Thunder Lord

Totonac (Veracruz/Sierra, Mexico), as recorded by Ichon and Kelly & Palerm. English 'Thunder Lord' leads; Totonac Aktsiní' (also Aktzin, Ā'ktzini, 'He who makes Thunder'). The ruined city El Tajín ('thunder/lightning') is named for him. Distinct from the collective Twelve Old Thunderbolts though he heads them.

Domains

• thunder and lightning
• rain

Powers

• strike the clouds to make thunder
• strikes the clouds with his axe to make thunder and lightning
• heads the Twelve Old Thunderbolts who dwell in the ruins of El Tajin

Epithets

• Aktsini' latin · Aktsini · cultThe thunder-and-rain god, lord of the storms (associated with El Tajín)Totonac ethnography (Ichon, La religión de los totonacas) (secondary)
• Trueno Viejo Spanish (Totonac usage) · Trueno Viejo · cultOld Thunder (the living name by which the Totonac still invoke him)Alain Ichon, La religion des Totonaques de la Sierra (1969) (secondary)

Relations

• companion: Twelve Old ThunderboltsChief thunderer among the old thunder-beings who together loose the rains of the Gulf sierra.Alain Ichon, La religion des Totonaques de la Sierra (1969) (secondary)

Sources

• Aktsini' (Aktzin, 'He who makes Thunder'/Great Thunder) is the Totonac god of thunder, lightning and rain, chief of the thunder-beings of El Tajín, corresponding to Tlaloc/Chaac.: Ichon, Alain (1969). La religión de los totonacas de la sierra. México: Instituto Nacional Indigenista. (secondary); Kelly, Isabel & Palerm, Angel (1952). The Tajín Totonac, Part 1. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Social Anthropology Publication 13. (secondary)