Article suitable for older students

Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli - The god with the longest name?

21st Feb 2008

Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli

Could Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli be the Aztec god with the longest name? He features on our Contact page, and his name - which means ‘Lord of the House of Dawn’ - consists of 7 syllables (equivalent to saying ‘Lord God Almighty in Heav’n’). It takes me around 8 seconds just to type his name, which you can hear pronounced below. We’ve decided to give him a full ‘profile’... (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli was the twin/dual deity of the planet Venus, as Morning Star (Quetzalcóatl) and Evening Star (Xólotl). Worshipped throughout the Mesoamerican region for centuries even before the Aztecs, he represented first and foremost the bright star that appears with its own unique brilliance very early in the morning in the Eastern sky.

Venus is very similar to Earth in size and mass - and so is sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet. It's usually the third brightest body in the sky after the sun and the moon*. The ancient Mexicans, being expert astronomers (Pic2), could predict precisely on which days and at which times the star would appear and disappear. Not only were they were well aware of its 584 day cycle round the sun, they even knew that its exact cycle is actually 583 days, 22 hours, 6 minutes and 40 seconds - and they allowed for the difference to be made up in their calculations every 88 years!

What's more, the ancient Mexicans had calculated accurately that the orbits of the earth (c.365 days), the moon (c.260 days) and Venus (c.584 days) come together only once every 104 years (two Aztec 'bundles of years' or centuries'). Their knowledge of time and its cycles was truly stunning.

It had always been believed throughout Mesoamerica that Venus's rays, rising as the planet does immediately before the sun - whose daily re-birth was 'announced' by the Morning Star - were both deadly and immensely powerful. They came directly from the spirit world '... and carried with them the awesome power associated with that realm' ('The Flayed God', p. 289). In many codices Venus is depicted as one of the fiercest of the gods in the sky, where cosmic battles - the most obvious being between day and night - were fought out daily. In the Codex Cospi (Pic 3) the Morning Star can be seen (in the fourth of the 5 periods of the Venus cycle) using his átlatl or spear-thrower to hurl a dart or powerful ray of light at a (rather small) sun sitting on an 'icpalli' (royal thrown).

This recalls part of the Aztec legend of the creation of the Fifth Sun: initially the sun and the moon are motionless in the sky. Tonatiuh (sun god) demands obedience and sacrifice from the other gods before he will move. 'Infuriated by this arrogance, the god of the morning star known as Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, Lord of the Dawn, shoots a dart at the sun. However, the dart misses its mark, and the sun throws his own back at the morning star, piercing Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli through the head. At this moment, the Lord of the Dawn is transformed into the god of stone and coldness, Itztlacoliuhqui, and for this reason it is always cold at the time of the dawn...' (Aztec and Maya Myths, pp.42-44).

In the second part of the Venus cycle, again in the Codex Cospi (Pic 4) Venus - again with a skull mask, only white this time - hurls darts at Chalchiuhtlicue (water goddess - see our feature on her noseplug, below). Notice how the dart pierces the goddess's heart. The same scene is shown in another of the Borgia group of codices, the Vaticanus, Chalchiuhtlicue on the left and Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli on the right (Pic 5). Notice the sequence of day signs around the scene - 13, all with the sign cóatl (snake); the numbers run (from top left): 11, 4, 10, 3, 9, 2, 8, 1, 7, 13, 6, 12, 5. These are a tiny part of several complicated astronomical tables, shown in a number of Borgia group codices, predicting the cycles of Venus over 104 years (see above).

The 5 periods of Venus are always shown with the 13 days associated with each; 13 x 5 = 65 and 65 x 4 = 260, the number of days in the most ancient Mexican calendar. When you open the long sacred calendar of 260 days in the Codex Cospi, you find 5 rows of 13 days on each double page (pic 6). Each quarter of 65 days was associated with a compass point (N,S,E,W). Wow!

How to recognise Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli? He's usually shown with a sharply peaked feathered crown consisting of a red headband sporting two (or more) almond-shaped decorative flashes, often painted red-and-white (Pic 7).

In the Borgia group of codices he is often depicted (see Pic 9, e.g.) with 5 white rings or discs spaced around his forehead, nose, cheeks and chin - these probably represent the 5 signs associated with the Venus calendar cycle (Alligator, Snake, Water, Reed and Movement).

Being a representation of Quetzalcóatl, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli was a brother of the two Tezcatlipocas and Huitzilopochtli, and firmly linked to the group of Creator Gods. Associated with the West, his companion spirit was a white hummingbird, and the colour white always featured in some aspect of his 'disguise' - usually the loincloth.

His hair, on the other hand, was coloured yellow, his body often grey/black, and his arms and legs frequently bore the distinctive red-and-white stripes ('huahuantin') of gladiatorial victims (see Pic 8, e.g.). Indeed symbols of war, such as darts/spears & shield, were never far from him in the codices - you can see the great Aztec war symbol 'atl tlachinolli' (water-and-burnt-earth) all around him in the Codex Borbonicus (Pics 7 & 10). Notice the darts flowing through the stream of water! And notice how the belt of burnt earth flows from under the god up into a divine throne, on top of which are a series of symbols of war sacrifice - soft down feather tassles, an 'eagle bowl' containing human hearts, a bone, a cactus thorn, and a straw for sipping blood...

