Native American Mythology: Aztec Gods & Goddesses

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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.

QUETZALCOATL
The Feathered Serpent. The Precious Twin who lifts the sun out of darkness, god of the winds and the breath of life, First Lord of the Toltecs. Lawgiver, civilizer, creator of the calender. Demons tempted Quetzalcoatl constantly to commit murder and human sacrifice, but his love was too great for him to succumb. To atone for great sins, Quetzcoatl threw himself on into a funeral pyre, where his ashes rose to the heavens as a flock of birds carrying his heart to the star Venus. A frieze in the palace at Teotihuacan shows his first entry into the world in the shape of a chrysalis, from which he struggles to emerge as a butterfly, the symbol of perfection. Quetzalcoatl is by far the most compassionate of the Azec gods -- he only demands one human sacrifice a year. Often considered synonomous with HUITZILOPOTCHLI.

TEZCATLIPOCA
The Prince of This World, the Mirror that Smokes, the One Always at the Shoulder, the Shadow. A trickster, revered particularly by soldiers and magicians. The name refers to the black obsidian mirrors used by magicians which become cloudy when scrying. A god of wealth and power, Tezcatlopoca's favors can only be won by those willing to face his terrors. Ruler over the early years of a man's life.

TLALOC
Lord of all sources of water, clouds, rain, lightening, mountain springs, and weather.

TLALOCAN
Kingdom of Tlaloc, a heaven of sensual delights, of rainbows, butterflies and flowers, of simple-minded and shallow pleasures. Souls spend only four years here before returning to the land of the living. Unless it strives for higher and nobler things while living, a soul is destined for this endless round of mortal life and Tlalocan. When a life had been particularly evil, a soul might journey instead to Mictlan.

TLILLAN-TLAPALLAN
The land of the fleshless. The Land of the Black and Red, the colors signifying wisdom. A paradise for those who successfully follow the teachings of Quetzalcoatl. Those souls who come to Tlillan-Tlapallan have learned to live without fleshly bodies, a state greatly to be desired.

TLAZOLTEOTL
Eater of filth, devourer of sins, goddess of witches and witchcraft. Tlazolteotl has power over all forms of unclean behavior, usually sexual. Confessing sins to Tlazolteotl, one is cleansed. The goddess has four forms or aspects, corresponding to the phases of the moon: a young and carefree temptress, the lover of Quetzalcoatl; the Goddess of gambling and uncertainty; the Great Priestess who consumes and destroys the sins of mankind; and frightful old crone, persecutor and destroyer of youth.

TONATIUH
God of the Sun. Poor and ill, Tonatiuh cast himself into the flames, and being burnt up, was resurrected. Daily Tonatiuh repeats his passage across the heavens, down into darkness, and back again into the sky. With him Tonatiuh carries all brave warriors who have died in battle and all brave women who have died in childbirth. The greatest heroes Tonatiuh carries with him to the greatest heights. In Tonatiuhican, the House of the Sun, dwell those who have won even greater enlightenment than those who dwell in Tlillan-Tlapallan.

XIPE TOTEC
Lord of the Spring, god of newly planted seed and of pentitential torture. A pockmarked saviour who tears out his eyes and flays himself in penance to the gods, thus persuading the gods to give maize to men. Giving up his pockmarked skin, Xipe Totec is then clad in robes of gold.

XIUHTECUHTLI
Lord of fire, Lord of the Pole Star, pivot of the universe, one of the forms of the Supreme Deity. The lord of every flame, from those which burn in the temples to those which burn in the lowliest huts.

XOLOTL
The god with backward feet who brought Man as well as Fire from the underworlds. Bringer of misfortune. The evil aspect of the star Venus. Quetzalcoatl's deformed twin.

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Incan

IMAHMANA VIRACOCHA and TOCAPO VIRACHOCHA
Son of the creator Viracocha. After the Great Flood and the Creation, Viracocha sent his son Imaymana Viracocha together with his brother Tocapo Viracocha to visit the tribes and see if they still followed the commandments they had been given. As they went, Imaymana and Tocapo gave names to all the trees, flowers, fruits and herbs, and taught the people which of these could be eaten, which could cure, and which could kill.

INTI
Sun god. Inti's image is a golden disk with a human face surrounded by bright rays. Every day Inti soars across the sky to the western horizon, plunges into the sea, and swims under the earth back to the east. Inti's sons are Wirakocha, Pachacomac, and Manco Capac.

KONIRA WIRAKOCHA
The great god Wirkocha diguised as a traveler in rags. A trickster, a prankster. No one knew who he was, and the people he passed called him names. Yet as he walked, he created. With a word he made the fields and terraced hillsides. Dropping a reed blossom, he made water flow.

MAMA QUILLA
Goddess of the moon. Protector of married women. Her image is a silver disc with a human face.

MANCO CAPAC
The son of Inti, also a solar god. The youngest of four brothers, Manco Capac defied the eldest brother who greedily demanded all of creation for himself. Sealing the eldest brother forever in a cave, Manco Capac murdered another and frightened the third into fleeing, never to be seen again. Thus gaining power over all the world, Manco Capac founded the city of Cuzco and was worshipped as the Son of the Sun.

PACHAMAC
God of the earth, creator god. Prior to the Incan conquest, the Peruvians worshipped Pachamac as the supreme being. For political purposes, the Incas were forced to adopt Pachamac into their own pantheon, but his position was never very secure. The great Inca Atahualpa treated Pachamac's priests with cold indifference, explaining to the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro that the god's oracle had made three ruinously inaccurate prophecies. The Great Sun King even incited the Spaniards to defile and loot the god's temple. They accepted the invitation enthusiastically.

