Painal
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · Recorded classification
Painal exists so that Huitzilopochtli can stay put. The war god's image sits in the temple on top of the Templo Mayor and does not move; when the god has to be somewhere, Painal goes — carried at a run, over a circuit of miles through the lake towns, with a crowd behind him. His name means roughly 'hurry up'. It is a neat piece of theological engineering: a deity split into a stationary half and a fast half, so the cult can be both fixed and mobile.
Domains
- messengers
Relations
- subordinate to: HuitzilopochtliHis deputy, and in practice his mobile half: the war god does not leave his temple, so the running is done by a second figure with his own name.Reference treatment of Painal as the deputy and messenger of Huitzilopochtli. (secondary)
Sources
- Painal is the deputy and messenger of Huitzilopochtli in Mexica religion, whose image was run in procession at the festival of Panquetzaliztli.: Reference treatment of Painal and his festival role. (secondary)