There are a few variations of this story and also a few parts.

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According to one legend described in Popol Vuh or Popol Wuj (meaning, Book of Community in K'iche'), One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu were the First Twins.  They were brothers who loved to play Maya ball games.  One day while playing, they created loud noises and once agitated, the gods of Xibalba, the underworld, summoned the twins. With ill intentions at heart, they invited the brothers to play a game with them, and defeated them through deceit.
 

They then beheaded the twins and suspended their heads on the branches of a *calabash (or Jícaro/Jícara) tree. The tree immediately produced fruits that looked like One Hunahpu’s head. Until this time the tree had never produced any fruits.
 

Seeing this, the gods of the underworld were so fearful of the power of the tree that they forbade anyone from cutting its fruit or going near it. Intrigued by the head on the tree, an underworld maiden, daughter of one of the Xibalban lords, approached the tree and started a conversation with the head.
 

When she came close enough, One Hunahpu spat into her hand, magically impregnated her. When the lords of the underworld discovered that she was carrying the child of an unknown father, they banished her to the surface of the Earth where she gave birth to twins.

 

The twins, named Hunahpu and Xbalanque, grew up on Earth; they learned that their father was One Hunahpu, also the true god/lord of the Earth. In a ball game, the Hero Twins defeated the lords of the underworld and recovered the remains of their father and uncle.

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Then the Hero Twins, Xbalanque and Hunahpu, upon defeating the lord of the underworld, ascended into the sky and became the Sun and the Moon.

Through their actions, the Hero Twins prepared the way for the *planting of corn, for human beings to live on Earth, and for the Fourth Creation of the Maya.

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* another version says it is a Cacao Tree

* another version states that one Hunahpu returned as the Corn god

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“Our Creation Story teaches us that the first Grandparents of our people were made from white and yellow corn. Maize is sacred to us because it connects us with our ancestors. It feeds our spirit as well as our bodies.”

Juana Batz Puac, K’iche’ Maya, Day Keeper