Cylinder Vessel Depicting a Hero Twin Playing the Ballgame

Date

600-900 CE

Creator

This polychrome vessel by a Classic period Maya artist shows one of the hero twins, Hunahpu, identifiable in part by the jaguar spots on his skin, playing the ballgame. The stepped stairs represent the side of the ballcourt, and the black rubber ball bounces off the center stair, as if just struck. A monkey is shown watching from the stands, possibly one of the hero twins’ older brothers who were transformed into monkeys. The ballgame is of central importance in the Popol Vuh, the K’iche’ people’s mythical origin story. In it, Hun Hunahpu, the father of the hero twins, dies after playing the lords of death in the ballgame. The twins then venture to the underworld to seek vengeance.