Tezcatlipoca (deity)

Symbols: Jaguar

Culture: Nahua/Aztec

Mother: Tonacatecuhtli

Father: Tonacacihuatl

Siblings: Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Red Tezcatlipoca

Tezcatlipoca (pronounced tez-kat-lee-POH-kaa), also known as Black Tezcatlipoca, was the god of the night sky. He was identified with the constellation we recognize as Ursa Major (the Great Bear), although the Nahua saw it as a great jaguar. His name means "Smoking Mirror," and he was one of the major deities of the Nahua, groups of Nahuatl-speaking people who lived in central Mexico. The Aztecs were the best known of the Nahua, but the worship of Tezcatlipoca predates the rise of those people. Although he had a brother called Red Tezcatlipoca, it was the deity known as Black Tezcatlipoca who became the focus of later stories. Eventually, he was simply called Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca was born to Ometeotl (oh-mee-TEO-tl), god of duality, a deity who has both male and female aspects. Sometimes, Ometeotl is described as a couple, with Tonacatecuhtli (toh-na-ka-te-KWA-tlee) representing the male aspect and Tonacacihuatl (toh-na-ka-se-WAH-tle) representing the female aspect of the god. Also born to Ometeotl were Huitzilopochtli (wee-tsee-loh-POCH-tlee), god of war and the sun and Quetzalcoatl (qehts-ahl-koh-WAH-tle), the Feathered Serpent, god of the wind. Tezcatlipoca and his brother Quetzalcoatl together were the driving force behind the events of creation. Tezcatlipoca was powerful but rarely virtuous. He was generally known for his black magic, for luring Quetzalcoatl into a life of dissipation, and for causing the deaths of many Toltecs, the Nahua people who introduced the god into central Mexico.

Nahua gods had animal disguises, or nagual. Because its fur was spotted, which was thought to look like the night sky, the jaguar was Tezcatlipoca’s nagual. As a result, jaguars appear in some stories about Tezcatlipoca.

In Mythology

Four sons were born to Ometeotl, and these four brothers created fire, the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the underworld. All four brothers were involved in the early part of creation. But it was Black Tezcatlipoca (later just Tezcatlipoca) and Quetzalcoatl who were the dominant figures in the stories of the mythical four worlds. Each world lasted for a long period of time, sometimes centuries, and each one had its own sun and inhabitants. Each one of the four worlds was created and then destroyed in turn, leading in the end to the creation of the present world.

Although Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl were sometimes allies, they fought often. Each battle, would destroy the world that currently existed, and the fight would yield a different winner each time. Tezcatlipoca ruled over the first world and also over the sun of that world, which was called either the earth sun or the jaguar sun. Then Quetzalcoatl knocked Tezcatlipoca into the sea, where he was transformed into a huge jaguar. As Tezcatlipoca ascended into the sky, where he became a constellation, he called up other jaguars, which then consumed the giants who had inhabited that world. After that, Quetzalcoatl became the ruler of the next—the second—world, and he reigned over the new sun, the sun of wind. (Some myths say that each god actually became the sun and did not rule it.) This world was destroyed when Tezcatlipoca struck down Quetzalcoatl. Then Quetzalcoatl called up a great wind, which carried off the people of that world, turning them into monkeys. The third world was ruled by Tlaloc, god of storms, lightning, and rain. That world was destroyed in turn when Quetzalcoatl caused fire to rain down on the people (possibly a volcanic eruption). Tlaloc’s wife, Chalchiuhtlicue, was then given control of the fourth world.

After the destruction of this fourth world, which was caused by a great flood that turned all the people into fish, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl became allies. The flood had caused the heavens to collapse, so the two traveled to the center of the earth. Then, with the help of four other deities, they moved the heavens back into place. Finally, the two created the Milky Way, which Tezcatlipoca turned into a new god named Mixcoatl.

After the flood had destroyed the fourth world, Tata and Nene, an old couple who had survived the flood, built a fire to cook some fish. The fire was smoky, and the smoke rose to the heavens. Upset by this disturbance, Tezcatlipoca decided to punish them for fouling the skies, so he cut off their heads and attached those heads to their backsides, thus creating the first dogs.

In the fifth world, which is the world in which the Nahua lived, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl recreated earth. In one version of this story, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl spotted the monstrous goddess Tlaltecuhtli (tlal-te-KWA-tlee). Some sources say this monster had two genders; others claim she was female. Tlaltecuhtli was hideous and had mouths filled with teeth not only on her face but also on all her joints. These mouths were needed to consume the huge amounts of flesh she craved. Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl were horrified by the sight of this monster and decided that she could not live, so they turned themselves into great, powerful serpents and used their strong coils to tear her apart. Her body became the source of all the plants that the people of this world would need to survive.

By the time the Aztecs had adopted Tezcatlipoca, he had evolved into a god with more than one role: He was in charge of the night wind, and he encouraged the education of young men as warriors. It was even said that he appeared at crossroads at night to challenge warriors.

Origins and Cults

Toltecs, Nahua-speaking people who predated the Aztecs, brought the cult of Tezcatlipoca to central Mexico from the north. However, because these tales had different sources, with different groups contributing to the myth of Tezcatlipoca and the other Nahua gods, there are often many versions of these stories.

The Aztecs performed a ritual once every year to honor and appease Tezcatlipoca. This ritual took place in the month of Toxcatl, which ran roughly from May 5 to May 22. Each year, a particularly handsome, young prisoner was selected, and for a year, he lived in luxury, impersonating Tezcatlipoca. He was given four beautiful girls as companions for this year. At the end of that year, he would climb the temple steps and be sacrificed by having his heart cut out.

Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, was a key venue for the worship of Tezcatlipoca. Outside of Tenochtitlán, the area around Lake Texcoco was also important for the worship of this god. Tezcatlipoca was also revered by other Nahua people, particularly those in the area between Oaxaca and Tlaxcala.

Bibliography

Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Díaz, Gisele, and Alan Rodgers. The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1993. Print.

León-Portilla, Miguel. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind. Trans. Jack Emory Davis. 1963. Norman: Oklahoma Press, 1990. Print.

Oliver, Guilhem. Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, "Lord of the Smoking Mirror." Boulder: U of Colorado Press, 2008. Print.

Read, Kay Almere, and Jason J. Gonzalez. Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. Print.

Taube, Karl. Aztec and Maya Myths. Austin: U of Texas P, 2003. Print.