Question for August 2006

The short answer is Yes - ITZTLACOLIUHQUI, Aztec god of frost, ice, cold, winter, sin, punishment and human misery. His name means ‘Curved Obsidian’*. He was patron god of the calendar sign Reed. Being a (dis)guise of (Black) Tezcatlipoca, one of the creator gods, Itztlacoliuhqui was associated with the night, and with the cold North, and it’s perhaps not surprising to find his image from the Codex Borbonicus (Pic 1) has very little colour in it. Wherever he appears in the codices his face is shown only as a piece of finely curved black obsidian (another example is Pic 3, from the Codex Borgia). Some say his harsh blindfold reflects his blindness to the hardship inflicted on poor Mexica farmers and their families by a bad frost that might destroy their vulnerable crops.

Pic 1: Itztlacoliuhqui, adapted from the Codex Borbonicus, plate 12

Snow wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for the Aztecs. In the Florentine Codex there is a little chapter (6) in Book 7 dedicated to Frost, Snow, Clouds and Hail. Snow and Frost were signs that Harvest was coming:-
’The frost [god] was called Itztlacoliuhqui. Once yearly the cold came. During the feast of Ochpaniztli the cold began. And for 120 days this persisted and there was cold. And it ended and disappeared [during the feast] called Tititl. When [the month] came to an end, it was said: “For the frost hath departed. Now there will be sowing - it will be a time of sowing...” SNOW: it was only the servant and companion which followed, accompanied, and spread the frost over the earth. It was considered to be like the rain. And it was said that when there was snow, [crops] would be harvested; the crops would be good. It foretold, and was an omen of, [good] crops.’

Pic 3: Itztlacoliuhqui, adapted from the Codex Borgia p. 69

Can you see what Itztlacoliuhqui holds in his hand (Pic 1)? It’s a ‘tlachpanoni’, a decorated straw broom, symbol of sweeping clean (pic 5). The very name of the 20-day ‘month’ Ochpaniztli means ‘Sweeping’, the duty of all Aztecs during the 120-day cold season which ended with the ‘month’ Tititl. Not just houses, but streets, hills and causeways all had to be swept clean, every day. In a way perhaps it was a sign of punishment from the God of Coldness, Itztlacoliuhqui; after all, one of the strict punishments parents inflicted on naughty children was that of staying up at night to sweep clean the house... By the way, the decorated paper wrapped round the broom was a possible sign that whoever held the broom would not themselves become ‘dirty’ from the sins and dirt that the broom came in contact with.

Pic 5: the ‘tlachpanoni’ or straw broom in Itztlacoliuhqui’s hand