Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli

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: XolotlThe morning to Xolotl's evening.Reference treatment of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli as both aspects of Venus and as the twin brother of Xolotl. (secondary)

Sources

• Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is the Mexica god of Venus as the morning star, whose rays at heliacal rising were held to strike specified classes of people and to harm maize and water.: Reference treatments of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, of the Venus tables and of the dangerous morning star. (secondary)