Ancient civilizations-2

Deities

The ancient tribes of central Mexico had worshiped fertility gods for many centuries when the Aztec invaded the valley. The cult of these gods remained extremely important in Aztec religion. Tlaloc, the giver of rain but also the wrathful deity of lightning, was the leader of a group of rain gods, the Tlaloques, who dwelt on mountaintops. Chalchiuhtlicue (“One Who Wears a Jade Skirt”) presided over fresh waters, Huixtocíhuatl over salt waters and the sea. Numerous earth goddesses were associated with the fertility of the soil and with the fecundity of women, as Teteoinnan (“Mother of the Gods”), Coatlicue (“One Who Wears a Snake Skirt”), Cihuacóatl (“Serpent-Woman”), and Itzpapálotl (“Obsidian-Butterfly”). Their significance was twofold: as fertility deities, they gave birth to the young gods of corn, Centéotl, and of flowers, Xochipilli; as symbols of the earth that devoured the bodies and drank the blood, they appeared as warlike godheads. Tlazoltéotl, a Huastec goddess, presided over carnal love and over the confession of sins.

Xipe Totec, borrowed from the faraway Yopi people, was a god of the spring, of the renewal of vegetation, and at the same time the god of the corporation of goldsmiths. Human victims were killed and flayed to honour him.

The concept of a supreme couple played an important role in the religion of the old sedentary peoples such as the Otomí. Among the Aztec it took the form of Intonan, Intota (“Our Mother, Our Father”), the earth and the sun. But the fire god Huehuetéotl was also associated with the earth. In addition, Ometecuhtli (“Lord of the Duality”) and Omecihuatl (“Lady of the Duality”) were held to abide in the 13th heaven: they decided on which date a human being would be born, thus determining his destiny.

Among the fertility gods are to be counted the “400 Rabbits” (Centzon Totochtin), little gods of the crops, among which are Ometochtli, the god of octli (a fermented drink), and Tepoztécatl, the god of drunkenness.

The Aztec brought with them the cult of their sun and war god, Huitzilopochtli, “the Hummingbird of the Left,” who was considered “the reincarnated Warrior of the South,” the conquering sun of midday. According to a legend probably borrowed from the Toltec, he was born near Tula. His mother, the earth goddess Coatlicue, had already given birth to the 400 Southerners and to the night goddess Coyolxauhqui, whom the newborn god exterminated with his xiuhcoatl (“turquoise serpent”).

Tezcatlipoca, god of the night sky, was the protector of the young warriors. Quetzalcóatl, the ancient Teotihuacán deity of vegetation and fertility, had been “astralized” and transformed into a god of the morning star. He was also revered as a wind god and as the ancient priest-king of the Toltec golden age: the discoveries of writing, the calendar, and the arts were attributed to him.