Here's your chance to see how Aztec scribes assembled the figure of a god or goddess. Our illustrator, Phillip Mursell, has dissected Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli for you [with grateful thanks to the illustrations in Salvador Matos Higuera's volume 'Los Dioses Creadores', part of the Enciclopedia Gráfica del México Antiguo]. We've given you most of the more interesting part 'names' in Náhuatl and English...

Key to Picture 11:-

aztaxelli = forked feather headdress

cuezalhuitóncatl = feathered crown

chalchiuhnacochtli = nose/face mask [typical of Quetzalcóatl]

tezcacuitlapilli = feathered tail mirror

cózcatl = necklace

anáhuatl = (sea)shell ring, tied by a red leather belt

iztac máxtlatl = white loincloth

iztac cactli = white sandals

Key to Picture 12:-

atl = water

tlepapálotl = 'fire butterfly'

huitztli = thorn [associated with the beak of a hummingbird]

ómitl = bone

yólotl = heart

cuauhxicalli = 'eagle bowl'

teoicpalli = throne/seat of a god

tlachinolli = 'scorched earth'.

Sources:-

Aztec and Maya Myths by Karl Taube, British Museum Press, 1993

Mythology of the Aztecs and Maya by David M Jones, Anness Publishing, 2003

The Flayed God - the Mythology of Mesoamerica by Roberta H Markman and Peter T Markman, HarperCollins Publishers, 1992

Los Dioses Creadores by Salvador Mateos Higuera, Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 1993

Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli

Aztec limerick no. 47 (ode to Venus) -
Said Sun and Moon to old Venus:
’There are 104 years in between us...
’When we’re 52,
’We double it, and you
’Know the Maya were the first to have seen us.’

Chalchiuhtlicue's nose plug

Comments (9)

Santillana

11th Jan 2020

I would like to make a small correction to the audio. Well in fact, two. First, the “H” in “tecuHtli” is silent. Doesn’t sound as “h” in “horse”. Second: the “I” in “tlahuIz” should not be pronounced with much stress. Thanks !!!

Mexicolore

Thank YOU! We’re Nahuatl novices, so do our best just to give a ‘feel’ for the pronunciation. Hopefully we can record a more accurate rendering in the future...

Tecpatzin

29th Dec 2019

Their accurate precision in astronomy is astounding. Were all Mexica great astronomers, or was it just the priests?

Mexicolore

Great question! We’ve tried to answer it simply in the ‘Ask Us section’ - https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-us/were-all-mexica-great-astronomers

R. Braun

5th Sep 2017

It takes Venus about 225 days to orbit the sun. How was the number 583 days, 22 hours, 6 minutes, etc. to obit the sun derived?

Mexicolore

I’m no astronomer, but a quick search online comes up with the following: ‘Venus takes only 225 days to orbit the Sun. However, when she is viewed from Earth, her full synodic cycle (from inferior conjunction to inferior conjunction with the Sun) takes 584 days, or about 1.6 years. This is due to the interaction of Venus’s 225- day orbital period with the 365-day orbital period of the Earth.’

lyn

31st May 2017

what is the nahuatl name for the planet (or star)Venus ?

Mexicolore

Er, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli!!

Ottmar Serrano

19th Sep 2016

The current sound file for the pronunciation of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli seems too american, so to speak. There is a definite english accent, the stress falls on the wrong syllable and the final “h” shouldn’t be pronounced. I’m currently studying classical nahuatl and could send you how I’d pronounce it. Would you be interested?

Mexicolore

Forgive our humble first attempt! YES PLEASE, do send us a more correct sound file, and we’ll add it to the page...

Kylee Smalley

12th Sep 2014

So I’m having trouble telling what’s the ‘actual’ tale. How was Xolotl related to Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl? Not just blood relations either, anyway that they’ve made contact please.

Mexicolore

Think of Xolotl as the destructive, ‘dark’ twin of Quetzalcoatl. It was Xolotl that helped Venus through the underworld as the Evening Star.

Luís Gonçalves

27th May 2009

Dear friends, I have a doubt on the meaning of T.’s name. According to a Nahuatl dictionary that I own, the origin of this god’s name would be: “tlahuizcalli” (light of dawn) + “calpan” (in the house(s)?) + “tecuhtli” (lord), or “Lord of the House of Dawn”, but I’d like to be really sure about this. Could you please confirm if this is true? Thank you for your precious work and help. Luís, from Portugal.

Mexicolore

Thanks for writing in, Luis. Yes, basically you’re right. “Tla(h)uizcalli” means dawn/light of dawn, “calli” means house, “Tla(h)uizcalpan” means at/with the dawn, “Tecuhtli” means Lord. As always with classical Náhuatl names, variations of meaning abound - Salvador Matos Higuera gives T’s name as Lord of the Dawn, Lord of the House of Dawn, Lord of the House of Light, Lord of the Pink House, Ruler of the Dawn, Lord of the Morning Light, etc...

Mario Chavez

18th May 2009

I got some artefacts very similar to this that my brother give to me he purchase this items over 40 yr and they are from 300bc , how can i found out the value??

Mexicolore

Very tricky this, Mario! If you lived in London we could take you to see a curator in the British Museum, but it’s impossible to do this electronically, we fear...

Hernán

11th May 2008

Can I take your article to show it in my space? I want to translate it, but only if you let me do it. Very interesting. Greetings from Colombia.

Mexicolore

¡Con gusto, Hernán! Feel free - but please give a link to our website; and let us in return put your translated version onto these pages...!

Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli