Mayahuel
Mayahuel is the female deity associated with the maguey plant among cultures of central Mexico in the Postclassic era of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology, in particular of the Aztec cultures. As the personification of the maguey plant, Mayahuel is part of a complex of interrelated maternal and fertility goddesses in Aztec religion and is connected with notions of fecundity and nourishment. Maguey is a flowering plant of the genus Agave, native to parts of southwestern modern United States and Mexico; the depictions of Mayahuel in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Borbonicus show the deity perched upon a maguey planet. The deity's positioning in both illustrations, as well as the same blue pigment used to depict her body and the body of the maguey plant on Page 8 of the Codex Borbonicus, give the sense that she and the plant are one. Furthermore, the Codex Borbonicus displays Mayahuel as holding what looks like rope spun from the maguey plant fibers. Rope was only one of the many products extracted from the maguey plant.
Products extracted from the maguey plant were used extensively across highlands and southeastern Mesoamerica, with the thorns used in ritual bloodletting ceremonies and fibers extracted from the leaves worked into ropes, netting and cloth. Yet the maguey product most well-known and celebrated by the Aztecs is the alcoholic beverage octli, or named pulque, produced from the fermented sap of the maguey plant and used prominently in many public ceremonies and on other ritual occasions. By extension, Mayahuel is often shown in contexts associated with pulque. Although some secondary sources describe her as a "pulque goddess," she remains most associated with the plant as the source, rather than pulque as the end product
Aztec creator gods
In Aztec mythology, the Creator-Gods are the only four sons of the creator couple Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl "Lord and Lady of Duality", "Lord and Lady of the Near and the Close", "Father and Mother of the Gods", "Father and Mother of us all", who received the gift of the creation to create other living beings without childbearing, they are residing atop a mythical thirteenth heaven Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan "the place of duality". Each of the four sons takes a turn as Sun, these suns are the sun of earth, the sun of air, the sun of fire, the sun of water; each world is destroyed. The present era, the Fifth Sun is ushered in when a lowly god, Nanahuatzin sacrifices himself in fire and becomes Tonatiuh, the Fifth Sun. In his new position of power he refuses to go into motion. In an elaborate ceremony, Quetzalcoatl cuts the hearts out of each of the gods and offers it to Tonatiuh. All of this occurs in sacred, pre-Aztec city of Teotihuacan, it is predicted that like the previous epochs, this one will come to a cataclysmic end.
Recognized as Camaxtle. Quetzalcoatl was related to gods of the wind, of Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts and knowledge, he was the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge, patron of priests, the inventor of the calendar and of books, the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen. As the morning and evening star, Quetzalcoatl was the symbol of resurrection. A feathered serpent deity has been worshipped by many different ethno-political groups in Mesoamerican history. Huitzilopochtli was a tribal god and a legendary wizard of the Aztecs, he was of little importance to the Nahuas, but after the rise of the Aztecs, the Nahuals reformed their religion and put Huitzilopochtli at the same level as Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, making him a solar god. Huitzilopochtli is presented as the deity who guided the long migration the Aztecs undertook from Aztlan, their traditional home, to the Valley of Mexico. Tezcatlipoca was represented with a stripe of black paint across his face and an obsidian mirror in place of one of his feet.
The post-Classic Maya-Quiche people of Guatemala revered him as a lightning god under the name Hurakan. Other representations show Tezcatlipoca with his mirror on his chest. In it he saw everything. By Aztec times, Tezcatlipoca's manifold attributes and functions had brought him to the summit of the divine hierarchy, where he ruled together with Huitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl. Called Yoalli Ehecatl and Telpochtli, he was said to appear at crossroads at night to challenge warriors, he presided over the telpochcalli, district schools in which the sons of the common people received an elementary education and military training. He was the protector of slaves and punished masters who ill-treated "Tezcatlipoca's beloved children", he rewarded virtue by bestowing riches and fame, he chastised wrongdoers by sending them sickness or by reducing them to poverty and slavery. The main rite of Tezcatlipoca's cult took place during the fifth ritual month; every year at that time the priest selected a young and handsome war prisoner.
For one year he lived in princely luxury. Four beautiful girls dressed. On the appointed feast day, he climbed the steps of a small temple while breaking flutes that he had played. At the top he was sacrificed by the removal of his heart. Representations of Xipe-Totec first appeared at Xollalpan, near Teotihuacan, at Texcoco, in connection with the Mazapan culture—that is, during the post-Classic Toltec phase; the Aztecs adopted his cult during the reign of Axayacatl. During Tlacaxipehualiztli, the second ritual month of the Aztec year, the priests killed human victims by removing their hearts, they put on the skins, which were dyed yellow and called teocuitlaquemitl. Other victims were put to death with arrows. A hymn sung in honour of Xipe-Totec called him Yoalli Tlauana because beneficent rains fell during the night. One important body of myths describes Quetzalcoatl as the priest-king of Tula, the capital of the Toltecs, he never offered human victims, only snakes and butterflies. But the god of the night sky, expelled him from Tula by performing feats of black magic.
