In the underworld, the twins are subjected to a series of tests in various houses of suffering.

They survive through cleverness and magical ability.

Eventually they are killed, but they are reborn — first as fish, then as wandering performers who dance and display miraculous powers.

Ultimately they defeat the lords of the underworld and ascend to become the sun and the moon, establishing the current cosmic order.

The narrative is rich with themes that resonate with the archaeological evidence from the chultún: twinhood, descent into the underworld, death and rebirth, the relationship between the surface world and the supernatural domain below.

These themes were not limited to the Popol Vuh’s specific K’iche’ tradition; similar motifs appear across Maya art and epigraphy from multiple periods and regions, suggesting that they were broadly shared elements of Maya religious thought.