Tezcatlipoca

“ On the day of this festival a youth was slain who for an entire year previously had been carefully instructed in the rôle of victim. He was selected from among the best war captives of the year, and must be without spot or blemish. He assumed the name, garb, and attributes of Tezcatlipoca himself, and was regarded with awe by the entire populace, who imagined him to be the earthly representative of the deity. He rested during the day, and ventured forth at night only, armed with the dart and shield of the god, to scour the roads. ”

“ Thus at the festival called Toxcatl, the greatest festival of the Mexican year, a young man was annually sacrificed in the character of Tezcatlipoca, “the god of gods,” after having been maintained and worshipped as that great deity in person for a whole year. ”

“ Most of the old authors say that Tlaloc occupied the second chapel, but as the next largest temple in the court is dedicated to this god, I am inclined to think, with Clavigero, that Tezcatlipoca shared the chief pyramid with Huitzilopochtli. Another reason for this belief is that Tezcatlipoca was held to be the half-brother of Huitzilopochtli, and their feasts were sometimes attended with similar ceremonies. Tezcatlipoca was also one of the highest if not the highest god, and, accordingly, entitled to the place of honor by the side of the favorite god of the Aztecs. ”

“ A peculiar legend accounts for the feather-work garments and mask worn by Quetzalcoatl; from two sources we learn that this god was extremely ugly, and one of them adds that when Tezcatlipoca showed him his reflection in his mirror, Quetzalcoatl was so ashamed that he adopted these aids to concealment. 'The other states that his image was always kept covered.
Besides Tezcatlipoca, there were also other high gods, whose functions related to creation and generation, but, like many high gods among primitive peoples, the amount of active worship paid them was relatively small. ”

“ One of their most important festivals was that in honor of the god Tezcatlipoca, [125] whose rank was inferior only to that of the Supreme Being. He was called “the soul of the world,” and supposed to have been its creator. He was depicted as a handsome man, endowed with perpetual youth. A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for his personal beauty, and without a blemish on his body, was selected to represent this deity. ”

“ As a god of ceremonial purification he is generally shown with the bone implement for piercing the ears, sometimes stuck in his head-dress, and, as a patron of education, children were presented to him at the public school or Calmecac. His legendary connection with Tezcatlipoca is interesting. In one myth the two are mentioned as creating-gods, who raised the heavens after they had fallen upon the earth at the end of the last mythical period. In another they are shown as foes, and it is Tezcatlipoca who by his machinations drives Quetzalcoatl from Tulan. ”

“ It is still the implacable Tezcatlipoca who pursues and finally conquers him. But there is this significant difference, that whereas in the elemental warfare portrayed in the older myth mutual violence and alternate destruction prevail, in all these later myths Quetzalcoatl makes no effort at defence, scarcely remonstrates, but accepts his defeat as a decree of Fate which it is vain to resist. He sees his people fall about him, and the beautiful city sink into destruction, but he knows it is the hand of Destiny, and prepares himself to meet the inevitable with what stoicism and dignity he may. ”

“ There is nothing for me at present but to gather, sift, and arrange, with such sifting and arrangement as may be possible, all accessible materials relating to the subject in hand; that done let more skilled workmen find and give them their place in the wall of science. For they have a place there, whether or no it be found to-day or to-morrow; a breach is there that shall be empty until they fit and fill it.
Tezcatlipoca seems to have been considered on the whole, and the patron-gods of different cities aside, as the most important of the Mexican gods. ”

“ Traces of divine supremacy in Mexican religion are especially associated with Tezcatlipoca, 'Shining Mirror,' a deity who seems in his original nature the Sun-god, and thence by expansion to have become the soul of the world, creator of heaven and earth, lord of all things, Supreme Deity. ”

“ Tezcatlipoca (Fiery Mirror) was undoubtedly the Jupiter of the Nahua pantheon. He carried a mirror or shield, from which he took his name, and in which he was supposed to see reflected the actions and deeds of mankind. The evolution of this god from the status of a spirit of wind or air to that of the supreme deity of the Aztec people presents many points of deep interest to students of mythology. Originally the personification of the air, the source both of the breath of life and of the tempest, Tezcatlipoca possessed all the attributes of a god who presided over these phenomena. ”

