page_title: Tlāhuizcalpantecuhtli
section_title: Origin Story
hierarchical_section_title: Tlāhuizcalpantecuhtli / Origin Story
caption_attribution_description: The bottom left quarter of page 53 of the Codex Borgia, depicting a deity piercing a woman with a spear or arrow.
context_page_description: Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is a principal member of the pantheon of gods within the Aztec religion, representing the Morning Star Venus. The name comes from the Nahuatl words tlāhuizcalpan "dawn" and tecuhtli "lord". Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is one of the thirteen Lords of the Day, representing the 12th day of the Aztec trecena.
context_section_description: Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli plays a significant role in the creation of Tonatiuh, the Fifth Sun in the Aztec creation narrative.
  Motolinía's Memoriales, and the Codex Chimalpopoca relate that the Toltec ruler Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl became the morning star when he died. Quetzalcoatl throws himself in into a bonfire after adorning his regalia. Once he started burning, his ashes were lifted and various beautiful birds were sacrificed until Quetzalcoatl's spirit leaves his heart as a star and becomes a part of the sky.
  The Annals of Cuauhtitlan gives his year of death as 1 Reed, one 52-year calendar cycle from his birth.
  In the second section of the Codex Chimalpopoca (called Legend of the Suns), Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli becomes angry when Tonatiuh, the sun god, does not move across the sky after being created. He shoots Tonatiuh with atlatl darts, but misses and is hit by Tonatiuh's darts, being transformed into the god of obsidian and coldness, Itztlacoliuhqui. The rest of the gods present: Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, Nochpalliicue, Yapallicue and Xochiquetzal sacrifice themselves in Teotihuacan to make the Sun move across the sky, starting the contemporary era.   
  Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is also viewed as one of the four gods who kept the sky up and was associated with the cardinal direction East.
caption: Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli wounding a woman on page 53 of the Codex Borgia. (Click to enlarge)
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