![Tlaltecuhtli monolith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Tlaltecuhtli_monolith.jpg)
Tlaltecuhtli (
Classical Nahuatl ''Tlāltēuctli'', ) is a
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...
n deity worshipped primarily by the
Mexica (
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
) people. Sometimes referred to as the "earth monster," Tlaltecuhtli's dismembered body was the basis for the world in the Aztec creation story of the fifth and final cosmos. In carvings, Tlaltecuhtli is often depicted as an anthropomorphic being with splayed arms and legs. Considered the source of all living things, she had to be kept sated by human sacrifices which would ensure the continued order of the world.
According to a source, in the creation of the Earth, the gods did not tire of admiring the liquid world, no oscillations, no movements, so
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca (; nci, Tēzcatl ihpōca ) was a central deity in Aztec religion, and his main festival was the Toxcatl ceremony celebrated in the month of May. One of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the God of providence, he is a ...
and
Quetzalcoatl thought that the newly created world should be inhabited. And for this, they made Tlalcihuatl, 'Lady of the earth', come down from heaven, and Tlaltecuhtli, 'Lord of the earth', would be her consort.
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl create the Earth from the body of
Cipactli, a giant alligator self-created in the Omeyocan.
Tlaltecuhtli is known from several post-conquest manuscripts that surveyed
Mexica mythology and belief systems, such as the ''Histoyre du méchique'',
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: ''Th ...
, and
Codex Bodley
The Codex Bodley is an important pictographic manuscript and example of Mixtec historiography. It was named after the colloquial name of the Bodleian Library, where it has been stored since the 17th century.
History
While the exact date of its ...
, both compiled in the sixteenth century.
Representations in art
![Tlaltecuhtli_codex_painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Tlaltecuhtli_codex_painting.jpg)
Tlaltecuhtli is typically depicted as a squatting toad-like creature with massive claws, a gaping mouth, and crocodile skin, which represented the surface of the earth. In carvings, her mouth is often shown with a river of blood flowing from it or a flint knife between her teeth, a reference to the human blood she thirsted for. Her elbows and knees are often adorned with human skulls, and she sometimes appears with multiple mouths full of sharp teeth all over her body. In some images, she wears a skirt made of human bones and a star border, a symbol of her primordial sacrifice.
Many sculptures of Tlaltecuhtli were meant only for the gods and were not intended to be seen by humans. She was often carved onto the bottom of sculptures where they made contact with the earth, or on the undersides of stone boxes called ''
cuauhxicalli
A ''cuauhxicalli'' or ''quauhxicalli'' (, meaning "eagle gourd bowl") was an altar-like stone vessel used by the Aztec to hold human hearts extracted in sacrificial ceremonies. A cuauhxicalli would often be decorated with animal motifs, commonly e ...
'' ("eagle box"), which held the sacrificial hearts she was so partial to. In reference to her mythological function as the support of the earth, Tlaltecuhtli was sometimes carved onto the cornerstones of temples, such as the pyramid platform at
El Tajin.
Tlaltecuhtli's importance in the Mexica pantheon is demonstrated by her inclusion in major works of art. A representation of the goddess can be found on each side of the 1503 CE Coronation Stone of the Aztec ruler
Moctezuma II, alongside the glyphs for fire and water — traditional symbols of war. Historian Mary Miller even suggests that Tlaltecuhtli may be the face in the center of the famous
Aztec Calendar Stone
The Aztec sun stone ( es, Piedra del Sol) is a late post-classic Mexica sculpture housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, and is perhaps the most famous work of Mexica sculpture. It measures in diameter and thick, and weig ...
(Piedra del Sol), where she symbolizes the end of the 5th and final Aztec cosmos.
Tlaltecuhtli appears in the
Aztec calendar as the 2nd of the 13 deity days, and her date glyph is 1 Rabbit.
Creation narrative
According to the Bodley Codex,
[Caso, Alfonso (fifth printing 1978) The Aztecs: People of the Sun Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 52-56 OCLC 58-11603] there were four earth gods — Tlaltecuhtli,
Coatlicue,
Cihuacoatl and
Tlazolteotl.
In the Mexica creation story, Tlaltecuhtli is described as a sea monster (sometimes called
Cipactli) who dwelled in the ocean after the fourth
Great Flood
A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval ...