SUPAI
God of death. A god of insatiable greed. The Incas sacrificed over a hundred children a year to Supai and still he would not leave them alone.

VIRACOCHA
Literally, Sea-Foam. The Creator. The teacher of the world. After the Great Flood, which covered even the highest mountains and destroyed all life, Virococha molded new people out of clay at Tia Huanaco. On each figure of clay he painted the many features, clothes and hairstyles of the many nations, and gave to them their languages, their songs and the seeds they were to plant. Bringing them to life, Viracocha ordered them to travel underground and emerge at different places on the earth. Then Viracocha made the sun and the moon and the stars, and assigned them to their places in the sky. Raising up smaller Viracocha, the God ordered them to go about the world and call forth the people, and see to it that they mulitplied and followed the commandments they had been given. Some of the little viracocha went south, some went southeast, while the God's two sons traveled northeast and northwest. Viracocha himself traveled straight north. Some tribes had rebelled, and these Viracocha punished by turning the people into stone. At Pucara, forty leagues north of Cuzco, Viracocha called down fire from the sky upon those who had disobeyed his commandments. Arriving at last at Cuzco and the seacoast, Viracocha gathered together his two sons and all the little viracocah, and they walked across the water until they disappeared.

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Mayan

BACABS
The gods of the four points of the compass, who hold up the sky. The lords of the seasons.

CAMAZOTZ
Bat god, demon of the underworld.

CHAC
"Lightening," "the Cutter," "Lord of the nine generations." Rain god. One of the four Bacabs, the Lord of the East. Portrayed as a red man with a long nose. Revered particularly by farmers.

HUNAB KU Also KINEBAHAN
"Eyes and mouth of the sun." The Great God without Form, existing only in spirit. The chief god of the Mayan pantheon.

HURAKAN
God of thunderstorms and the whirlwind. His name gave us the word "hurricane." At the behest of his friend Gucumatz, son of the Sun and the Moon, Hurakan created the world, the animals, men and fire.

ITZAMNA
"Lizard House." Sky god and healer, son of Hunab Ku. Founder of the Mayan capital city of Mayapan. God of drawing and letters, patron of learning and the sciences. Itzamna can bring the dead back to life. His symbol is a red hand to which the ill pray for healing.

IX CHEL
"Lady Rainbow." Consort of Itzamna. Goddess of the moon, of weaving and of medicine. Her hands and feet are claws, and there are snakes in her hair. Except for Hunab Ku, all the other gods are the progeny of Ix Chel an Itzamna.

IXTAB
Goddess who rules the paradise of the blessed, who are served magnificent food and drink in the shade of the tree Yaxche. For reasons cmopletely obscure, Ixtab is portrayed as a hanged woman with a noose around her neck.

KUKULCAN
"The Feathered Serpent." Serpent god. The city of Quirigua was dedicated to his service. Roughly similar to Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs. He is said to have built the great city fo Chicen Itza.

 

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Other Tribes

 

AUCHIMALGEN (Araucanian, Chile) -
Moond goddess, wife of the sun. Only Auchimalgen cares anything for the human race, all the rest of the gods being utterly malevolent. Auchimalgen wards off evil spirits and turns red when some important person is about to die.

CUPARA (Jivaro) -
Cupara and his wife are the parents of the sun, for whom they created the moon from mud to be his mate. The children of the sun and moon are the animals, and among the animals is the sloth, who was the ancestor of the Jivaro.

EK CHUA -
God of merchants and cacao growers. Black faced with a huge nose.

EVAKI (Bakairi) -
Goddess of night. Evaki places the sun in a pot every night and moves the sun back to its starting point in the east every day. Evaki stole sleep from the eyes of the lizards and shared it with all the other living creatures.

KAMI and KERI (South American generally) -
Kami and Keri were born into the sky world as the sons of the jaguar Oka and a woman created by magic. Their mother was killed by Mero, the jaguar's mother, and in revenge, Kami and Keri burned her and themselves up in a great fire. Bringing themselves back to life, they came to earth as human beings where the separated the heavens from the earth, stolfe fire from the eyes of Fox, and made the rivers with water stolen from the Great Snake. After teaching humans how to live together, their work was done, and they climbed to a mountain peak where they disappeared.

NGURVILU (Araucanian, Chile) -
God of lakes and seas. Ngurvilu prowls about the waters in the form of a wild cat. It's tail ends in a huge claw, with which Ngurvilu might attack any human out of sheer maliciousness.

PILLAN (Araucanian, Chile) -
God of fire, thunder, and war, chief of all the gods. Aided by brigades of evil spirits, pillan causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, blights crops, creates storms and sends war.

TONAPA Also TONAPA VIRACOCHA NIPACACHAN -
The great god Viracocha in human form, traveling in disguise as an old man with a staff, preaching virtue to the people, working miracles, sleeping in the fields with nothing but his tunic for cover. Failing more often than succeeding, widely despised, Tonapa departed across the sea.

TUPAN (Tupinamba, Brazil) -
God of thunder and lightening. A bulky young man with wavy hair. Tupan likes to visit his mother often, and when he does the passage of his boat causes storms. The Tupinamba respect but do not worship Tupan.

CHABE (Sioux/Osage) -
Black Bear. A guardian. Symbol of long life, strength and courage.