The Five Suns

***Miscellaneous Myths: The Five Suns*** is the forty-third episode of the *Miscellaneous Myths* series by Red, with a theme of Aztec mythology, and specifically the Aztec cosmogony about the five worlds, the suns that those world housed and the large-scale destruction events that ended each of the previous worlds.

## Summary

Red begins that admitting that although she has every reason to hate the Sun, as she gets sunburns too easily, she thinks we don't appreciate it enough, and some of her favorite myths is when the Sun stops working; her favourite take on the subject is the Aztec spin on it.

In the beginning, the Aztec creation deity Ometeotl created themselves and four more gods, collectively known as the four Tezcatlipocas; Tezcatlipoca (associated with black and the north), Xipe Totec (associated with red and the east), Huitzilopochtli (associated with blue and the south) and Quetzalcoatl (associated with white and the west). Those four gods kept trying to create stuff, but everything they made would fall into the primordial ocean and be devoured by Cipactli, a giant monster with mouths in every joint. The four gods then lured the monster to the surface (which costs Tezcatlipoca's foot) and killed it, and his dead body forms the earth; but due to it not being entirely dead, it still needed regular sacrifices so it wouldn't start devouring everything again.

With that settled, the gods started creating other gods and humans (larger than normal ones); and Tezcatlipoca volunteered to be the sun. But either because he is missing a foot or because he is a night god, he could only manage half a sun. Time passed and he and Quetzalcoatl formed a rivalry, which ended with Quetzalcoatl whacking him out of the sky. Tezcatlipoca was so furious he made it rain jaguars which killed all humans. This is how the first world ended.

The gods cleaned up the mess the dead humans left behind, Quetzalcoatl created new humans, smaller this time, and he stepped up to be the second sun. Thing were fine for a while, until humans started being less pius than before and took the gods a bit too for granted. Tezcatlipoca transformed them all into monkeys, and sent strong winds ranscak the land. This is how the second world ended.

Again, Quetzalcoatl created humans from scratch again, and this time Tlaloc, a rain god, became the third sun. For a third time disaster stroke when Tezcatlipoca seduced Tlaloc's wife, the fertility goddess Xochiquetzal. Tlaloc got to upset he refused to let it rain for a while, until humanity's pleas for water got into his nerves, and then unleashed a rain of fire, burning everything to the ground. This is how the third world ended.

Once more, the gods cleaned up the mess and Quetzalcoatl created humans anew. Tlaloc remarried to the water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who became the fourth sun. Chalchiuhtlicue doted and cared a lot for her humans, but Tezcatlipoca accused her of being a poser who only pretended to like them in order to be worshipped. This got her so sad she cried blood for fifty-two years, drowning everybody. This is how the fourth world ended.

Quetzalcoatl, done with having to create new humans every few years, travelled to the Underworld and took the dead humans' bones from the god of the dead Mictlantecuhtli; on his way back he tripped and broke the bones, and this is used to explain why people come in different heights now. With new humans reborn, Huitzilopochtli stepped up to become the fifth and current sun. So far nothing bad has happened, but he is in constant war with his sister Coyolxauhqui, the Moon and his brothers the stars, the Aztecs believed that the fifth world would end in earthquakes.

## Credits

In the credits, Red sings *I'll Follow the Sun* by the Beatles.

## Characters appearing

Ra

Isis (cameo)

Apophis

Helios (cameo)

Amaterasu (cameo)

Ame-no-Uzume

Ometeotl

Tezcatlipoca

Xipe Totec

Huitzilopochtli

Quetzalcoatl

Cipactli

Tlaloc

Xochiquetzal

Chalchiuhtlicue

Mictlantecuhtli

Coyolxauhqui