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Tlaloc is a member of the pantheon of gods in Mexican religion. As supreme god of the rain, Tlaloc is also a god of earthly fertility and of water. He was widely worshipped as a beneficent giver of life and sustenance. However, he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder, and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. Tlaloc is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain in which he was believed to reside. His animal forms include herons and water-dwelling creatures such as amphibians, snails, and possibly sea creatures, particularly shellfish. The Mexican marigold, Tagetes lucida, known to the Aztecs as yauhtli, was another important symbol of the god, and was burned as a ritual incense in native religious ceremonies.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec peoples included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, city-state of the Mexica or Tenochca; Texcoco; and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco. Although the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahua polities or peoples of central Mexico in the prehispanic era, as well as the Spanish colonial era (1521–1821). The definitions of Aztec and Aztecs have long been the topic of scholarly discussion ever since German scientist Alexander von Humboldt established its common usage in the early nineteenth century.
Mayahuel is the female deity associated with the maguey plant among cultures of central Mexico in the Postclassic era of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology, and in particular of the Aztec cultures. As the personification of the maguey plant, Mayahuel is also part of a complex of interrelated maternal and fertility goddesses in Aztec religion and is also connected with notions of fecundity and nourishment.
In Aztec mythology, Xolotl was a god of fire and lightning. He was commonly depicted as a dog-headed man and was a soul-guide for the dead. He was also god of twins, monsters, misfortune, sickness, and deformities. Xolotl is the canine brother and twin of Quetzalcoatl, the pair being sons of the virgin Chimalma. He is the dark personification of Venus, the evening star, and was associated with heavenly fire. The Axolotl is named after him.
In the Aztec religion, Huitzilopochtli is a deity of war, sun, human sacrifice, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the tribal god of the Mexicas, also known as Aztecs, of Tenochtitlan. Many in the pantheon of deities of the Aztecs were inclined to have a fondness for a particular aspect of warfare. However, Huitzilopochtli was known as the primary god of war in ancient Mexico. Since he was the patron god of the Mexica, he was credited with both the victories and defeats that the Mexica people had on the battlefield. The people had to make sacrifices to him to protect the Aztec from infinite night. He wielded Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, as a weapon, thus also associating Huitzilopochtli with fire.
In Aztec mythology, Chicomecōātl[t͡ʃikomeˈkoːaːt͡ɬ] "Seven Serpent", was the Aztec goddess of agriculture during the Middle Culture period. She is sometimes called "goddess of nourishment", a goddess of plenty and the female aspect of maize.
In Aztec mythology, the god Nanahuatzin or Nanahuatl, the most humble of the gods, sacrificed himself in fire so that he would continue to shine on Earth as the Sun, thus becoming the sun god. Nanahuatzin means "full of sores." According to a translation of the Histoyre du Mechique, Nanahuatzin is the son of Itzpapalotl and Cuzcamiahu or Tonan, but was adopted by Piltzintecuhtli and Xōchiquetzal. In the Codex Borgia, Nanahuatzin is represented as a man emerging from a fire. This was originally interpreted as an illustration of cannibalism. He is probably an aspect of Xolotl.
In Aztec religion, Xiuhcoatl[ʃiʍˈkoːaːt͡ɬ] was a mythological serpent, regarded as the spirit form of Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec fire deity sometimes represented as an atlatl or a weapon wielded by Huitzilopochtli. Xiuhcoatl is a Classical Nahuatl word that translates literally as "turquoise serpent". The name also carries the symbolic and descriptive meaning "fire serpent".
The Aztec or Mexica calendar is the calendrical system used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica.
Tamoanchan[tamoˈant͡ʃan] is a mythical location of origin known to the Mesoamerican cultures of the central Mexican region in the Late Postclassic period. In the mythological traditions and creation accounts of Late Postclassic peoples such as the Aztec, Tamoanchan was conceived as a paradise where the gods created the first of the present human race out of sacrificed blood and ground human bones which had been stolen from the Underworld of Mictlan.
Ephraim George Squier, usually cited as E. G. Squier, was an American archaeologist, history writer, painter and newspaper editor.
Aztec codices are Mesoamerican manuscripts made by the pre-Columbian Aztec, and their Nahuatl-speaking descendants during the colonial period in Mexico.
The Aubin Codex is an 81-leaf Aztec codex written in alphabetic Nahuatl on paper from Europe. Its textual and pictorial contents represent the history of the Aztec peoples who fled Aztlán, lived during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and into the early Spanish colonial period, ending in 1608.
The Coyolxāuhqui Stone is a carved, circular Aztec stone, depicting the mythical being Coyolxāuhqui ("Bells-Her-Cheeks"), in a state of dismemberment and decapitation by her brother, the patron deity of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli. It was rediscovered in 1978 at the site of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, now in Mexico City. This relief is one of the best known Aztec monuments and one of the few great Aztec monuments that have been found fully in situ.
