Native American Mythology: Aztec Gods & Goddesses
CHALCHIHUITLCUE
Lady Precious Green, wife of Tlaloc. Goddess of storms and water. Personification of
youthful beauty, vitality and violence. In some illustrations she is shown holding the head
of Tlazolteotl, the goddess of the witches, between her legs. Chalchihuitlcue is the whirlpool,
the wind on the waters, all young and growing things, the beginning of life and creation.
COATLICUE
Earth monster. In the darkness and chaos before the Creation, the
female Earth Monster swam in the waters of the earth devouring all that she saw. Wehn the
gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca decided to impose form upon the Earth, they changed
themselves into serpents and struggled with the Earth Monster until they broke her in two.
Coatlicue's lower part then rose to form the heavens and her upper part descended to form
the earth. Coatlicue has an endless, ravenous appetite for human hearts and will not bear
fruit unless given human blood.
CINTEOTL
The corn god, the giver of food, god of fertility and regeneration.
Cinteotl is protected by the rain gods Tlaloc and Chalchihuitlcue.
EUEUCOYOTL
The Old, Old Coyote. Associated with gaiety and sex. A god of
spontaneity, of ostentatious ornament, of unexpected pleasure and sorrow. A trickster and
troublemaker. Considered unlucky.
HUITZILOPOCHTLI
God of war, son of Coatlicue. Principal god of the Aztecs.
When Coatlicue became pregnant with Huitzilopochtli, her daughter Coyolxauhqui incited her
brothers, the Centzon Huitznahua (the Four Hundred Stars) to destroy Coatlicue, because her
pregnancy brought disgrace on the family. Still in the womb, Huitzilopochtli swore to defend
his mother and immediately on being born put on battle armor and war paint. After defeating
the Four Hundred Stars, Huitzilopochtli slew his sister and cast her down the hill at Templo
Mayor where her body broke to pieces on striking the bottom. Priests at Templo Mayor killed
prisoners in the same way, these sacrifices being replicas of mythical events designed to keep
the daily battle between day and night and the birth of the God of War ever in the minds of the
people. Often considered synonomous with QUETZALCOATL.
ITZCOLIUHQUI
The Twisted Obsidian One, the God of the Curved Obsidian Blade.
God of darkness and destruction. Blinded and cast down from the heavens, Itzcoliuhqui strikes
out randomly at his victims.
ITZPAPALOTL
Obsidian Butterfly. Beautiful, demonic, armed with the claws of a
jaguar. The female counterpart of Itzcoliuhqui.
MICTLAN
Below the world of living men there are nine underworlds, the lowest of
which is Mictlan, the Land of the Dead ruled by Mictlantechupi and his consort Mictlancihuntl.
Souls who win no merit in life come here after death, but they do not suffer as in the Christian
hell. Instead they merely endure a rather drab and colorless existence before passing again
into the world of the living. As a man disappears into the West, the direction of the dead, the
seeds of his rebirth are sown.
OMETEOTL
"God of the Near and Close," "He Who Is at the Center," the god above
all, the being both male and female who created all life and existence. Ometeotl is dualistic,
embodying both male and female, light and dark, positive and negative, yes and no. Ometoetol
occupies Omeyocan, the highest of the Aztecs' thirteen heavens, and the four heavens immediately
below Omeyocan are a mystery about which no one knows very much. Below the five highest heavens
is a region of strife and tempest, where Ometeotl breaks into his many facets or aspects.
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Copyright: Nikki Burke 2000-2008
Website Last Updated: January 03, 2008
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