Tlaloc

Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · Recorded classification

Goggle-eyed, fanged storm god of rain, lightning and agriculture; lord of Tlalocan.

Domains

Tlamacazqui nahuatl · cultThe Provider / Giver (lit. priest, the one who gives)Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 1 (The Gods), on Tlaloc Tlamacazqui (primary)
Tlālocān tēuctli nahuatl · Tlalocan teuctli · cultLord of Tlalocan; sovereign of the paradise of rain and the watery deadSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 3 (Tlalocan) (primary)

interpretatio: CocijoCocijo is the Zapotec member of the pan-Mesoamerican goggle-eyed rain-lightning storm-god complex of which Tlaloc is the Central-Mexican form (Zapotec cocijo natively means 'lightning', not a Nahuatl loan).Miller & Taube, An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993); Marcus & Flannery, Zapotec Civilization (1996) (secondary)
spouse: ChalchiuhtlicueReciprocal of aztec_chalchiuhtlicue.spouse — Goddess of terrestrial waters, named as Tlaloc's wife in the 16th-c. cosmogonic accounts.Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas (primary)
spouse: XochiquetzalReciprocal of aztec_xochiquetzal.spouse — First wife of Tlaloc until Tezcatlipoca carried her off.Munoz Camargo, Historia de Tlaxcala (primary)
equated with: ChaacStandard scholarly identification of the two rain-lightning gods, with documented iconographic interchange (goggle-eyed Tlaloc imagery at Maya sites). Not cognate names; Tlaloc descends from the Teotihuacan storm god.Karl Taube, The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (1992), ch. 'Chaak' (secondary); Mary Miller & Karl Taube, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993), s.v. 'Chac', 'Tlaloc' (secondary)