Lenca mythology is the set of religious and mythological beliefs of the Lenca people from Honduras and El Salvador, before and after the conquest of America. [1] Little of these beliefs have been documented, due to colonization and the adoption of the Catholic faith after the 16th century.
According to the original Lenca polytheistic religion, the creation of man is thanks to a deity known as "Maraguana", she brought the dust of the stars to earth, and when she arrived there she collected the dry grains of corn and cocoa beans, and in a grinding stone and a clay pot, he molded a creature different from the others on earth created by the gods, this endowed it with consciousness and intelligence and thus made the first human being. The place called "Ti Ketau Antawinikil" Some time later this deity created another human known as "Ti wanatuku", he was born from an egg, which was hatched in a bird's nest on the head of the first human being. Both are considered the ancestors of modern humans. [2]
The legend of the Comizahual (or Comizahuatl) speaks of a matriarch that is said to have appeared around more than two hundred years before the conquest of America, possibly at the end of the 13th century, which is represented with a zoomorphic figure similar to a jaguar and in her human form she is represented as a woman with white skin and hair, she is described as a skilled person as a warrior and wise as a leader. [3] This woman guided and taught some new knowledge about agriculture and warfare to the Lencas that they began to implement during the following years during the post classic mesoamerican period. Fulfilled his mission, he distributed the lands among three men according to some versions these were his sons, in others his brothers, to whom he left instructions for the treatment of his vassals, after that, the matriarch disappeared.
Within those described about the Comizahual physique, some interpreted that the description was a white person, who arrived on the continent, being a pre-Columbian contact between Europeans and Americans before the Spanish arrival, similar to that of the Viking explorers with the natives of what today it is Canada, or the theory of Roman contact with Mesoamerica. Although there is little evidence of the arrival of Europeans in what is modern day Central america before Columbus. Most academics have said that it is believed that it could be the interpretation of a person with albinism.
The Lenca religion, similar to those of the rest of the Mesoamerican area, was polytheistic and had countless deities in its pantheon of gods, however very few detailed records survived about all of them as well as the indigenous Lenca faith due to loss of the oral tradition or the lack of documentation of its traditions by chroniclers, however, thanks to studies of the Lenca deities, there is still a record. [4]
Considered to be the main deity of the Lenca people, he was known as "the great father", related to the sky and the movement of the stars possibly also related to astronomy, for the Mesoamerican peoples this element was important within their cosmology, due to this, it is considered the main Lenca deity. Everything indicates that Itanipuica was the main god or sky deity of the Lenca people, It could have parallelism with other Mesoamerican deities such as itzamna or Tezcatlipoca.
Known as the "Great Mother", couple of Itanipuca, she is related to the land, its forests, rivers, and lakes, she is also related with the fertility of the crops, she along with Itanipuca are the creators of the world. This goddess can be seen as a type of mother goddess, or a fertility goddess.
He was another important deity because he was related to the concept of time, which is why the ancient Lencas referred to him as “the lord of time” because he was the cause of the change of the seasons over time during the years. He was also related to winds and meteorological phenomena, the existence of events such as hurricanes and electrical storms was attributed to him. This deity could have some few similar elements with the Mayan god Chaac or the Mexica Tláloc.
This is certainly the most documented deity of the Lenca people since the one mentioned by the Spanish chronicler Diego García de Palacio, in his Description of the Province of Guatemala of 1576, relates that in Sesori he observed how 4 young men of about twelve years old were circumcised. , whose blood was placed on a representation of this deity that had a round shape with two faces full of eyes (to see the past and the future), and to which deer, chickens and rabbits were also sacrificed; to which the chronicler Antonio de Herrera adds that dogs that do not bark and turkeys were also sacrificed to him, and blood, tongue and ears were offered in self-sacrifice, and that the representation of the deity was a large three-pointed stone with a deformed face in each one.
Likewise, Anne Chapman in her book The Children of Copal and the Candela of 1992, mentions that some indigenous people from the village of Manazapa (Honduran department of Intibucá) told her that they had a two-faced deity who saw the past, present and future, to which they performed repairs (domestic and agrarian rites), and they cut people's throats and watered the representation of the deity with their blood while they played drums (decorated with quetzal feathers) and snails. [5]
According to the Salvadoran writer María de Baratta in her work Cuzcatlán Tífico of 1951, based on what Aquilino Argueta collected from the indigenous elders of Torola, under the deity of rain (who sometimes manifested as a snake) there were spirits or geniuses who personified the hills, who were asked for a good rain, and to whom a priest (whose title was misilán) sacrificed turkeys, and then collected the blood of the animal in a glass or jug and then poured it over a lagoon that there was before in Torola. [6]
Very little is known about this deity because we do not have enough sources that speak in more detail about him but he must appear mentioned in some oral literature and because of this Its main role is still unknown, but it is noted that it was representative of knowledge. It is the deity responsible for the creation of Man, thus endowing him with consciousness. It could have parallels with the Mayan Kukulkan or Mexica Quetzalcoatl.
