Nanahuatzin

Nanahuatzin is the reason the Mexica cosmos is held together by sacrifice rather than by power. The gods gather at Teotihuacan with a fire burning for four days and someone has to go into it. The rich god volunteers and brings coral and quetzal plumes; the sick god, covered in sores, has nothing to offer but his own blood and offers that. When the moment comes the rich god balks four times. Nanahuatzin shuts his eyes and goes in, and comes up as the sun. Everything the Mexica did afterwards — including the parts that horrify everyone — follows from believing that the sun is somebody who did that, and needs to be repaid.

Domains

• sun

Relations

• rival: TecciztecatlThe pairing is the argument of the myth: the rich god and the sick one, offering coral and offering blood, and the fire takes the one who is not protecting anything.Reference treatment of the fifth-sun myth, in which Tecciztecatl offers himself but the gods favour Nanahuatzin, and Tecciztecatl's nerve fails four times before Nanahuatzin jumps. (secondary)
• counterpart of: TonatiuhHe becomes Tonatiuh, whom the registry already carried. The two records are the same being before and after the fire, which the Mexica sources themselves distinguish by name.Reference treatment of Nanahuatzin, who returned as Tonatiuh, the sun god. (secondary)

Sources

• Nanahuatzin is the humble, diseased Mexica god who threw himself into the bonfire at Teotihuacan and rose as the fifth sun, Tonatiuh.: Reference treatments of Nanahuatzin, of Tecciztecatl and of the fifth-sun myth. (secondary)