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CENTEOTL
was the corn god. Centeotl (also Centeocihuatl or Cinteotl) was a god of
maize (originally a goddess), and a son of Tlazolteotl and husband of
Xochiquetzal. He was a male version of Chicomecoatl.
CHALCHIUHTLICUE is the
goddess of running Water. She was the sister of Tlaloc.
CHANTICO
("she who dwells in the house") was the goddess of fires in the family
hearth and volcanoes. She broke a fast by eating paprika with roasted
fish, and was turned into a dog by Tonacatecuhtli.
CHICOMECOATL
"Seven Serpent", also the name of a day of the Aztec calendar) was a
goddess of food and produce, especially maize and, by extension, a goddess
of fertility.
Every September, she received a sacrifice of young
girl, decapitated. The sacrifice's blood was poured on a statue of
Chicmecoatl and her skin was worn by a priest. She was thought of as a
female counterpart to Centeotl and was also called Xilonen ("the hairy
one", which referred to the hairs on unshucked maize), who was married to
Tezcatlipoca.
She often appeared with attributes of
Chalchiuhtlicue, such as her headdress and the short lines rubbing down
her cheeks. She is usually distinguished by being shown carrying ears of
maize. She is shown in three different forms:
as a young girl carrying
flowers
as a woman who brings
death with her embraces
as a mother who uses the
sun as a shield
CIHUACAOTYL
A goddess whose roaring signaled War.
COATLICUE
She of the Serpent Skirt.
EHECATL
was the god of wind, an aspect of Quetzalcoatl. His breath moved the sun
and pushed away rain. He fell in love with a human girl named Mayahuel,
and gave mankind the ability to love so that she could return his passion
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HUEHUETEOTL "The old, old deity,"
was one of the names of the cult of fire, among the oldest in Mesoamerica.
The maintenance of fires in the temples was a principal priestly duty, and
the renewal of fire was identified with the renewal of time itself.
Huehuecoyotl
("old, old coyote"; sometimes alternately "Ueuecoyotl") is the
trickster god of music, dance, song, and uninhibited sexuality. He is
depicted in the Codex Borbonicus as a dancing coyote with human hands and
feet, accompanied by a human drummer.
Huehuecoyotl shares many
characteristics with North American tribes' trickster Coyote, including
storytelling and choral singing. In both cultures he is a prankster, whose
tricks are often played on other gods but frequently backfire and cause
more trouble for himself that the intended victims. A great party-giver,
he also was alleged to foment wars between humans to relieve his boredom.
He is a part of the Tezcatlipoca family of the Mexica gods, and has their
shape-shifting powers. Those who had indications of evil fates from the
gods would sometimes appeal to Huehuecoyotl to mitigate or reverse their
fate.
The fourth day of the thirteen day Mexica week
belonged to Huehuecoytol. He is often associated with Xolotl.
HUITZILOPOCHTLI
(also spelled Uitzilopochtli
("Hummingbird of the South", "He of the South", "Hummingbird on the Left
(South)", or "Left-Handed Humming Bird" – huitzil is the Nahuatl word for
hummingbird), was a god of war and a sun god and the patron of the city of
Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Aztecs. As well as being
a god of war and a sun god, he was also a god of death, young men,
warriors, storms, and a guide for journeys. His mother was Coatlicue, his
father a ball of feathers (or, alternatively, Mixcoatl). His sister was
Malinalxochi, a beautiful sorceress, who was also his rival. His messenger
or impersonator was Paynal.
In the Nahua culture, many names have an esoteric
meaning, known only to some. In Nahua maps, the South is at the left, and
in the South is the paradise of the sun. Also, the souls of the dead
warriors return to the earth as butterflies and hummingbirds, so the name
represents "the warrior soul from the paradise."
His sister, Coyolxauhqui, tried to kill their mother,
Coatlicue, because she became pregnant in a shameful way (by a ball of
feathers). Her fetus, Huitzilopochtli, sprang from her womb and killed
Coyolxauhqui, along with many of his 400 brothers and sisters. He then
tossed her head into the sky, where it became the moon, so that his mother
would be comforted in seeing her daughter in the sky every night.
Another legend says that he washed his hands,
touched his penis, and ejaculated onto a stone. The union of rock and
semen created the first bat.
Panquetzaliztli (7 to 26 December) was the Aztec month
dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. People decorated their homes and trees with
paper flags; there was a ritual race, processions, and massive human
sacrifices. His festival was that of a blood orgy with hearts and blood of
prisoners dumped on his altar. People fasted, or ate very little; a statue
of the god was made with amaranth (huatli) seeds and honey, and at the end
of the month, it was cut into small pieces so everybody could eat a little
piece of the god. The similarity with Christian rituals prompted the
Spanish authorities to forbid the cultivation of amaranth. After the
conquest, some aspects of these festivities were incorporated into the
traditions of the Nativity.
The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan was dedicated to
Huitzlilopochtli and Tlaloc because they were considered equals in power.
In art, Huitzilopochtli was represented as a
hummingbird (or with just the feathers of such on his head and left leg),
a black face, and holding a snake and a mirror. In the great temple his
statue was decorated with cloths and feathers, gold and jewels, and was
hidden behind a curtain to give it more reverence and veneration.
According to legend, the statue was supposed to be destroyed by the
soldier Gil Gonzᬥz de Benavides, but it was rescued by a man called
Tlatolatl. The statue appeared some years later, during an investigation
by Bishop ZummᲡga during the 1530s, only to be lost again. There is
speculation that the statue still exists in cave somewhere in the Anahuac
valley.
Huitzilopochtli
was a tribal god, and a legendary wizard of the Aztecs, and
originally was of little importance to the Nahuas, but after the rise of
the Aztecs, Tlacaelel reformed their religion and put Huitzilopochtli at
the same level as Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca, making him a
solar god. So he replaced Nanahuatzin, the solar god from the Nahua
legend, with Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli was said to be in a constant
struggle with the darkness, and he needed to replace his blood, hence the
major sacrifices.
The Nahuas believed the world would end like the
other previous four creations. Every fifty-two years, they feared the
world would end. Under Tlacaelel, Aztecs believed that they could give
strength to Huitzilopochtli with human blood and thereby postpone the end
of the world, at least for another fifty-two years. Ironically, the Aztec
empire fell at the end of this cycle.
In this new vision from Tlacaelel, the warriors
that died in battle and women who died in childbirth would go to serve
Huitzilopochtli on his palace (in the south, or left), but he was so
bright that they had to use their shields to protect their eyes. They
could only see the god through the arrow holes in their shields, so it was
the bravest warrior who could see him best. From time to time, those
warriors could return to earth as butterflie
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Itzli
(or Itztli) was a god of stone,
particularly in the shape of a sacrifical knife. He served Tezcatlipoca as
the god of the Second Hour of the Night. He is associated with
Chalchiuhtlicue and Tlazolteotl.
ITZPZPALOTL
("Clawed Butterfly" or "Obsidian Butterfly") was a fearsome skeletal
goddess, who ruled over the paradise world of Tomoanchan. She is
particularly associated with the moth Rothschildia Orizaba from the family
saturnidae.
IXTLILTON
("Little Black One") was a god of
healing, maize, feasts and festivals. He is associated, possibly via
siblingship, with the Centzontotochin.
MACUILXOCHITL
the god of Music and Dance.
METZTLI
(also Meztli, Metzi) was a god of the
moon, the night, and farmers. He was probably the same deity as
Yohaulticetl and Coyolxauhqui and the male moon god Tecciztecatl; like the
latter, he feared the sun because he feared its fire.
MICTLAN
The underworld and home of all the
dead except warriors and women who died in labor.
MICTLANTECIHUATL The lady and
goddess of Mictlan and the Realm of the Dead.
MICTLANTECUHTLE
God of the dead.
OMETECUHLTI
and his wife OMECIHUATL
created all life in the world the god of Duality.
PATECATLl
was a god of healing and
fertility, and the discoverer of peyote. With Mayahuel, he was the father
of the Centzon Totochtin.
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PAYNAL
The messenger to Huitzilopochtli.
QUETZALCOATL
("feathered snake", in Nahuatl:
Ketsalkoatl, in Spanish: Quetzalc) is the Aztec name for the
Feathered-Serpent deity of ancient Mesoamerica, one of the main gods of
many Mexican and northern Central American civilizations.
Classic Maya depiction from YaxchilanThe
name "Quetzalcoatl" literally means quetzal-bird snake or serpent with
feathers of the Quetzal (which implies something divine or precious) in
the Nahuatl language. The meaning of his local name in other Mesoamerican
languages is similar. The Maya knew him as Kukulk the Gukumatz.
The Feathered Serpent deity was important
in art and religion in most of Mesoamerica for close to 2,000 years, from
the Pre-Classic era until the Spanish Conquest. Civilizations worshiping
the Feathered Serpent included the Olmec, the Mixtec, the Toltec, the
Aztec, and the Maya.
The worship of Quetzalcoatl sometimes included
human sacrifices, although in other traditions Quetzalcoatl was said to
oppose human sacrifice. .
TEOYAOMQUI
(or Teoyaoimquit, Huahuantli) was the
god of dead warriors, particularly those who had died in battle. He is a
solar deity, the god of the Sixth Hour of the Day.
TEZCATLIPOCA
(god of Night and Sorcery) "Smoking
Mirror" (obsidian), characterized as the most powerful, supreme deity, was
associated with the notion of destiny. His cult was particularly
identified with royalty, for Tezcatlipoca was the object of the lengthy
and reverent prayers in rites of kingship.
TLALOC
The rain deity, belonged to another most
memorable and universal cult of ancient Mexico.
TLALOCAN
Tlalocan was the earthly paradise of
Tlaloc, located in the East, the place of Light and Life. It was where the
souls of those killed by lightning, dropsy, skin diseases, and those
sacrificed to Tlaloc went.
Xocotl
was a stellar god who presided
over fire. He is identified with the Aztec and Toltec god Xolotl.
Xochipilli
was the god of love, games, beauty,
dance, flowers, maize, and song. His name contains the Nahuatl words
xochitl ("flower") and pilli (either "prince" or "child"), and hence means
"flower prince". He is also referred to as Macuilxochitl, which means
"five flowers".
His wife was Mayahuel and his twin sister was
Xochiquetzal. As one of the gods responsible for fertility and
agricultural produce, he was associated with Tlaloc, god of rains, and
Cinteotl, god of maize.
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