Painal
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · deity
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: Huitzilopochtli
Sources
- Reference treatment of Painal and his festival role.