Both Sundiata and Popul Vuh deal centrally with a heroic quest.  Unit 1’s introduction to the Five Great Themes of World Literature states with regard to the hero:  “The surest way to understand what a culture of the past most values is to focus on what it considers heroic, in that a culture recognizes its heroes as embodying its most important ideas, the values that are essential.”  Discuss what forces Sundiata and the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque have to overcome and how they go about doing it. For Sundiata your essay will probably focus on Sundiata’s historical destiny; in Popul Vuh, the Twins’ quest will have a more mythic quality, but you probably will focus on the meaning for the Mayan culture of the mythic events. Regardless, be sure to discuss the texts in relation to one another, and craft an argument about the similarities and differences in their presentation of their heroic quests.