. She was an embodiment of the chaos that raged before creation.
One day, the gods
Quetzalcoatl and
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca (; nci, Tēzcatl ihpōca ) was a central deity in Aztec religion, and his main festival was the Toxcatl ceremony celebrated in the month of May. One of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the God of providence, he is a ...
descended from the heavens in the form of serpents and found the monstrous Tlaltecuhtli (
Cipactli) sitting on top of the ocean with giant fangs, crocodile skin, and gnashing teeth calling for flesh to feast on. The two gods decided that the fifth cosmos could not prosper with such a horrible creature roaming the world, and so they set out to destroy her. To attract her, Tezcatlipoca used his foot as bait, and Tlaltecuhtli ate it. In the fight that followed, Tezcatlipoca lost his foot and Tlaltecuhtli lost her lower jaw, taking away her ability to sink below the surface of the water. After a long struggle, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl managed to rip her body in two — from the upper half came the sky, and from the lower came the earth.
She remained alive, however, and demanded human blood as repayment for her sacrifice.
The other gods were angered to hear of Tlaltecuhtli's treatment and decreed that the various parts of her dismembered body would become the features of the new world. Her skin became grasses and small flowers, her hair the trees and herbs, her eyes the springs and wells, her nose the hills and valleys, her shoulders the mountains, and her mouth the caves and rivers.
According a source, all the deities of the earth are female, except the advocation of Tezcatlipoca, which is
Tepeyollotl, 'heart of the hill', and Tlaltecuthli, 'lord earth', which the latter is formed by the center of the body of
Cipactli, which is It owes its other name, Tlalticpaque, 'lord of the world'. Tlaltecuhtli meets
Coatlicue as a consort as the devourer, and Coatlicue as the one who gives continuous birth to new beings, men and animals.
Rites and rituals
Since Tlaltecuhtli's body was transformed into the geographical features, the Mexica attributed strange sounds from the earth as either the screams of Tlaltecuhtli in her dismembered agony, or her calls for human blood to feed her. As a source of life, it was thought necessary to appease Tlaltecuhtli with blood sacrifices, especially human hearts. The Aztecs believed that Tlatlecuhtli's insatiable appetite had to be satisfied or the goddess would cease her nourishment of the earth and crops would fail.
The Mexica believe Tlaltecuhtli to swallow the sun between her massive jaws at dusk, and regurgitate it the next morning at dawn. The fear that this cycle could be interrupted, like during solar eclipses, was often the cause of uneasiness and increased ritual sacrifice.
Tlaltecuhtli's connection to the sun ensured that she was included in the prayers offered to
Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca (; nci, Tēzcatl ihpōca ) was a central deity in Aztec religion, and his main festival was the Toxcatl ceremony celebrated in the month of May. One of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the God of providence, he is a ...
before Aztec military campaigns.
Finally, because of Tlatlecuhtli's association with fertility, midwives called on her aid during difficult births—when an "infant warrior" threatened to kill the mother during labor.
Gender debate
![Tlaltecuhtli_stone_carving](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Tlaltecuhtli_stone_carving.jpg)
One of the largest modern debates surrounding Tlaltecuhtli is over the deity's gender. In English, "tlal-" translates to "earth," and "tecuhtli" is usually rendered "lord." However, "teuctli" (like most words in Nahuatl) has no gender, despite normally being used to describe men or male gods. There are notable exceptions—for example, the goddesses
Ilamatecuhtli and Chalmecatecuhtli.
In the Huehuetlahtolli collected by
Horacio Carochi
Horacio Carochi (1586–1666) was a Jesuit priest and grammarian who was born in Florence and died in New Spain. He is known for his grammar of the Classical Nahuatl language.
Life
Carochi was born in Florence. He went to Rome where he entered ...
in the early 17th century (known as ''The Bancroft Dialogues''), it's clear that "tēuctli" doesn't mean "lord" or "señor." Those are just approximations to the genderless Nahuatl title. A better rendering is "esteemed personage" or "noble." In fact, in ''The Bancroft Dialogues,'' older women are addressed as "notēcuiyo" or "my noble" several times.
