![]() The ancient tribes practiced a custom in Tláloc's honor: When they celebrated the festival of Atlcahualo, priests impersonated frogs, jumping into the waters of Lake Texcoco.Īlongside commanding rainfall, he overlooks mountain rivers as well, storing the water in the mountains surrounding the Valley of Mexico. He is often depicted with a face formed by snakes and has a hat resembling mountain peaks, though some of his other symbols are a frog and a duck, both animals connected with water. He oversees every possible precipitation, from light drizzle to wrecking frost, additionally throwing lightning if he is in the mood. With the help of the divine couple Oxomoco and Cipactonal and the other three tezcatlipocas, they blew up the mountain and scattered the maize in all four directions - with the maize going in each cardinal direction being a different color.Īs explained in " The Mythology of the Aztec & Maya," Tláloc is in charge of rain but is also the most important among fertility gods. Quetzalcóatl tried to bring back the whole mountain, but the mountain was too big. But the gods needed more corn to feed the humans, so they questioned how could they get their hands on the whole stock of corn. He turned into ant himself and climbed into the mountain, where he stole some maize and left. After the gods decided to create humans in the time of the fifth sun (the time of the ancient Aztecs), they went to search for food to feed humans. Quetzalcóatl discovered an ant carrying a grain of maize and followed it to Tonacatepetl mountain. Quetzalcóatl is present in the myth about the origin of maize. They both appear in many stories about the creation of the world. He represents the positive traits of the world, while his brother, Tezcatlipoca, is in charge of conflict and discord. One story describes how Omecihuatl suddenly felt she was pregnant, and gave birth to a sacred obsidian knife, out of which 1,600 gods and goddesses emerged.Īs per " Aztec and Maya Myths," Quetzalcóatl is connected to fertility, water, and everything that is associated with life. Ometeotl created itself out of nothing, divided itself into two opposite deities, which multiplied further. The concept of one in many and vice versa was important for the ancient Aztecs, since many of their gods were able to take on different forms without losing their identity. ![]() The cosmos was in disarray until these four gods finally separated heaven and earth and divided their shares of the sky. The north belongs to the black Tezcatlipoca, and the south is under the command of the blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli. The white Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, resides in the west while the red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, lives in the east. Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl were often called Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, as explained in " The Mythology of the Aztec & Maya." It was from this pair, the dual form of omnipotent Ometeotl, that the four main gods, tezcatlipocas, were born.
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