30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for older students
Find out moreWho are these 2 gods?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Cocoa Escobedo: Dear Mexicolore, I need to know the names of the gods when you click on the left hand topic Aztec Gods and a picture of a monkey and skeleton sitting back to back comes up. Hope to hear from you - Cocoa. PS. Also if you know where the original symbols were found it would be helpful. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
This image is from the Codex Laud (the original is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford). It shows two of the nine Aztec Night Lords or Yoallitecuhtin, who count out the 260 nights of the sacred calendar, from conception to birth, as nine moons of 29 nights; ‘and in so doing’, writes Professor Gordon Brotherston, ‘they bestow fates by threes - good, bad and indifferent’. You can see all 9 of them, with the first, Xiuhtecuhtli, in the centre, in the famous Page 1 of the Codex Féjérváry-Mayer (follow the link below).
In the case of our picture here, on the left is Mictlantecuhtli (Night Lord number 5 - ‘Lord of the Land of the Dead’) and on the right (we’re 99% sure!*) is Itztli (Night Lord number 2 - ‘Obsidian’), always painted black like the volcanic glass blade he’s holding... According to Professor Brotherston, referring to the stages of growth of a baby in the womb, Mictlantecuhtli was the deity who builds the skeleton and Itztli was responsible for possible miscarriages.
*According to Salvador Mateos Higuera (Los Dioses Creadores) it’s actually Xolotl, the canine deity. Could well be...
Source: Painted Books from Mexico by Gordon Brotherston, British Museum Press, 1995
Comments (1)
otirudam
22nd May 2011
When i look at the ancient mexican painted books or codexes, i know that the people who made them could read them just like we read any book in modern times. I dream of the day in the future when people will be able to read these codexes completely and all their mysteries will be revealed at last.
Mexicolore
A dream we share! And who knows, perhaps one day a previously unknown codex will be discovered, full of fascinating new insights into ancient Mexican life... Wow!
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