Legend of the Fifth Sun (Mesoamerican myth)

Author: Traditional Aztec

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE

Country or Culture: Mesoamerica

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

In the beginning, there is darkness. Out of the void springs Ometeotl, the god of duality (both male and female, light and dark, life and death, good and evil, and every other contrast). The substance of Ometeotl splits into male and female principles, Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, and the halves engage in perpetual intercourse. From their never-ending union, the primary gods are born.

Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl produce quadruplets, all originally named Tezcatlipoca. Together, they form the cosmos in the shape of a voracious crocodile monster, Cipactli. Cipactli’s head contains the thirteen layers of heaven, where the gods dwell. Its body is the water-surrounded earth disk. Its tail holds the nine levels of the underworld, home of the death demons. Each Tezcatlipoca rules a quarter of the earth. The west is ruled by White Tezcatlipoca, called Quetzalcóatl, who is the god of light and wind. Blue Tezcatlipoca, or Huitzilopochtli, the god of war and fire, governs the south. The east is ruled by Red Tezcatlipoca, or Xipe Totec, the god of agriculture. Black Tezcatlipoca, the god of night, rules the north. The gods destroy Cipactli and prepare earth for the advent of humans. They make four attempts to create life before succeeding.

Black Tezcatlipoca takes control of the first era, or First Sun, called Four Jaguar. During this time, a race of giant but weak vegetarian people is created. Tezcatlipoca, desiring glory, rises as the sun into heaven, but his envious brother Quetzalcóatl strikes him down. Tezcatlipoca falls from the sky, and the earth grows dark again. Tezcatlipoca in his anger assumes the form of a jaguar and eats the giants. Thus ends the First Sun.

During the Second Sun, called Four Wind, normal-sized, seed-eating humans are created under the reign of Quetzalcóatl, who controls both the sun and the wind. Tezcatlipoca, in revenge for his downfall during the previous age, mischievously turns humans into monkeys. He usurps Quetzalcóatl’s wind-creating powers, blows his brother from the sky, and catapults the surviving monkeys into the jungle, where they dwell to this day.

During the Third Sun, called Four Rain, the newly created god of fertility and rain, Tlaloc, is given his chance. From on high, he commands the humans, who develop agriculture and grow grain. Then Tezcatlipoca kidnaps Tlaloc’s wife, Xochiquetzal, and makes her his mate. Tlaloc, depressed, becomes uninvolved with humans. He refuses to make rain, and drought ruins all of the crops. Later, in a fit of pique, Tlaloc makes it rain fire. The sun is consumed, along with most people. The surviving humans become dogs, turkeys, and butterflies.

Tlaloc’s second wife, Chalchihuitlicue, the goddess of still and running water, reigns during the Fourth Sun, called Four Water. During her rule, her husband frequently beats her, which makes Chalchihuitlicue cry blood for years, extinguishing the sun and drowning the maize-eating humans. The only people who survive are those who turn into fish.

With no people left, Quetzalcóatl (or, in some versions, the earth god Xolotl) has to travel into the underworld to retrieve the bones of human ancestors to create the next people. He grinds the bones into dust, mixes them into a paste with his and other gods’ blood, and shapes them, and the humans of the Fifth Sun—the Sun of Motion—come to life. The Fifth Sun, it is predicted, will end with massive, destructive earthquakes.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Aztecs—who during their dominance between the mid-thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries CE called themselves Mexica, “the People of the Sun”—derived the legend of the Fifth Sun from existing Mesoamerican mythology. Meaningful aspects of cosmology were collected from oral or inscribed narratives of the Toltecs, the Mayas, and other regional tribal groups past or present, then adapted to fit current beliefs. The borrowing from other cultures and traditions, many related through the common language of Nahuatl, accounts for the complexity of Aztec mythology and theology, in which the gods have many names, changeable roles, and overlapping attributes. As with most early civilizations, the Aztec universe is divided into three parts—upper, middle, and lower worlds—and centered on four elemental forces: earth, air (wind), fire, and water.

The primary written sources of the legend of the Fifth Sun are two post-conquest documents that an enlightened Spanish priest, Bernardino de Sahagún (ca. 1500–1590), commissioned. The decades-long research project gathered information about native beliefs and customs, resulting in the Codex Florentine and the Codex Chimalpopoca. Other works on pre-conquest Aztec life that survived Spanish book-burnings—intended to wipe out native idolatry—provide additional details about the numerous deities and fragmentary accounts of the legend. Many variations of the legend of the Fifth Sun exist in which cause and effect, and the order of serial creations and destructions, differ. Perhaps the ultimate authority on the proper organization of the legend’s successive ages is the massive twenty-five-ton, ten-foot-wide Sun Stone unearthed at Tenochtitlán near modern-day Mexico City, on which the Suns are arranged in counterclockwise order: First (Jaguar), Second (Wind), Third (Rain), and Fourth (Water).

The Aztecs made a major contribution to the established myth of multiple cycles of death and rebirth of the sun. This is their explanation—and justification for—the shedding of blood through human sacrifice and self-mutilation, practices that horrified the invading Spaniards but that were vital to Aztec belief.

At the beginning of the fifth age, the deities gather at Teotihuacán, the abode of the gods and the ceremonial center of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, to discuss how to reanimate the sun and begin life anew. It is decided that sacrifice is necessary to persuade the sun to rise, and two gods are chosen to immolate themselves by walking into a bonfire. The offering succeeds, and the sun rises but becomes stationary in the sky. Only regular tribute, infusions of life-giving blood—drawn from the hearts of willing victims or from the lips, tongues, or penises of god-kings—could fuel the sun’s energy and keep it moving across the heavens.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bierhorst, John, trans. History and Mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex Chimalpopoca. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1998. Print.

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Carrasco, Davíd. City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in Civilization. Boston: Beacon, 1999. Print.

Caso, Alfonso. The Aztecs: People of the Sun. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1959. Print.

Littleton, C. Scott, ed. “The Five Suns.” Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth and Storytelling. San Diego: Thunder Bay, 2002. 546–49. Print.

Miller, Mary Ellen, and Karl A. Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. New York: Thames, 1993. Print.

Phillips, Charles. The Lost History of Aztec and Maya. Leicester: Hermes, 2005. Print.

Pierce, Donna, ed. Exploring New World Imagery: Spanish Colonial Papers from the 2002 Mayer Center Symposium. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2005. Print.

Read, Kay Almere, and Jason J. González. Mesoamerican Mythology. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.