Mictlantecutli
mictlancihuatl
Mictlantecuhtli (Nahuatl pronunciation:[mikt͡ɬaːnˈtekʷt͡ɬi], meaning "Lord of Mictlan"), in Aztec mythology, was a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He was one of the principal gods of the Aztecs and was the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death and the underworld. The worship of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism, with human flesh being consumed in and around the temple.[2]
Two life-size clay statues of Mictlantecuhtli were found marking the entrances to the House of Eagles to the north of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan.[3]
Attributes
Mictlantecuhtli was depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull.[4] Although his head was typically a skull, his eye sockets did contain eyeballs,.[5] His headdress was shown decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wore a necklace of human eyeballs,[4] while his earspools were made from human bones.[6]
He was not the only Aztec god to be depicted in this fashion, as numerous other deities had skulls for heads or else wore clothing or decorations that incorporated bones and skulls. In the Aztec world, skeletal imagery was a symbol of fertility, health and abundance, alluding to the close symbolic links between death and life.[7] He was often depicted wearing sandals as a symbol of his high rank as Lord of Mictlan.[8] His arms were frequently depicted raised in an aggressive gesture, showing that he was ready to tear apart the dead as they entered his presence.[8] In the Aztec codices Mictlantecuhtli is often depicted with his skeletal jaw open to receive the stars that descend into him during the daytime.[6]
Mictlantecuhtli in the Codex Borgia.
Statuette of Mictlantecuhtli in the British Museum.
His wife was Mictecacihuatl,[4] and together they were said to dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with spiders,[6] owls,[6] bats,[6] the eleventh hour, and the northern compass direction, known as Mictlampa, the region of death.[9] He was one of only a few deities held to govern over all three types of souls identified by the Aztecs, who distinguished between the souls of people who died normal deaths (of old age, disease, etc.), heroic deaths (e.g. in battle, sacrifice or during childbirth), or non-heroic deaths. Mictlantecuhtli and his wife were the opposites and complements of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the givers of life.[1]
Mictlanteculhtli was the god of the day sign Itzcuintli (dog),[4] one of the 20 such signs recognised in the Aztec calendar, and was regarded as supplying the souls of those who were born on that day. He was seen as the source of souls for those born on the sixth day of the 13-day week and was the fifth of the nine Night Gods of the Aztecs. He was also the secondary Week God for the tenth week of the twenty-week cycle of the calendar, joining the sun god Tonatiuh to symbolise the dichotomy of light and darkness.[citation needed]
In the Colonial Codex Vaticanus 3738, Mictlantecuhtli is labelled in Spanish as "the lord of the underworld, Tzitzimitl, the same as Lucifer".[10]
Myths
In Aztec mythology, after Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created the world, they put their creation in order and placed Mictlantecuhtli and his wife in the underworld.[11]
According to Aztec legend, the twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl 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.[12]
When a person died, they were interred with grave goods, which they carried with them on the long and dangerous journey to the underworld. Upon arrival in Mictlan these goods were offered to Mictlantecuhtli and his wife.[5]
In Mesoamerican mythology the Lords of the Night are a set of nine gods who each ruled over every ninth night forming a calendrical cycle. Each lord was associated with a particular fortune, bad or good, that was an omen for the night that they ruled over.[1]
The lords of the night are known in both the Aztec and Maya calendar, although the specific names of the Maya Night Lords are unknown.[2]
The glyphs corresponding to the night gods are known and mayanists identify them with labels G1 to G9, the G series. Generally, these glyphs are frequently used with a fixed glyph coined F. The only Mayan light lord that has been identified is the God G9,Pauahtun the Aged Quadripartite God.[3][4]
The existence of a 9 nights cycle in Mesoamerican calendrics was first discovered in 1904 by Eduard Seler. The Aztec names of the Deities are known because their names are glossed in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis and Codex Tudela. Seler argued that the 9 lords each corresponded to one of the nine levels of the under world and ruled the corresponding hour of the night time, this argument has not generally been accepted, since the evidence suggests that the lord of a given night ruled over that entire night.[5] Zelia Nuttall argued that the Nine Lords of the Night represented the nine moons of the Lunar year.[6] The cycle of the Nine Lords of the Night held special relation to the Mesoamerican ritual calendar of 260-days and nights or -night which includes exactly 29 groups of 9 nights each,[citation needed] and also, approximately, 9 vague lunations of 29 days each.[citation needed]
The Nine Lords of the Night in Aztec mythology are:[5]
Xiuhtecuhtli ("Turqoise/Year/Fire Lord")
Tezcatlipoca ("Smoking Mirror")
Piltzintecuhtli ("Prince Lord")
Centeotl ("Maize God")
Mictlantecuhtli ("Underworld Lord")
Chalchiuhtlicue ("Jade Is Her Skirt")
Tlazolteotl ("Filth God[dess]")
Tepeyollotl ("Mountain Heart")
Tlaloc (Rain God)
Notes
1.
· Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.458.
· · Smith et al. 2003, p.245.
· · Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.60, 458.
· · Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.113.
· · Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.206.
· · Fernández 1992, 1996, p.142.
· · Smith 1996, 2003, p.206.
· · Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.434.
· · Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.54, 458.
· · Klein 2000, pp.3-4.
· · Read & González 2000, pp.193, 223.
12. · Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.113. Read & González 2000, p.224.