“ The fifth month, Toxcatl, beginning on April 23rd, was symbolized by a figure of Tezcatlipoca, and was the occasion of the feast which has so often been described; at which a young man, identified with the god, was sacrificed to him after a year spent in the enjoyment of every luxury that Mexican civilization could afford. ”

“ Those that escaped the coa were trodden down and killed by their fellows in attempting to escape; a countless number was slain; every man that had come to the work was left lying dead among the trodden flowers.
TEZCATLIPOCA DEAD.
And after this Tezcatlipoca wrought another witchcraft against the Toltecs. He called himself Tlacavepan, or Acexcoch, and came and sat down in the midst of the market-place of Tulla, having a little manikin (said 247 to have been Huitzilopochtli) dancing upon his hand. There was an instant uproar of all the buyers and sellers and a rush to see the miracle. ”

“ In myth Tezcatlipoca plays the leading rôle as adversary of Quetzalcoatl, the ruler and god of the Toltec city of Tollan. In Sahagun's version of the story, three magicians, Huitzilopochtli, Titlacauan ("We are his Slaves," an epithet of Tezcatlipoca) , and Tlacauepan, the younger brother of the others, undertook by magic and wile to drive Quetzalcoatl from the country and to overthrow the Toltec power. ”

“ To it is to be ascribed by far the larger part of all we know about the Mexican religion. [II-12] According to the version of this school, Tezcatlipoca, a god whose birth and adventures are set forth hereafter, was the creator of the material heaven and earth, though not of mankind; and sometimes even the honor of this partial creation is disputed by others of the gods.
One Mexican nation, again, according to an ancient writer of their own blood, affirmed that the earth had been created by chance; and as for the heavens, they had always existed. ”

“ They are taken from Sahagun’s work, Historia General de Nueva España, and are included as well for the sake of comparison as for their own intrinsic value.
[Contents]
Tezcatlipoca as Doomster
Tezcatlipoca was much more than a mere personification of wind, and if he was regarded as a life-giver he had also the power of destroying existence. In fact on occasion he appears as an inexorable death-dealer, and as such was styled Nezahualpilli (The Hungry Chief) and Yaotzin (The Enemy) . ”

“ In the reign of Quetzalcoatl there was peace and plenty for all men.
But this blissful state was too fortunate, too happy to endure. Envious of the calm enjoyment of the god and his people the Toltecs, three wicked “necromancers” plotted their downfall. The reference is of course to the gods of the invading Nahua tribes, the deities Huitzilopochtli, Titlacahuan or Tezcatlipoca, and Tlacahuepan. These laid evil enchantments upon the city of Tollan, and Tezcatlipoca in particular took the lead in these envious conspiracies. ”

“ This latter deity becomes a magician, cunning and malicious enough to get the better of the gentle Quetzalcoatl on every occasion. I regret that time will not allow me to tell in detail of the combat between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. The latter was a sovereign who lived long ago at Tulla, the northern focus of Toltec civilization. Under his sceptre men lived in great happiness and enjoyed abundance of everything. ”

“ Human sacrifices were forbidden, and a golden age seemed to dawn in which Tollan exceeded all the cities of the Mexican valley in importance and wealth. But a rivalry at once sprang up between the priests of the bloody god Tezcatlipoca, worshipped in Culhuacan and at Teotihuacan, and those of the peaceful and humane Quetzalcoatl, which resulted in the voluntary departure of the Pontiff king, to whom the name of his god was attached. The contest between the two sects is symbolized in the legend by the tricks of Tezcatlipoca. ”

“ This story (clearly a variant of the tale of the banishment of Quetzalcoatl told in the Annals of Quauhtitlan and by Sahagun) is [Pg 69] interpreted by Seler as a myth of the morning moon, driven back by night (the dark Tezcatlipoca) to be consumed by the rising sun. A reverse story represents Tezcatlipoca, the sun, as stricken down by the club of Quetzalcoatl, transformed into a jaguar, the man-devouring demon of night, while Quetzalcoatl becomes sun in his place. ”

