Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · deity
The Lord of the House of the Dawn is a weather warning. Venus at its heliacal rising — the first morning it reappears after weeks in the sun's glare — was held to shoot darts, and the codices specify who gets hit at each station of the eight-year cycle: children, young men, lords, the maize, the water. The Mexica and the Maya both computed the cycle to within hours across centuries, and the reason was not idle: knowing where Venus was told you what was about to be dangerous. It is one of the clearest cases anywhere of astronomy that is entirely practical and entirely about gods.
Domains
- venus
Powers
- to cast the rays of the heliacal rising as spear-thrower darts at a named class of victim
Relations
- twin sibling: Xolotl
Sources
- Reference treatments of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, of the Venus tables and of the dangerous morning star.