30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above
Find out moreIs Xoaltecuhtli a real Aztec god?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Alatus: I’m currently working on a series of indigenous characters from around the world and one of my ideas for a Mexica character is a theme around dreams and a male quetzal bird, i wondered if there was an aztec god of dreams and my first result was Xoaltecuhtli but as i started digging more, i found virtually nothing. is Xoaltecuhtli a real god but is just not as documented compared to others? (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
The short answer, we believe, is No! There’s no record of a deity called Xoaltecuhtli in any of the authoritative/scholarly books on the Aztecs - at least in our resource centre. We think it’s a make-up. And the image shown on Wikipedia, from the Codex Borgia is NOT a character called Xoaltecuhtli - instead it’s either (according to Eduard Seler) a representation of Quetzalcoatl (notice the famous shell emblem on his chest) or - perhaps more likely (according to Bruce Byland) - a priest in the service of Quetzalcoatl (notice he holds the tools of self-sacrifice in one hand).
We’ve never come across any deity by this name - nor have we come across an Aztec ‘god of dreams’. If we discover more, we’ll update this page...
Sources:-
• Seler, Edward, Comentarios al Códice Borgia, Mariano Frenk (tr.), Vol. II, FCE, México and Buenos Aires, 1963
• Byland, Bruce E. ‘Introduction and Commentary’ in The Codex Borgia: A Full-Colour Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript by Gisele Díaz and Alan Rodgers, Dover Publications, New York, 1993. (The image above is scanned from this).
Comments (1)
Alatus
22nd Aug 2024
thank you so much for answering this! it was a major help. kinda saddened that there isn’t a record of any god of dreams, i thought the concept was super interesting. was there ever a cultural significance of “dreams” in pre-colonial mexico though? i’m native to canada and in my native cultures dreams were very important to us and were viewed as messages from ancestors, wildlife spirits, or even creator. my series is meant to convey a connection between all these people from different cultures. thank you for your time and service, you guys are amazing!
Mexicolore
Thanks for kind comments. Don’t let the lack of a specific ‘god of dreams’ put you off: dreams were hugely important in the cultural life of Mesoamericans centuries ago. Please read our feature on (Mexica/Aztec) dream interpretation in our ‘Aztec Health’ section -
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/health/aztec-advances-21-dream-interpretation
And good luck with your own project/series - it should be a rewarding journey. Please keep us posted of progress...!
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