Xiuhtecuhtli

Aged fire god at the center of the cosmos; lord of the year and the New Fire ceremony.

Domains

• fire
• time and the year
• the hearth and center

Powers

• Kindle and govern household and temple fire
• Renew the world at the New Fire ceremony

Epithets

• Huēhuetēōtl nahuatl · Huehueteotl'the Old God' / 'Old, Old Deity' — the aged fire-god at the cosmic centreSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 1, ch. 13; Book 2 (the feast Izcalli) (primary chronicle); Nicholson, H. B. 'Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico', in Handbook of Middle American Indians vol. 10, 1971 (secondary scholarship)
• in tota in tonān nahuatl · in tota, in tonan'our father, our mother' — difrasismo addressing Xiuhtecuhtli the hearth-fire as the parental centre of the household and cosmosSahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 6, ch. 4 (huehuetlatolli prayer to Xiuhtecuhtli/Tezcatlipoca) (primary chronicle)

Relations

• interpretatio: Old Fire-and-Death GodOtontecuhtli is the Otomi old-fire-and-death god whom the Aztecs themselves worshipped as 'the Otomi lord', assimilated to Xiuhtecuhtli/Huehueteotl and honored in the same Xocotl Huetzi fire-festival.Sahagun, Florentine Codex Bk. 2 (Xocotl Huetzi); Nicholson, Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico (HMAI vol. 10, 1971); Miller & Taube (1993) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Books I, VI, VII (primary)