Mexican Mythology Lesson 4

1. The Aztecs

By the 13th century the entire region, then called the Valley of Anahuac, was occupied by assorted rival city-states. Among the last to arrive on the scene was the nomadic tribe of the Mexica (pronounced may-SHEE-ka), more commonly known as the Aztecs, who ended a long migration from their northern homeland, Aztlan, by settling in the Valley marshlands.

Legend states that the Aztec and other Nᨵatl-speaking tribal groups originally came to the Valley of Mexico from a region in the northwest, popularly known as Atzlan-Chicomoztoc. The name Aztec, in fact, is said to have been derived from this ancestral homeland, Aztlan (The Place of Herons). According to legend, the land of Atzlan was said to have been a marshy island situated in the middle of a lake.

The Aztecs considered themselves the chosen people of the sun and war god Huitzilopochtli. After coming upon an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake, a sign foretold in ancient tribal prophecy, the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan, their capital, on an island in Lake Texcoco. They sustained themselves there for half a century by acting as mercenaries for the mighty Tepanecs of Azcapotzalco, but eventually rose up against their rulers, effectively seizing power over the valley.

Tenochtitlan soon became the capital city of a vast empire, a magnificent metropolis graced by great canals, colorful markets places and temples galore. It was inhabited by highly organized society, ruled by a king and dominated by a noble class of priests and tax collectors, a warrior elite and an active, vital merchant class. The state engaged in war with other states for two express purposes: to exact tribute for maintaining the society and to capture prisoners for sacrifice to the gods.

In the 15th century the Aztecs formed the Triple Alliance with the states of Texcoco and Tlacopan. The joint armies were sent east to wage war against Tlaxcala and Huejotzingo. When the victorious warriors returned to Tenochtitlan in 1487 they brought 20,000 captives to be sacrificed for the dedication of the Great Temple built to honor both Huizilopochtli and Tlaloc.

During the reign of Moctezuma II the Aztec Empire was at its height, extending throughout most of central and southern Mexico. The appearance of a comet in 1517 was one of several portents of the empire's bitter end. In the spring of the year Ce Acatl (1519) a courier reported to Moctezuma the news that bearded white men bearing crosses had landed on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. To the sensitive and superstitious Moctezuma that could only mean one thing--Quetzalcoatl had returned as promised.

1.2 Aztec Culture

The Aztec civilization contained about 15 million people that lived in nearly 500 towns and cities. About 300,000 people lived in Tenochtitlan. In this famous city, the government controlled and were responsible to deal with taxes, punishment, famine, and market trading. Punishment in the city of Tenochtitlan was enforced for breaking any of the code of government laws. Offenders were enslaved into tedious work conditions for a specific amount of time. If the offense happened to be minor, the law-breaker was charged with a string of fees or fines. This type of governing system is only one of the many things that affected aspects of everyday life for the Aztecs.

EDUCATION

The Mexicas were especially interested in education. Boys and girls were carefully educated from birth. During the first years of life, fathers educated boys, while mothers took care of girls. Once family education was over, the children of the nobles and priests went to the calmecac, and all others went to the tepochcalli. The Aztecs believed that education was extremely valuable and insisted that boys, girls and young people attend school. There were two main types of school, the so-called tepochcalli and the calmecac. Boys and girls went to both, but were kept separate from each other.

The tepochcalli was for the children of common families and there was one in each neighborhood. Here, children learned history, myths, religion and Aztec ceremonial songs. Boys received intensive military training and also learned about agriculture and the trades. Girls were educated to form a family, and were trained in the arts and trades that would ensure the welfare of their future homes.

The calmecac was for the children of the nobility, and served to form new military and religious leaders. Teachers were greatly admired.

FOOD

The principal food of the Aztec was a thin cornmeal pancake called a tlaxcalli. (In Spanish, it is called a tortilla.) They used the tlaxcallis to scoop up foods while they ate or they wrapped the foods in the tlaxcalli to form tacos. They hunted for most of the meat in their diet and the chief game animals were deer, rabbits, ducks and geese. The only animals they raised for meat were turkeys and dogs.

The Aztecs have been credited with the discovery of chocolate. The Aztecs made chocolate from the fruit of the cacao tree and used it as a flavoring and as an ingredient in various beverages and kinds of confectionery.

LANGUAGE

The Aztec spoke a language called Nahuatl (pronounced NAH-what-l). It belongs to a large group of Indian languages which also include the languages spoken by the Comanche, Pima, Shoshone and other tribes of western North America. The Aztec used pictographs to communicate through writing. Some of the pictures symbolized ideas and other represented the sounds of the syllables.

WRITING

The Aztecs made paper by taking strips of bark from fig trees and pounding it on hard pieces of wood.

Each book, or codex, consists of a strip, anything up to 13 yards in length and some 6-7 inches high, made of paper, maguey cloth, or deer skin, and folded in zigzag or concertina fashion like a modern map, so that wherever the user opened it he was confronted by two pages.

The ends of the strip were glued to thin plaques of wood which served as covers and were some-times decorated with paintings or with discs of turquoise. Both sides of the strip were covered with writing and pictures, and the individual pages were divided into sections by red or black lines.

Each page was normally read from top to bottom, though in some codices the arrangement is zigzag or even goes around the page. The strip was scanned from left to right.

On this background the scribe drew his figures, first sketching the outlines in black, then adding the colors with his brush. The principal colors were red, blue, green, and yellow, and the pigments were sometimes mixed with an oil to give added luster.

Scribes were respected craftsmen, and the profession was probably hereditary.

The Aztecs wrote using symbols similar to the characters used by the Chinese and Japanese. All the symbols were pictures of one kind or another.

The symbols can be thought of as ideograms in which the objects express their own natures but also the underlying ideas and not concepts associated with them. Thus the idea of death can be represented by a corpse wrapped for burial, night by a black sky and a closed eye, war by a shield and a club, or speech by a little scroll issuing from the mouth of the person who is talking. Concepts involving the idea of motion, walking, migration, or the sequence of events were usually indicated by a trail of footprints going in the necessary direction.

Aztec personal names were of the descriptive type which could usually be written in glyphs. The name of the Emperor Acamapichtli means 'Handful of Reeds' and his glyph is a forearm with the hand grasping a bundle of stalks. Chimalpopoca, the name of the next ruler but one, means 'Smoking Shield', and his successor was Itzcoatl or 'Obsidian Snake'.

There was also a phonetic element in Aztec writing. Every word in spoken language has a sound as well as a meaning, and glyphs were sometimes used to indicate the phonetic value of a word rather than its sense. Thus, to give an example from English, a drawing of an eye may be a pictogram (meaning the eye as part of the body), or an ideogram (expressing the idea of sight and vision), or a phonogram (standing for the sound 'I').

Names of towns could be expressed by a combination of such phonograms. The sign for the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was a stone (tell) from which sprouted a prickly pear cactus (nochili); Tochtepecan was indicated by a rabbit (tochtli) above a mountain (tepeti); quauhtitlan by a tree (quauitl) with teeth (tiantli), quauhnauac by a tree with a speech scroll issuing from it (nahuall -speech).

Color was also important. The signs for grass, canes, and rushes look very much the same in black and white, but in color there could be no mistake: in the Codex Mendoza grass is yellow, canes are blue, rushes green. A ruler could be recognized at once from the shape of his diadem and from its color, turquoise, which was reserved for royal use.

2. Mythology of the Aztecs

Religion was extremely important in Aztec life. They worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses, each of whom ruled one or more human activities or aspects of nature. The people had many agricultural gods because their culture was based heavily on farming; also they included natural elements and ancestor-heroes.

They believed that the balance of the natural world, the processes that make life possible - like the rain or solar energy - and that the destiny of people depended on the will of these gods. While some deities were benevolent, others had terrifying characteristics.