While Tlaltecuhtli's name may be interpreted as masculine, the deity is most often depicted with female characteristics and clothing. According to Miller, "Tlaltecuhtli literally means 'Earth Lord,' but most Aztec representations clearly depict this creature as female, and despite the expected male gender of the name, some sources call Tlaltecuhtli a goddess.
he is
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
usually in a ''hocker'', or birth-giving
squat, with head flung backwards and her mouth of flint blades open."
Other scholars, like
Alfonso Caso
Alfonso Caso y Andrade (February 1, 1896 in Mexico City – November 30, 1970 in Mexico City) was an archaeologist who made important contributions to pre-Columbian studies in his native Mexico. Caso believed that the systematic study of ancient M ...
, interpret this pose as a male Tlaltecuhtli crouching under the earth with his mouth wide open, waiting to devour the dead.
While one mostly encounters Tlaltecuhtli as female, some depictions are clearly male (though these distinctions may at times arise from the Spanish-language gendering process). H.B. Nicholson writes, "most of the available evidence suggests that... the earth monster in the ''mamazouhticac'' position was conceived to be female and depicted wearing the costume proper to that sex. A male aspect of that deity was also recognized and occasionally represented in appropriate garb—but was apparently quite subordinate to the more fundamental and pervasive female conception."
![Tlaltecutli_tiny_painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Tlaltecutli_tiny_painting.jpg)
This ambiguity has prompted some scholars to argue that Tlaltecuhtli may have possessed a dual gender like several other Mesoamerican primordial deities. In Bernardino Sahagún's Florentine Codex, for example, Tlaltecuhtli is invoked as ''in tonan in tota'' —"our mother, our father"—and the deity is described as both a god and a goddess.
Rather than signal hermaphroditism or androgyny, archaeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan suggests that these varying embodiments are a testament to the deity's importance in the Mexica pantheon.
Monolith
![Templo_Mayor_2015_183](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Templo_Mayor_2015_183.jpg)
In 2006, a massive
monolith
A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often ma ...
of Tlaltecuhtli was discovered in an excavation at the
Templo Mayor
The (Spanish: Main Temple) was the main temple of the Mexica people in their capital city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Its architectural style belongs to the late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica. The temple was called ' in ...
in
Tenochtitlan
, ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...
(modern-day
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
).
Stefan Lovgren, "Aztec Temple found in Mexico City", ''National Geographic News'', October 5, 2006.
/ref> The sculpture measures approximately 13.1 x 11.8 feet (4 x 3.6 meters) and weighs nearly 12 tons, making it one of the largest Aztec monoliths ever discovered—larger even than the Calendar Stone. The sculpture, carved in a block of pink andesite, presents the goddess in her typical squatting position
Squatting is a versatile posture where the weight of the body is on the feet but the knees and hips are bent. In contrast, sitting involves taking the weight of the body, at least in part, on the buttocks against the ground or a horizontal object. ...
and is vividly painted in red, white, black, and blue. The stone was broken into four pieces by the weight of a colonial building that once sat above it. Reassembled, one can see Tlaltecuhtli's skull and bones dress and the river of blood flowing from her mouth.
Though most renderings of Tlaltecuhtli were placed face down, this monolith was found face up. Clutched in her lower right claw is the year glyph for 10 rabbit (1502 CE). Lopez Lujan noted that according to the surviving codices, 1502 was the year that one of the empire's most feared rulers, Ahuitzotl, was laid to rest. Just below this monument, Offering 126 was found, a huge dedicatory deposit containing 12 thousand objects.
After several years of excavation and restoration, the monolith can be seen on display at the Museum of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City.
See also
* Tiamat
In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( akk, or , grc, Θαλάττη, Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea, mating with Abzû, the god of the groundwater, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial crea ...
– similar figure in Mesopotamian mythology
* Ymir
In Norse mythology, Ymir (, ), also called Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is the ancestor of all jötnar. Ymir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, in the ''Prose Edda'', writ ...
– similar figure in Norse mythology
* Pangu
Pangu (, ) is a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology who separated heaven and earth and became geographic features such as mountains and rivers.
Legends
The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng during t ...
– similar figure in Chinese mythology
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Aztec gods
Earth deities
Earth gods
Androgynous and hermaphroditic deities
Chaos gods
Sea monsters
Animal gods