The Discovery of Corn

After passing many harrowing tests set by Mictlantecuhtli in return for the bones, this lord cheats Quetzalcóatl who is then forced to steal them. To Quetzalcóatl's dismay, Mictlantecuhtli's helpers chase him out of the underworld and the bones fall on the ground in the rain, broken. Despite this setback, he picks them up and returns to the gods' paradise of Tamoanchan. There he sprinkles them with his own blood after the god Quilaztli, or Cihuacóatl, has ground them up. Thus, the first two humans are made. But although they are whole and alive, they immediately start to flounder. As they become weaker, the gods realise that the humans have nothing to eat. What follows is a passage from the Legend of the Suns that describes the discovery of corn, the sustenance of humans...

Pic 1: Quetzalcóatl (left) and 5 Grass flank a corn plant that symbolises the axis mundi, a sacred point that pierces and connects the heavens, earth and underworld with its leaves, stalk and roots. Codex Borgia.

The paste from the chewed corn was then placed on the lips of the humans and they began to stir and become stronger. Then the gods said, “What should we do about the Mountain of our Sustenance, Tonacatepetl?” Quetzalcóatl set off, determined to tie up the mountain with ropes and drag it to Tamoanchan, but, try as he might, the mountain would not budge. Then the two gods Oxomoco and Cipactonal threw lots with grains of corn so they could divine what next to do. They said, “Only the god Nanáhuatl can get the grain out of the mountain. He must split it open with his stick.” The gods of the rain, the Tlaloques, helped Nanáhuatl. These four gods were coloured blue, white, yellow and red. As he split open the Mountain of Our Sustenance, the kernels of corn were swept away by the Tlaloques. The corn kernels adopted their colours: blue, white, yellow and red. The Tlaloques also took beans, chía, amaranth and fish amaranth with them. Everything was swept from inside the Mountain of Our Sustenance.

Pic 3: Oxomoco and Cipactonal throwing lots with grains of corn, Codex Borbonicus

The Corn Myth in Mesoamerica

The myth that you have just read came from the Nahua region in central Mexico. Many versions of the discovery of corn have cropped up throughout the Mesoamerica, especially the Maya region. These stories are similar and centre on the gods' search for the ideal food to give to humankind. Alfredo López Austin explains to us that this same myth can be found over such a large geographical area because it is part of a Mesoamerican tradition - not uniquely Aztec nor Maya - that had strong cultural traits from as far north as the modern day states of Baja California and Chihuahua down to El Salvador and Honduras. The immense territory that formed Mesoamerica was a place of constant interaction between cultures and peoples. It became the seat of a strong, wide-placed native tradition.

Pic 5: Mexican corn (maize)

The Tlaloques, rain gods who took all the grain from Tonacatépetl, became responsible for determining sustenance to humans. They could either bring forth a good harvest or a terrible famine. In order to eat tortillas and tamales, much loved staples in Mesoamerica, a process needed to be carried out before corn dough or flour was made: it needed to be boiled with lime (calcium oxide) in order to free it of toxins and increase calcium content, a process called (in Spanish) “Nixtamalización”. The next story integrates this method into the corn myth....

Pic 7: Traditional hand made Mexican corn tortillas

The Virgin Mary was sitting on a stone suckling her baby, Jesus Christ. She was thoughtful, worrying about how she would sustain herself and her son. All of a sudden she noticed a movement under her stone. She saw that there were ants carrying something that neither she, nor any human, had seen before. She asked herself what it could be, and soon discovered it was corn.

Pic 9: A pair of corn tortilla rolled 'tacos', as consumed by millions of Mexicans every day; these are at the original 'Tacos Beatriz', central Mexico City