The Aztecs thought that the power of the gods should be acknowledged and thanks given to them, so as to avoid the catastrophes that their rage or indifference could cause. For this reason, the monumental ceremonial centers were built and there were so many religious rites. The existence of the gods and their goodwill were maintained by offering up the most valuable human possession, life. This then, was the origin of human sacrifice and the ritual of bearing intense physical pain, which believers intentionally caused themselves.

3. Aztec gods

Centeotl: the corn god. He was a son of Tlazolteotl and the husband of Xochiquetzal.

Coatlique: She of the Serpent Skirt.

Ehecatl: the god of wind.

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.

Huitzilopochtli: (the war/sun god and special guardian of Tenochtitlan) the deified ancestral warrior-hero, was the Mexica-Aztec patron par excellence.

The derivation of his name may have come from the ancient Chichimeca "Tetzauhteotl", possibly meaning "Omen-God".

He is considered an incarnation of the sun and struggles with the forces of night to keep mankind alive. Only to have found a place of major worship among the Aztec peoples. Huitzilopochtli is credited with inducing the Aztecs to migrate from their homeland in "Aztlan" and begin the long wanderings which brought their tribe to the Mexico Valley.

Huitzilopochtli can only be fed by Chalchihuatl, or the blood of sacrifice, to sustain him in his daily battle. He resides in the seventh heaven of Aztec mythology. The seventh heaven is represented as blue. His temple on the great Pyramid in Tenochtitlan was called Lihuicatl Xoxouqui, or "Blue Heaven". Over 20,000 victims are thought to have been ritually killed at the opening of his great temple in Tenochtitlan during a four day period.

Huitzilopochtli was certainly the most celebrated of the Mexica deities and came to embody the aspirations and accomplishments of the Aztec. His cult could have been considered the "state cult" and was a focus of the powerful economic and political system.

Of interest many pictures and statues have survived of Tlaloc and other major deities but relatively few of Huitzilopochtli.

Metztli: the Moon god.

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.

Ometecuhlti and his wife Omecihuatl created all life in the world the god of Duality.

Patecatll: the god of Medicine.

Quetzalcoatl: (the god of civilization and learning) "quetzal (feather) serpent," had dozens of associations.

He taught men science and the calendar and devised ceremonies. He discovered corn, and all good aspects of civilization. Quetzalcoatl is a perfect representation of saintliness. His cult transformed into a type of nobility cult and only special sacrifices selected from the Nobel classes were made to him, and then only in secret.

Quetzalcoatl is a very ancient god known to the Mayas and ancient Teotihuacan ruins. Quetzalcoatl was said to be the son of Camaxtli and Chimalma and he was born in Michatlauhco, "Fish Deeps".

His mother died during his birth and he was raised by his grandfathers. The multiplicity of Quetzalcoatl's roles attest to the antiquity of his cult following and his adoration.

He is credited with allowing the Spanish and Cortes to march into the Aztec lands. The Aztec people thought Cortes was an incarnation of Quetzalcoatl returning from the East to retake his lands as told in legend.

Often depicted holding a thorn used to let blood. He created auto-sacrifice, a forerunner to human sacrifice. He is said to have let blood in honor to Camaxtli (Mixcoatl), who the Aztec believed to be Quetzalcoatl's father.

His association with the feathered serpent is an interesting story. The quetzal bird, native to the western area of Guatemala and Mexico, was regarded as the most beautiful bird and called Quetzaltotolin, meaning "most precious". The symbol of the feathered serpent was Quetzalcoatl, meaning not just feathered serpent, but "most precious serpent". Quetzalcoatl is not the feathered serpent but the one who emerges from the serpent as Venus rises from the morning horizon.

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.

The creator God - The God of the Hunt - Patron of Princes - God of Providence. The Lord of the Here and Now - The Enemy on Both Sides. The true invisible god who walked over the heavens and surface of the earth and hell. Where ever this god went wars, anxiety, and trouble were sure to follow. Tezcatlipoca was thought to incite wars against one another and was called Necocyautl, which means "sower of discord on both sides".

Tezcatlipoca is the patron of sorcerers and related to the stellar gods, the moon and to those that represent death, evil, and destruction. His "Nahual", or disguise, is that of the Jaguar. Master of men's destinies.

His name spelled properly is Tezcatl Ipoca, "Mirror that Smokes".

Tlaloc: the rain deity, belonged to another most memorable and universal cult of ancient Mexico.

The name may be Aztec, but the idea of a storm god especially identified with mountaintop shrines and life-giving rain was certainly as old as Teotihuacan. The primary temple of this major deity was located atop Mt. Tlaloc, where human victims were sacrificed to fertilize water-rocks within the sacred enclosure. In Tenochtitlan another Tlaloc temple shared the platform atop the dual Main Pyramid, a symbolic mountain.

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.

His home in Tenochtitlan was next to the same temple of the venerated Huitzilopochtli.

Tonatiuh: the sun, was perceived as a primary source of life whose special devotees were the warriors. The warriors were charged with the mission to provide the sun with sacrificial victims. A special altar to the sun was used for sacrifices in coronation rites, a fact that signifies the importance of the deity. The east-west path of the sun determined the principal ritual axis in the design of Aztec cities.

Tonantzin: "honored grandmother," was among the many names of the female earth-deity.

Xipe Totec: the god of springtime and regrowth.

God of suffering. God of Spring-God of Jewelers-Ruler of the East- The Red Tezcatlipoca. Also known as "The Red Mirror" and his disguise was that of the Eagle.

May have been worshiped by the name Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipoca, meaning the red Tezcatlipoca.

His name is derived from Xipe, meaning "Flayed ones", and Totec or ToTeuc, meaning "Our Lord".

4. Aztec legends

The New Fire

New Fire was kindled at the beginning of every solar year in a ceremony recalling the original sacrifice through which the gods gave birth to the sun of the present age of the world. The enactment of this ceremony that fell at the end of 52 solar years was particularly significant, since this marked the completion of one Calendar Round, the binding together of the solar and divinatory calendars used by the Mexica.

The origins:

At midnight, in Teotihuacan, the gods gathered around their hearth fire. For four days they discussed the need to create a new sun, and who would take the active role in this creation. Finally, they urged Teciztecatl to throw himself on the fire to become the sun. But although he began to do so four times, each time he wavered at the end, afraid. Then the gods turned to Nanahuatzin, an ugly god whose skin was covered in pustules, and he closed his eyes and threw himself on the fire. Teciztecatl followed his example and leaped in as well. The fire burned them both, and the gods waited for their reappearance. Finally, the sky turned red and dawn came, when Nanahuatzin rose in the east as the new sun. (Teciztecatl, who followed Nanahuatzin into the fire, rose later as the weaker, dimmer moon.) But although the sun had risen, it hung without moving in the east, until the gods pierced their own bodies for the blood necessary to provide energy, motion, ollin.

A ceremony:

Tenochtitlᮬ the great island city, capital of the Mexica empire, lies cloaked in darkness. An eerie silence pervades the vast ceremonial center--the Teocalli or Templo Mayor--spreading out over Moctezuma's splendid palace, with its botanical gardens and well-stocked zoo, across the market places, canals, aqueducts, and within each of the humble abodes in the residential wards.

For five full days, activity in the normally bustling metropolis has ceased. Commerce has been suspended, ceremonial and household fires extinguished, clothing, furniture, crockery and religious idols torn, broken and smashed. It is a time of fasting, sexual abstinence and uneasy waiting. But the nemotemi--empty days--that mark the end of the solar cycle are about to come to an end.

At the summit of Uixachtecatl--the Star Hill--overlooking Tenochtitlᮬ the city's astronomer-priests anxiously watch the heavens. Each is outfitted in the image of one of their many gods. They await nature's sign, for not until the Pleiades appear on the horizon can the sacred New Year's ritual begin.

