Aztec religion The Aztec religion is a monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of was construed as the supreme god , as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and ...

, Painal (also spelled Paynal or Painalton, "Little Painal"; also spelled Paynalton; nci-IPA, Payīnal, paˈjiːnaɬ, , ) was sometimes interpreted by Spanish colonists as a god (''

teotl Teotl () is a Nahuatl term for sacredness or divinity that is sometimes translated as "god". For the Aztecs was the metaphysical omnipresence upon which their religious philosophy was based. As described by James Maffie, "is essentially power: c ...

'') who served as a representative of Huitzilopochtli. Other scholars have noted that Paynala may have been a toponym, confused for a person. Bernardo de Sahagún's ''General History of the Things of New Spain'', commonly called the

Florentine Codex The ''Florentine Codex'' is a 16th-century ethnographic research study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Sahagún originally titled it: ''La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España'' (in English: ''The ...

, briefly describes Painal thus:

References

Aztec gods Nahuatl words and phrases {{mesoamerica-myth-stub