Nanahuatzin
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · deity
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: Tecciztecatl
- counterpart of: Tonatiuh
Sources
- Reference treatments of Nanahuatzin, of Tecciztecatl and of the fifth-sun myth.