At-a-glance/Aztec mythology

Main articles: Five Suns and Popol Vuh

## Five suns

From the void that was the rest of the universe, the first god, Ometeotl, created itself. Ometeotl was both male and female, good and evil, light and darkness, fire and water, judgment and forgiveness, the god of duality. Ometeotl gave birth to four children, the four Tezcatlipocas, who each preside over one of the four cardinal directions. Over the West presides the White Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, the god of light, mercy and wind. Over the South presides the Blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. Over the East presides the Red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, the god of gold, farming and Spring time. And over the North presides the Black Tezcatlipoca, also called simply Tezcatlipoca, the god of judgment, night, deceit, sorcery and the Earth.

### First sun

It was these four gods who eventually created all the other gods and the world we know today, but before they could create they had to destroy, for every time they attempted to create something, it would fall into the water beneath them and be eaten by Cipactli, the giant earth crocodile, who swam through the water with mouths at every one of her joints. The four Tezcatlipocas descended the first people who were giants. They created the other gods, the most important of whom were the water gods: Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility and Chalchiuhtlicue, the goddess of lakes, rivers and oceans, also the goddess of beauty. To give light, they needed a god to become the sun and the Black Tezcatlipoca was chosen, but either because he had lost a leg or because he was god of the night, he only managed to become half a sun. The world continued on in this way for some time, but a sibling rivalry grew between Quetzalcoatl and his brother the mighty sun, who Quetzalcoatl knocked from the sky with a stone club. With no sun, the world was totally black and in his anger, Tezcatlipoca commanded his jaguars to eat all the people.

### Second sun

The gods created a new group of people to inhabit the Earth, this time they were of normal size. Quetzalcoatl became the new sun and as the years passed, the people of the Earth grew less and less civilized and stopped showing proper honor to the gods. As a result, Tezcatlipoca demonstrated his power and authority as god of sorcery and judgment by turning the animalistic people into monkeys. Quetzalcoatl, who had loved the flawed people as they were, became upset and blew all of the monkeys from the face of the Earth with a mighty hurricane. He then stepped down as the sun to create a new people.

### Third sun

Tlaloc became the next sun, but Tezcatlipoca seduced and stole his wife Xochiquetzal, the goddess of sex, flowers and corn. Tlaloc then refused to do anything other than wallow in his own grief, so a great drought swept the world. The people's prayers for rain annoyed the grieving sun and he refused to allow it to rain, but the people continued to beg him. Then, in a fit of rage he answered their prayers with a great downpour of fire. It continued to rain fire until the entire Earth had burned away. The gods then had to construct a whole new Earth from the ashes.

### Fourth sun

The next sun and also Tlaloc’s new wife, was Chalchiuhtlicue. She was very loving towards the people, but Tezcatlipoca was not. Both the people and Chalchiuhtlicue felt his judgment when he told the water goddess that she was not truly loving and only faked kindness out of selfishness to gain the people’s praise. Chalchiuhtlicue was so crushed by these words that she cried blood for the next fifty-two years, causing a horrific flood that drowned everyone on Earth. Humans became fish in order to survive.

### Fifth sun

Quetzalcoatl would not accept the destruction of his people and went to the underworld where he stole their bones from the god Mictlantecuhtli. He dipped these bones in his own blood to resurrect his people, who reopened their eyes to a sky illuminated by the current sun, Huitzilopochtli.

The Tzitzimimeh, or stars, became jealous of their brighter, more important brother Huitzilopochtli. Their leader, Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, lead them in an assault on the sun and every night they come close to victory when they shine throughout the sky, but are beaten back by the mighty Huitzilopochtli who rules the daytime sky. To aid this all-important god in his continuing war, the Aztecs offer him the nourishment of human sacrifices. They also offer human sacrifices to Tezcatlipoca in fear of his judgment, offer their own blood to Quetzalcoatl, who opposes fatal sacrifices, in thanks of his blood sacrifice for them and give offerings to many other gods for many purposes. Should these sacrifices cease, or should mankind fail to please the gods for any other reason, this fifth sun will go black, the world will be shattered by a catastrophic earthquake, and the Tzitzimitl will slay Huitzilopochtli and all of humanity.

