Lord of Demons

Otomi/Hñähñu (central Mexico). English 'Lord of Demons' leads; Otomi Zithü (also Zithu; 'zithü' is the Otomi word for devil/demon). A malevolent underworld deity. Antagonist of the boy-who-became-the-Sun in the Otomi solar origin myth.

Domains

• the underworld
• evil and affliction

Powers

• command the demons of the earth
• rules the band of nocturnal earth-demons

Relations

• interpretatio: MictlantecuhtliZithu, the Otomi lord of the underworld glossed in the Mezquital as 'venerable Death', parallels the Aztec death-lord Mictlantecuhtli; note that his 'lord of demons/Devil' gloss is partly a 16th-century missionary overlay (partly colonial-syncretic).Galinier, La Mitad del Mundo: Cuerpo y cosmos en los rituales otomies (1990); Wright Carr on Otomi religion (secondary)
• enemy: Boy Who Became the SunReciprocal of otomi_sun_boy.enemy — The boy who becomes the sun opposes the Lord of Demons (Zithü) in the Otomi sun-origin myth. Old Father/Old Mother parent-edges omitted: two deity parents compute to deity, not his demigod tier.Galinier, La mitad del mundo: cuerpo y cosmos en los rituales otomíes (1990); Otomi sun-origin narratives (secondary)

Sources

• Zithü is the Otomi malevolent god / lord of demons who once ruled the world with his evil hosts; he is overcome at the origin of the sun.: Galinier, Jacques (2004 [1990]). The World Below: Body and Cosmos in Otomí Indian Ritual. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. (secondary); Dow, James W. (1986). The Shaman's Touch: Otomí Indian Symbolic Healing. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. (secondary)