References
Fernández, Adela (1996) [1992]. Dioses Prehispánicos de México (in Spanish). Mexico City: Panorama Editorial. ISBN968-38-0306-7. OCLC59601185.
Klein, Cecelia F. (2000). "The Devil and the Skirt: An iconographic inquiry into the pre-Hispanic nature of the tzitzimime". Ancient Mesoamerica (Cambridge University Press) 11: 1–26. doi:10.1017/S0956536100111010.
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo; Felipe Solis Olguín (2002). Aztecs. London: Royal Academy of Arts. ISBN1-903973-22-8. OCLC56096386.
Miller, Mary; Karl Taube (2003) [1993]. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN0-500-27928-4. OCLC28801551.
Read, Kay Almere; Jason González (2000). Handbook of Mesoamerican Mythology. Handbooks of world mythology series. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN1-85109-340-0. OCLC43879188.
Smith, Michael E. (2003). The Aztecs (second ed.). Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN0-631-23016-5. OCLC48579073.
Smith, Michael E.; Jennifer B. Wharton; Jan Marie Olson (2003). "Aztec Feasts, Rituals and Markets". In Tamara L Bray (ed.). Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing. pp.235–270. ISBN0-306-47730-0. OCLC52165853.
The Nine Lords ofXibalba
Part II Chapter 1 of the Popol Vuh
All of them held a council. Those called Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé were the supreme judges. All the lords had been assigned their duties. Each one was given his own authority by Hun-Camé and Vucub-Camé.
They were, then, Xiquiripat and Cuchumaquic lords of these names. They were the two who caused the shedding of blood of the men.
Others were called Ahalpuh and Ahalganá, also lords. And their work was to make men swell and make pus gush forth from their legs and stain their faces yellow, what is called Chuganal. Such was the work of Ahalpuh and Ahalganá.
Others were Lord Chamiabac and Lord Chamiaholom, constables of Xibalba whose staffs were of bone. Their work was to make men waste away until they were nothing but skin and bone and they died, and they carried them With their stomach and bones stretched out. This was the work of Chamiabac and Chamiaholom, as they were called.
Others were called Lord Ahalmez and Lord Ahaltocob; their work was to bring disaster upon men, as they were going home, or in front of it, and they would be found wounded, stretched out, face up, on the ground, dead. This was the work of Ahalmez and Ahaltocob, as they were called.
Immediately after them were other lords named Xic and Patán whose work it was to cause men to die on the road, which is called sudden death, making blood to rush to their mouths until they died vomiting blood. The work of each one of these lords was to seize upon them, squeeze their throats and chests, so that the men died on the road, making the blood rush to their throats when they were walking. This was the work of Xic and Patán.
Tezcatlipoca: Transformation
Mictlantecut- Yayauqui Tezcatlipoca: the black Tezcatlipoca
Mictlan-mictlampa:
The north es El Rumbo del reposo
Rest and Reflection
Jose Maldonado Ixtlilocelotl
082215
Quetzalcoatl goes to underworld to gather the bones to make the people, the macehualli: los merecidos, of the fifth sun. he did but as he was emerging mictlantecutli ordered the earth monster to close its jaws and grabbed Quetzalcoatl and ripped off his foot. That is how he came to have the look of the Tezcatlipoca with the clubbed foot.
Quetzalcoatl was transformed, and became Tezcatlipoca.
There is a story about Quetzalcoatl Tezcatlipoca and his clubbed foot. They say that the reason he was called Tezcatlipoca after his foot was chopped off is because he would put a piece of obsidian glass on fis clubbed foot so that as he danced, he would be forced to look at his own reflection. But not just to admire himself, to reflect upon himself, to look into himself…
And in this way, to analyze his past life and actions. That is why those born under the symbol of death are said to be quiet, usually in the shadows or outside the mainstream, but are keenly observant, intelligent and analytical about what they see.
And then comes the transformation. In the beginning, there was darkness, emptiness. In that darkness and emptiness, the universe was created. Some say it was the union of the female and male creative energies: Ometecutli and omecihuatl. They gave birth to tonacatecutli and tonacacihuatl, who in turn give birth to the four tezcatlipocas:
The first, the black tezactlipoca, is the cosmic memory: that memory that takes us back to the farthest depths of time to the realm of the spirits, when nothing was, where nothing was, just spirits. Back to mictlampa. The origins of the cosmos, and that first instance of creation. He guards the north, the rumbo del reposo. He is also known as Mictlantecutli, the lord of the underworld.
The second was the red Tezcatlipoca, he gave order to the universe, he is the space the fertile ground where all things of creation can germinate, and grow, he is Xipe Totec and he lives in the west.
Mictlantecutli becomes Xipe Totec. From death, comes life. And the goal of life is that your path, from life, to death, be filled with beauty, and abundance.
Then once the creative process has made sense of the chaos in the universe, it is the blue Tezcatlipoca, the will, Huitzilipochtli, that transforms our thoughts and our words into deeds, it is that eternal movement of the universe, the inhale and exhale, the flow and ebb, the stillness and breeze, the solid ground and the earthquake, that shape, shift, transform and make existence possible, even when it is necessary to destroy.
In the end, when all three have gone through their process, the result is life. The white Tezcatlipoca: Quetzalcoatl. The precious serpent of life: those undulating vibrations- time, space and movement, create life: Tezcatlipoca transforms and becomes Quetzalcoatl.