## External links

* Treasures of Mexico: The Mixtec, Aztec & Maya Codices that Survived the Conquistadors

## References

1. ↑ the Florentine Codex identifies Old God as an alternative epithet for Lord Fire. Old God is characteristically depicted as an aged or even decrepit being, whereas Lord Fire's appearance is much more youthful and vigorous
2. ↑ The king of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. Depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton. His wife was Mictecacihuatl. Mictlantecuhtli and his wife were the opposites and compliments of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the givers of life. After Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created the world, they put their creation in order and placed Mictlantecuhtli and his wife in the underworld. The twin gods Feathered Serpent and Dog-man were sent by the other gods to steal the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlantecuhtli. The god of the underworld sought to block Quetzalcoatl's escape with the bones and, although he failed, he forced Quetzalcoatl to drop the bones, which were scattered and broken by the fall. The shattered bones were collected by Quetzalcoatl and carried back to the land of the living, where the gods transformed them into the various races of mortals.
3. ↑ mother and father of the Gods
the personification of life after death and is sometimes considered to be the same as Old God. His wife was Jade Skirt. Lord Fire was considered to be mother and father of the Gods, who dwelled in the turquoise enclosure in the center of earth. The nahual, or spirit form, of Lord Fire is Fire Serpent. Xiuhtecuhtli is sometimes considered to be a manifestation of Ometecuhtli, the Lord of Duality
4. ↑ By Serpent woman the Father of cloud serpent
5. ↑ cloud serpent was one of four children of Lord Sustenance and Serpent woman, a fertility goddess and the patroness of midwives.

