Tezcatlipoca
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · Recorded classification
Omnipotent, capricious Mexica god of night, sorcery, rulership and fate; 'He of the Smoking Mirror.'
Parentage
Recorded default; alternative parentage accounts are listed separately below.
- parent: Ometeotl
Parentage accounts
Each account is a separate source claim. The parentage and children listed outside these accounts use the recorded default. Selecting an account in the interactive app updates its lineage, descent classification and inherited-power candidates. Linked pedigree accounts are selected together; other records retain their recorded parentage. Claims of ancestry are not proof of biological descent or attested powers.
- Historia de los Mexicanos, chapter 1: creator couple
deity by descent in this account.
- father: TonacatecuhtliHistoria de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas, chapter 1 (sixteenth-century account); Phillips 1883, pp. 616–617 (primary)
- mother: TonacacihuatlHistoria de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas, chapter 1 (sixteenth-century account); Phillips 1883, pp. 616–617 (primary)
Domains
- night sky
- sorcery and divination
- rulership and fate
- discord and conflict
Powers
- Scry all deeds and hearts in obsidian mirror
- Transform into jaguar and other nahual forms
- Grant or destroy wealth, rank, and fortune
Epithets
- Moyōcoyatzin He Who Invents/Creates Himself; the self-made oneSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 6 (Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy), prayers to Tezcatlipoca (primary); H. B. Nicholson, 'Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico' (Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 10, 1971) (secondary)
- Yohualli Ehēcatl Night and Wind; the invisible and intangible oneSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 6, ch. on the orations to Tezcatlipoca (primary)
- Tēlpōchtli The Youth; the eternally young warriorSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 1 (The Gods), on Tezcatlipoca (primary)
- Necoc Yāōtl The Enemy on Both Sides; sower of discord among menSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 6 (Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy), orations to Tezcatlipoca; Book 1 (The Gods) (primary)
Relations
- sibling: QuetzalcoatlReciprocal of aztec_quetzalcoatl.sibling — Two of the four sons of the creator pair Tonacatecuhtli-Tonacacihuatl.Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas (primary)
- rival: QuetzalcoatlReciprocal of aztec_quetzalcoatl.rival — Cosmic antagonists whose alternating victories end the successive Suns.Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas (primary)
- sibling: HuitzilopochtliBrothers among the four sons of the creator pair.Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas (primary)
- killer of: TlaltecuhtliWith Quetzalcoatl he sundered the earth-monster to make the world.Histoyre du Mechique (primary)
- sibling: Xipe TotecReciprocal of aztec_xipe_totec.sibling — The Red and the Black Tezcatlipoca, brothers among the four sons of the creator pair.Miller & Taube, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993) (secondary)
- enemy: Topiltzin Ce Acatl QuetzalcoatlReciprocal of topiltzin.enemy — The sorcerer Tezcatlipoca tricked Topiltzin into drunkenness and disgrace, driving him from Tollan.Anales de Cuauhtitlan (Codex Chimalpopoca) (primary)
- equated with: HuracanScholarly identification, not a cognate: Huracan (One Leg) is widely read as the K'iche' counterpart of one-footed Tezcatlipoca (via Classic God K imagery). Preserves the one-leg sky-sorcerer complex; narratives diverge.Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh (1996), notes on Huracan/'One Leg' (secondary); Michael D. Coe, 'The Hero Twins: Myth and Image', in The Maya Vase Book vol. 1 (1989) (secondary)