Tláloc is the god of rain in Aztec religion. He was also a deity of earthly fertility and water, worshipped as a giver of life and sustenance. This came to be due to many rituals, and sacrifices that were held in his name. He was feared, but not maliciously, for his power over hail, thunder, lightning, and even rain. He is also associated with caves, springs, and mountains, most specifically the sacred mountain where he was believed to reside. Cerro Tláloc is very important in understanding how rituals surrounding this deity played out. His followers were one of the oldest and most universal in ancient Mexico.
A chacmool is a form of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican sculpture depicting a reclining figure with its head facing 90 degrees from the front, supporting itself on its elbows and supporting a bowl or a disk upon its stomach. These figures possibly symbolised slain warriors carrying offerings to the gods; the bowl upon the chest was used to hold sacrificial offerings, including pulque, tamales, tortillas, tobacco, turkeys, feathers, and incense. In Aztec examples, the receptacle is a cuauhxicalli. Chacmools were often associated with sacrificial stones or thrones. The chacmool form of sculpture first appeared around the 9th century AD in the Valley of Mexico and the northern Yucatán Peninsula.
Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend, the various groups who became the Aztecs arrived from the North into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco. The location of this valley and lake of destination is clear – it is the heart of modern Mexico City – but little can be known with certainty about the origin of the Aztec. There are different accounts of their origin. In the myth, the ancestors of the Mexica/Aztec came from a place in the north called Aztlan, the last of seven nahuatlacas to make the journey southward, hence their name "Azteca." Other accounts cite their origin in Chicomoztoc, "the place of the seven caves", or at Tamoanchan.
The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people 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, the capital city of the Mexica or Tenochca, Tetzcoco, 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 19th century.
Huitzilopochtli is the solar and war deity of sacrifice in Aztec religion. He was also the patron god of the Aztecs and their capital city, Tenochtitlan. He wielded Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, as a weapon, thus also associating Huitzilopochtli with fire.
Tlaltecuhtli is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican deity worshipped primarily by the Mexica (Aztec) people. Sometimes referred to as the "earth monster," Tlaltecuhtli's dismembered body was the basis for the world in the Aztec creation story of the fifth and final cosmos. In carvings, Tlaltecuhtli is often depicted as an anthropomorphic being with splayed arms and legs. Considered the source of all living things, she had to be kept sated by human sacrifices which would ensure the continued order of the world.
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian ; the Archaic, the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE – 250 CE), the Classic (250–900 CE), and the Postclassic (900–1521 CE); as well as the post European contact Colonial Period (1521–1821), and Postcolonial, or the period after independence from Spain (1821–present).
The wealth of cultural expression in Honduras owes its origins primarily to being a part of Latin America but also to the multi-ethnic nature of the country. The population comprises 80% Mestizo, 8% Amerindian, 2,9% Black, and 3% Caucasian. This influences all facets of the culture: customs, practices, ways of dressing, religion, rituals, codes of behavior and belief systems.
The Lenca, also known as Lepa Wiran, meaning “Jaguar People” or “People of The Jaguar” are an Indigenous people from present day southwest Honduras and eastern El Salvador in Central America. They historically spoke various dialects of the Lencan languages such as Chilanga, Putun (Potón), and Kotik, but today are native speakers of Spanish. In Honduras, the Lenca are the largest tribal group, with an estimated population of more than 450,000.
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The Lencan languages are a small linguistic family from Central America, whose speakers before the Spanish conquest spread throughout El Salvador and Honduras. But by the beginning of the 20th century, only two languages of the family survived, Salvadoran Lenca or Potón and Honduran Lenca, which were described and studied academically; Of them, only Salvadoran Lenca still has current speakers, despite the fact that indigenous people belonging to the Lenca ethnic group exceed between 37,000 and 100,000 people.
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Hondurans are the citizens of Honduras. Most Hondurans live in Honduras, although there is also a significant Honduran diaspora, particularly in the United States, Spain, and many smaller communities in other countries around the world.
Los Naranjos is the name for an archaeological region in western Honduras. It lies on the north border of Lake Yojoa. It is significant to the region because of its implications for determining where the Mayan frontier existed, as well as which ancient peoples were in contact and what relations between "tribes" may have been like. Whether or not the Olmec influenced the people of the Lake Yojoa region is disputed.
The territory of current Honduras was inhabited by two culturally distinct peoples: the cultures of Mesoamerican and nahua influence and the cultures of the intermediate area that had certain influences from Circum-Caribbean and Chibcha groups. Although the Mesoamerican influence was the one that remained as the dominant influence in the territory.
Honduran art is any artistic piece produced or that resembles the cultural patterns of the Republic of Honduras, which has been a facet that has existed with the very presence of the human being in the Honduran territory.
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