Editing Xibalba (section)

==Downfall of Xibalba==
Xibalba was home of a famous ballcourt in which the heroes of the ''Popol Vuh'' succumbed to the trickery of the demons in the form of a deadly, bladed ball, as well as the site in which the [[Maya Hero Twins]] outwitted the gods and brought about their downfall.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/ndi/twinmyths.html |title=Twins in mythology |publisher=Simon Fraser University |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070502210330/http://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/ndi/twinmyths.html |archive-date=May 2, 2007 }}</ref>

According to the ''Popol Vuh'', the denizens of Xibalba at one point enjoyed the worship of the people on the surface of the Earth who offered human sacrifice to the gods of death. Over the span of time covered in the ''Popol Vuh'', the gods of Xibalba are tricked and finally humiliated into accepting lesser offerings from above by the Maya Twins, who got superpowers after they were burnt and their ashes thrown into a magical river.<ref>mayas.mrdonn.org/herotwins.html</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jojLJNn87fU|title=The Story of Hero Twins - Mayan Collection &#124; Myths and Legends &#124; EP03 &#124; 4K|date=September 26, 2019|via=YouTube}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Dennis Tedlock]] has speculated that this version of history may be a [[Kʼicheʼ people|Kʼicheʼ]] slander on earlier Mayan forms of worship.<ref name="tedlock">[[Dennis Tedlock|Tedlock, Dennis]]  (1996) ''Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings.'' Touchstone Books. {{ISBN|0-684-81845-0}}.</ref>

The role of Xibalba and its inhabitants after their great defeat at the hands of the Hero Twins is unclear, although it seems to have continued its existence as a dark place of the underworld long after.