Mictlantecuhtli
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · Recorded classification
Skeletal lord of Mictlan and the dead; keeper of the ancestral bones.
Domains
- death
- underworld
Powers
- Rule the ninefold underworld of the dead
- Guard the bones of the dead generations
- Yield (and contest) the bones for the making of humankind
Epithets
- Tzontemoc He who descends head-first; the plunging (setting) sun-aspect of the death-lordSahagún, Florentine Codex, Books 3 & 7 (primary)
Relations
- interpretatio: Pitao BezelaoPitao Bezelao is the male Zapotec lord of the dead and the underworld (cult-center Mitla), paralleling the Central-Mexican death-lord Mictlantecuhtli.Burgoa, Geografica Descripcion (1674); Marcus & Flannery, Zapotec Civilization (1996); Miller & Taube (1993) (secondary)
- interpretatio: Lord of DemonsZithu, the Otomi lord of the underworld glossed in the Mezquital as 'venerable Death', parallels the Aztec death-lord Mictlantecuhtli; note that his 'lord of demons/Devil' gloss is partly a 16th-century missionary overlay (partly colonial-syncretic).Galinier, La Mitad del Mundo: Cuerpo y cosmos en los rituales otomies (1990); Wright Carr on Otomi religion (secondary)
- spouse: MictecacihuatlReciprocal of aztec_mictecacihuatl.spouse — Lord and lady of Mictlan, confronted together by Quetzalcoatl during the theft of the ancestral bones.Codex Chimalpopoca (Leyenda de los Soles) (primary)
- rival: QuetzalcoatlReciprocal of aztec_quetzalcoatl.rival — Mictlantecuhtli tried to trap Quetzalcoatl as he carried off the bones of past humanity.Codex Chimalpopoca (Leyenda de los Soles) (primary)
Sources
- existence: Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Books I, III; Leyenda de los Soles (primary)