Finally a noble captive is guided to the sacrificial stone. At the moment the brilliant star cluster reaches its zenith the priests jump into action. With one swift stroke of a razor-sharp obsidian knife they slash open their honored victim's chest. They work furiously to kindle fire within the gaping wound, and as the first spark turns to flame, cut out the heart, casting it upon a brazier. One by one, a line of waiting couriers step forward to ignite their torches, then turn back towards the darkened city to relay the New Fire first to the altars of the Templo Mayor and thence to every temple and hearth throughout the empire.

For the next 12 days Tenochtitlá® will erupt in unbridled festivity, for this ceremony marks not only the commencement of the new xiuhmolpilli--year bundle--but also the start of a new 52-year calendar cycle. According to Mexica belief, if the New Fire failed to ignite, the sun would surely perish. But on this night it seemed that the gods were pleased; El Quinto Sol--the Fifth Sun--would continue to illuminate the Mexica Empire. Once again the forces of darkness had been routed by the powers of light.

La Llorona (the Weeping Woman)

One name still strikes fear in the hearts of people, especially mothers and children: La Llorona (pronounced "LAH yoh-ROH-nah"), the Weeping Woman. The one who roams the shores of rivers and lakes in search of children to drag screaming to a watery grave. By some, she is described as being an alluring woman dressed all in white, singing a beautiful, mournful song in Spanish; her thin, graceful body hidden behind a white gown, her hideously contorted face covered by her long, lustrous black hair. Only up close do people realize what she really is.

At that point, for some, it?s already too late.

No one really knows exactly when the legends about La Llorona began or from where they originated. The most common thread in the legends themselves is this: La Llorona is the spirit of a doomed mother who drowned her children and must now spend eternity searching rivers and lakes for the children she murdered. As to why she drowned them?well, no one?s really sure about that either.

There are many theories as to who La Llorona was before she died. Some sources say that she was a wild woman, fond of drinking, partying, and other carnal pleasures. Soon these wild ways led to three children by three different fathers. Try as she might to raise the children and love them without question, she began to harbor a deep resentment towards the children for she could no longer live the way she had. Eventually that resentment bred hate and La Llorona did what no other mother ever could: she drowned her children.

Having no more responsibility to anyone but herself, La Llorona was now free to resume her carefree life style. And so she did until her death. Having killed her children, La Llorona was punished to search lakes and rivers for her children, grieving for all time.

Others would say that in life La Llorona was a beautiful, caring woman full of life and love. She eventually met and married a wealthy man who lavished gifts and attention upon her; in return she bore his three beautiful children. Soon after, her husband began to change. He returned to his life of womanizing and alcohol. And although she begged and pleaded with him to once again return to the role of a loving husband and father, he continued with his life as it was.

Full of scorn and hate, La Llorona decided then that she would exact her revenge the best way she knew how: she would kill their children. And so she did. She held her children underwater in their own bath tub and watched as they struggled, screaming for her to stop?she never did. La Llorona did as she had planned: she got revenge on her husband.

But as it often goes in life, not everything went according to plan.

Instantly realizing what she had done, La Llorona broke down into inconsolable grief. La Llorona ran from her house screaming and wailing like a banshee. She ran and ran, finally coming to a cliff that overlooked a raging river. Having lost everything she had by her own hand, she threw herself off the cliff. It is believed by some that she died of grief before she hit the water, while others insist that her screams and wails could be heard for hours on end.

No matter how different the legends may be surrounding her origin, the myths themselves all share one common thread: this creature acts without hesitation, without mercy. Just how cruel she can be depends on which version of the legend you hear. Some sources say that she kills indiscriminately, taking men, women, and children. She takes whoever is foolish enough to get close enough. Others say that she is totally barbaric and kills only children, dragging them screaming to a watery grave.

While most accounts tell of La Llorona's evil ways, some also tell that she carries with her an aura of great misfortune. It is believed that anyone who survives an encounter with La Llorona will take that aura with them, and tragedy will soon follow.

Every so often a new tale surrounding La Llorona will emerge. The old-timers will tell you that they saw her, maybe even talked to her. They say that she can't be killed and that once you?ve seen her, she's seen you. At that point, they say, there is only one thing left for you to do...

...pray.