brothers of the generation preceding that of the hero twins were tricked into the Dark House by the lords of the Underworld (Xibalba) and sacrificed. Hun Hunahpu's head was suspended in a trophy tree and changed to a calabash. Its saliva (i.e., the juice of the calabash) impregnated Xquic, a daughter of one of the lords of Xibalba. She fled the Underworld and conceived the Twins. After defeating the Underworld lords, the twins recovered the remains of their father and their father's brother, but could not resuscitate them.