Mictlantecuhtli

For the comic book character, see Mictlantecuhtli (comics).
Mictlantecuhtli Codex Borgia

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.[1]

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.[2]

Ceramic representation of Mictlantecuhtli recovered during excavations of the House of Eagles in the Templo Mayor, now on display at the museum of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City.[3]

Attributes

Mictlantecuhtli was 6 foot tall, and 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]

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.[3]

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.

In the Colonial Codex Vaticanus 3738, Mictlantecuhtli is labelled in Spanish as "the lord of the underworld, Tzitzimitl, the same as Lucifer".[10]

Statuette of Mictlantecuhtli in the British Museum.

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]

Statuette of Mictlantecuhtli in the Museo de Antropología in Xalapa, Mexico, 2001

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Smith et al. 2003, p.245.
  2. ↑ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.60, 458.
  3. 1 2 Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.458.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.113.
  5. 1 2 Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.206.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Fernández 1992, 1996, p.142.
  7. ↑ Smith 1996, 2003, p.206.
  8. 1 2 Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.434.
  9. ↑ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.54, 458.
  10. ↑ Klein 2000, pp.3-4.
  11. ↑ 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. ISBN 968-38-0306-7. OCLC 59601185. 
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. ISBN 1-903973-22-8. OCLC 56096386. 
Miller, Mary; Karl Taube (2003) [1993]. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27928-4. OCLC 28801551. 
Read, Kay Almere; Jason González (2000). Handbook of Mesoamerican Mythology. Handbooks of world mythology series. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-340-0. OCLC 43879188. 
Smith, Michael E. (2003). The Aztecs (second ed.). Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23016-5. OCLC 48579073. 
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. ISBN 0-306-47730-0. OCLC 52165853. 

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