He married Serpent Skirt. Fathered Old Zillah & evidently Feathered Serpent
6. ↑ The Aztec goddess who gave birth to the moon, stars, and Old Zillah, the god of the sun and war. She is also known as Grandmother and Serpent Lady the patron of women who die in childbirth. She was sacrificed during the beginning of the present creation. She was once magically impregnated by a ball of feathers that fell on her while she was sweeping a temple, and subsequently gave birth to the gods Feathered Serpent and Dog-man. Her daughter Face painted with Bells then rallied Serpent Skirt's four hundred other children together and goaded them into attacking and decapitating their mother. The instant she was killed, the god Old Zillah suddenly emerged from her womb fully grown and armed for battle. He killed many of his brothers and sisters, including Face painted with Bells, whose head he cut off and threw into the sky to become the moon. In one variation on this legend, Old Zillah himself is the child conceived in the ball-of-feathers incident and is born just in time to save his mother from harm
7. ↑ part crocodile, part Aquatic and part toad
8. ↑ Titlacauan ("We are his Slaves"), Ipalnemoani ("He by whom we live"), Necoc Yaotl ("Enemy of Both Sides"), Tloque Nahuaque ("Lord of the Near and the Nigh") and Yohualli Èecatl ("Night, Wind"), Ome acatl ("Two Reed"), Ilhuicahua Tlalticpaque ("Possessor of the Sky and Earth"). Smoke&Mirrors was often described as a rival of another important god of the Aztecs, the culture hero, Feathered Serpent. Feathered Serpent and Smoke&Mirrors joined forces to create the world. Before their act there was only the sea and the crocodilian earthmonster called Cipactli. To attract her, Tezcatlipoca used his foot as bait, and Cipactli ate it. The two gods then captured her, and distorted her to make the land from her body. After that, they created the people, and people had to offer sacrifices to comfort Cipactli for her sufferings.
9. ↑ Depicted as a jaguar leaping towards the sun. He may be the same as Lord of Mictlan, Earth Lord, Teoyaomicqui and Smoke&Mirrors.
10. ↑ 4 Bacabs/Chaacs
11. ↑ The twin of Quetzalcoatl, the pair being sons of the virgin Serpent Skirt, and was the dark personification of Venus, the evening star. He guarded the sun when it went through the underworld at night. He also assisted Feathered Serpent in bringing humankind and fire from the underworld. In art, Dog-man was depicted as a skeleton, a dog-headed man or a monster animal with reversed feet. He was also the patron of the Mesoamerican ballgame . He is identified with Citrus as being the Aztec god of fire
12. ↑ twin brother of Dog-man
13. ↑ the god of the planet Venus, the morning star and was associated with Quetzalcoatl
14. ↑ Goddess of love, beauty, youth, lakes, rivers, seas, streams, horizontal waters, storms, and baptism. Wife of Tlaloc. Mother of old moon god
She was also said to be the wife of Lord Fire, also called old god, an Aztec moon god
(Matlalcueitl)
15. ↑ Generally identified with Mountain at the heart
16. ↑ Young one. Warriors were transformed into hummingbirds upon death and went to join Huitzilopochtli
17. ↑ "he who comes from the land of the sea-slug shell". Portrayed as an old man who carries a large white seashell on his back
18. ↑ The fifth sun. He was sick, but rejuvenated himself by burning himself alive and then became the warrior sun and wandered through the heavens with the souls of those who died in battle, refusing to move if not offered enough sacrifices. Leader of Tollan, heaven.
19. ↑ Coxcox and his wife, Radiant Flower, survived the flood. They had many children, but all of them were dumb. The great spirit took pity on them, and sent a dove, which attempted to teach the children how to speak. Ancient Aztec paintings often depict the dove carrying a hieroglyphic symbol representing the languages of the world
20. ↑ Ixtlilxochitl, the native historian, says the first world lasted 1716 years before the flood. The Aztecs tell of the prophet Huemac or Quetzalcoatl who taught ethics, warning of the coming destruction, and died at 300. Nata and Nena survived the flood in a ship which they built at the command of the god Tezcatlipoca. The date of the flood was the year Cacalli.
21. ↑ The youthful sun. May have been another name for Sun Movement. Son of Oxomoco and Cipactonal. Husband of Radiant Flower. Father of Maize God by Purification Goddess
22. ↑ mother of Centeotl by Young Prince
Under the designation of Ixcuinan she was thought to be plural in number and four sisters of different ages by the names; Tiacapan (the first born), Teicu (the younger sister), Tlaco (the middle sister) and Xocotzin (the youngest sister). Her son was Centeotl and she was also known as Grandmother
 Another son was Yum-Kax, the Maya maize god
23. ↑ The female counterpart of Maize God. She is occasionally called hairy one who was married also to Smoke&Mirrors.
24. ↑ His wife was the human girl Mayahuel
25. ↑ Also called Maiden. Her twin was Flower Prince and her husband was Tlaloc, until Smoke&Mirrors kidnapped her and she was forced to marry him. At one point, she was also married to Maize God and Lord Fire. By cloud serpent, she was the mother of Feathered Serpent
26. ↑ a deity associated with stars. They were depicted as skeletal female figures wearing skirts often with skull and crossbone. The leader of the tzitzimimeh was the Goddess Obsidian or clawed butterfly (bat?) who was the ruler of Tamoanchan - the paradise where the Tzitzimimeh resided
27. ↑ a goddess who created the stars along with her husband, Citlalatonac. This pair of gods are sometimes associated with the first pair of humans, Nata and Nena.
28. ↑ A fearsome skeletal warrior goddess who ruled over the paradise world of Tamoanchan, the paradise of victims of infant mortality and place identified where humans were created. She is the mother of cloud serpent. She was considered one of the cihuateteo and also one of the Star demons that threatened to devour people during solar eclipses