“ When he wished to promulgate a law, he sent a hero whose word could be heard a hundred leagues away to proclaim it from the summit of Tzatzitepetl, “The mountain of clamors.” Under his tutelary care, maize grew to such a size that a single ear was all a man could carry, and cotton grew with all the colors already in it. In a word, the Aztecs believed that the reign of Quetzacoatl was the golden age of the country.
Tezcatlipoca (shining mirror) was the principal god next to Teotl, having descended to earth by means of a spider’s web. ”

“ The son of the first pair married a woman formed from a hair of the goddess Xochiquetzal; and the gods, noticing how little was the light given forth by the half-sun, resolved to make another half-sun, whereupon Tezcatlipoca became the sun-bearer—for what we behold traversing the daily heavens is not the sun itself, but only its brightness; the true sun is invisible. The other gods created huge giants, who could uproot trees by brute force, and whose food was acorns. For thirteen times fifty-two years, altogether six hundred and seventy-six, this period lasted—as long as its Sun endured ”

“ The following Sun was created because Quetzalcoatl became the Sun, but was a less intense sun, causing agriculture to flourish and human beings were able to feed from a wild fruit called acotzintli. But one day black Tezcatlipoca, converted in a jaguar, climbed up to the heavens and with a blow made his brother Tezcatlipoca White—Quetzalcoatl collapse, which provoked a gale that tore the hills, destroying everything. Due to the wind force human had to walk hunched, they turned into monkeys. The Sun was called Sun of wind or Ehécatl—Tonantiuh. ”

“ It may be thought that such a practice would be fatal to the evolution of a single and universal god. But there is every reason to believe that Tezcatlipoca, the great god of the air, like the Hebrew Jahveh, also an air-god, was fast gaining precedence of all other deities, when the coming of the white man put an end to his chances of sovereignty. ”

“ An interesting myth attaches to Tezcatzoncatl, who was fabled to have been killed and revived by Tezcatlipoca, by which action the sleep of the drunken, so similar to death, became harmless for men. No doubt it was this awakening after heavy sleep, as much as anything else, which connected the octli gods with the waxing and waning of vegetation and the moon. The 'Tarascans of Cumachan also worshipped an octli god, who was believed to be lame, since he disgraced himself by becoming intoxicated in heaven, and was thrown thence to the carth. ”

“ But another important link connects Tezcatlipocâ with obsidian. Bernal Diaz states that they called this “Tezcat.” From it mirrors were manufactured as divinatory media by the wizard. Sahagun says61 that it was known as aitztli (water obsidian) , probably because of the high polish of which it was capable. Another such stone he mentions was called tepochtli, which I would translate “wizard stone,” and from which I think, by a process of etymological confusion, Tezcatlipocâ received one of his minor names, Telpochtli, “the youth.” ”

“ We are told that his arms and legs were dressed and cooked for the tables of the nobles and priests, and it has been often repeated that the children sacrificed to Tlaloc were likewise prepared for the table; but many think there is not sufficient evidence on which to accuse these Aztecs of cannibalism.
Races between the students, dances, offerings to the idol and a general dismissal from the seminaries of all boys and girls of a marriageable age, terminated the festivities in honor of the great god, Tezcatlipoca. The god of war, Huitzilopochtli, demanded a festival in this month. ”

“ Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. de Mexico, tom. i., pp. 468-9; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 3-4.
[VI-19] Hombre Buho.
[VI-20] Pimentel, Mem. sobre la Raza Indígena, pp. 11-13.
[VI-21] Solis, Hist. de la Conq. de Mex., tom. i., pp. 398-9, 431.
[VI-22] Gallatin, in Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 350, identifies this god with Tezcatlipoca of whom he writes in the following terms: 'Tezcatlipoca. A true invisible god, dwells in heaven, earth, and hell; alone attends to the government of the world, gives and takes away wealth and prosperity. ”