The Dedication Stone is a carved Aztec plaque made of polished greenstone. The plaque was found in 1845 in the location of present-day Mexico City. This plaque was made in commemoration of the completion of the sixth stage the Temple of Huitizilopochtli at Tenochtitlan in 1487. The dedication of the refurbished Great Temple was the final ceremony in becoming the emperor. Tizoc ruled from 1481 until 1486, after his death his brother Ahuitzotl succeeded him and ruled from 1486 until 1502. Expanding the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan, dedicated to the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, was the duty of each tlatoani. Tizoc began the expansion of the Great Temple and his brother Ahuitzotl finished the project. According to the Codex Mendoza this was an important time for the Aztec society, they became an imperial civilization, with Ahuitzotl conquering 45 new towns. The ceremony of the re-dedication of the Temple involved so many sacrifices that the ceremony lasted for four days. Where this panel was located originally is unknown. Other panels similar to this one were usually placed into the architecture like stairways and pyramid platforms. Very similar stones have been found at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan also known as the Templo Mayor and it is believed that this plaque might have been a part of those.
Elizabeth Hill Boone is an American art historian, ethnohistorian and academic, specialising in the study of Latin American art and in particular the early colonial and pre-Columbian art, iconography and pictoral codices associated with the Mixtec, Aztec and other Mesoamerican cultures in the central Mexican region. Her extensive published research covers investigations into the nature of Aztec writing, the symbolism and structure of Aztec art and iconography and the interpretation of Mixtec and Aztec codices.
Charles E. Dibble was an American academic, anthropologist, linguist, and scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. A former Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah, Dibble retired in 1978 after an association with the university as lecturer and researcher spanning four decades. Post-retirement Dibble continued to conduct and publish research in his area of expertise, studies of Mesoamerican historical literature and the historiography of conquest-era Mesoamerican cultures, in particular those of the Aztec and others of the central Mexican altiplano. Among many contributions to the field Dibble is perhaps most recognised for his collaboration with colleague Arthur J.O. Anderson, producing the modern annotated translation into English of the volumes of the Florentine Codex.
Davíd Lee Carrasco is an American academic historian of religion, anthropologist, and Mesoamericanist scholar. As of 2001 he holds the inaugural appointment as Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of Latin America Studies at the Harvard Divinity School, in a joint appointment with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. Carrasco previously taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Princeton University and is known for his research and publications on Mesoamerican religion and history, his public speaking as well as wider contributions within Latin American studies and Latino/a studies. He has made statements about Latino contributions to US democracy in public dialogues with Cornel West, Toni Morrison, and Samuel P. Huntington. His work is known primarily for his writings on the ways human societies orient themselves with sacred places.
Oxomoco also known as Oxomo is an Aztec deity, the goddess of the night, the astrology and the calendar. Oxomoco and Cipactonal were said to be the first human couple, and the Aztec comparison to Adam and Eve in regard to human creation and evolution. They bore a son named Piltzintecuhtli, who married a maiden, daughter of Xōchiquetzal. As an older woman she was also known as Itzpapalotl.
Frances F. Berdan is an American archaeologist specializing in the Aztecs and professor emerita of anthropology at California State University, San Bernardino.
References
- ↑ Austin, Alfredo López (1988). The human body and ideology: concepts of the ancient Nahuas. University of Utah Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-87480-260-3 . Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- 1 2 3 Austin, Alfredo López (1996). The rabbit on the face of the moon: mythology in the mesoamerican tradition. University of Utah Press. pp. 102–6. ISBN 978-0-87480-527-7 . Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ↑ "Aztec cosmology". University of Texas. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ↑ New World Archaeological Foundation (1995). Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation. New World Archaeological Foundation. p. 227. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- 1 2 Squier, Ephraim George; Comparato, Frank E. (1990). Observations on the archaeology and ethnology of Nicaragua. Labyrinthos. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-911437-08-9 . Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- 1 2 Boone, Elizabeth Hill (2007). Cycles of time and meaning in the Mexican books of fate. University of Texas Press. pp. 24, 25–. ISBN 978-0-292-71263-8 . Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- 1 2 Smith, Mary Elizabeth; Boone, Elizabeth Hill (2005). Painted books and indigenous knowledge in Mesoamerica: manuscript studies in honor of Mary Elizabeth Smith. Middle American Research Institute. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-939238-99-6 . Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ↑ Nowotny, Karl Anton; Everett, George A.; Sisson, Edward B. (2005). Tlacuilolli: style and contents of the Mexican pictorial manuscripts with a catalog of the Borgia Group. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-8061-3653-0 . Retrieved 26 October 2011.
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