Quetzalcoatl wandered down to the coast of the "divine water" and immolated himself on a pyre, emerging as the planet Venus. According to another version, he embarked upon a raft made of snakes and disappeared beyond the eastern horizon; the legend of the victory of Tezcatlipoca over the Feathered Serpent reflects historical fact. The first century of the Toltec civilization was dominated by the Teotihuacan culture, with its inspired ideals of priestly rule and peaceful behaviour; the pressure of the northern immigrants brought about a social and religious revolution, with a military ruling class seizing power from the priests. Quetzalcoatl's defeat symbolized the downfall of the Classic theocracy, his sea voyage to the east should be connected with the invasion of Yucatán by the Itza, a tribe that showed strong Toltec features. Quetzalcoatl's calendar name was Ce Acatl
Given name
A given name is a part of a person's personal name. It identifies a person, differentiates that person from the other members of a group who have a common surname; the term given name refers to the fact that the name is bestowed upon a person to a child by their parents at or close to the time of birth. A Christian name, a first name, given at baptism, is now typically given by the parents at birth. In informal situations, given names are used in a familiar and friendly manner. In more formal situations, a person's surname is more used—unless a distinction needs to be made between people with the same surname; the idioms "on a first-name basis" and "being on first-name terms" refer to the familiarity inherent in addressing someone by their given name. By contrast, a surname, inherited, is shared with other members of one's immediate family. Regnal names and religious or monastic names are special given names bestowed upon someone receiving a crown or entering a religious order; such a person typically becomes known chiefly by that name.
The order given name – family name known as the Western order, is used throughout most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly influenced by European culture, including North and South America. The order family name – given name known as the Eastern order, is used in East Asia, as well as in Southern and North-Eastern parts of India, in Hungary; this order is common in Austria and Bavaria, in France, Belgium and Italy because of the influence of bureaucracy, which puts the family name before the given name. In China and Korea, part of the given name may be shared among all members of a given generation within a family and extended family or families, in order to differentiate those generations from other generations; the order given name – father's family name – mother's family name is used in Spanish-speaking countries to acknowledge the families of both parents. Today the order can be changed in Spain and Uruguay using given name – mother's family name – father's family name.
The order given name – mother's family name – father's family name is used in Portuguese-speaking countries to acknowledge the families of both parents. In many Western cultures, people have more than one given name. One of those, not the first in succession might be used as the name which that person goes by, such as in the cases of John Edgar Hoover and Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland. A child's given name or names are chosen by the parents soon after birth. If a name is not assigned at birth, one may be given at a naming ceremony, with family and friends in attendance. In most jurisdictions, a child's name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on a birth certificate, or its equivalent. In western cultures, people retain the same given name throughout their lives. However, in some cases these names may be changed by repute. People may change their names when immigrating from one country to another with different naming conventions. In certain jurisdictions, a government-appointed registrar of births may refuse to register a name that may cause a child harm, considered offensive or which are deemed impractical.
In France, the agency can refer the case to a local judge. Some jurisdictions, such as Sweden, restrict the spelling of names. Parents may choose a name because of its meaning; this may be a personal or familial meaning, such as giving a child the name of an admired person, or it may be an example of nominative determinism, in which the parents give the child a name that they believe will be lucky or favourable for the child. Given names most derive from the following categories: Aspirational personal traits. For example, the name Clement means "merciful". English examples include Faith and August. Occupations, for example George means "earth-worker", i.e. "farmer". Circumstances of birth, for example Thomas meaning "twin" or the Latin name Quintus, traditionally given to the fifth male child. Objects, for example Peter means "rock" and Edgar means "rich spear". Physical characteristics, for example Calvin means "bald". Variations on another name to change the sex of the name or to translate from another language.
Surnames, for example Winston and Ross. Such names can honour other branches of a family, where the surname would not otherwise be passed down. Places, for example Brittany and Lorraine. Time of birth, for example day of the week, as in Kofi Annan, whose given name means "born on Friday", or the holiday on which one was born, for example, the name Natalie meaning "born on Christmas day" in Latin. Tuesday, May, or June. Combination of the above, for example the Armenian name Sirvart means "love rose". In many cultures, given names are reused to commemorate ancestors or those who are admired, resulting in a limited repertoire of names that sometimes vary by orthography; the most familiar example of this, to Western readers, is the use of Biblical and saints' names in most of the Christian countries (with Ethiopia, in which names were ideals or abstractions
Mictlāntēcutli
Mictlāntēcutli or Mictlantecuhtli, in Aztec mythology, was a god of the dead and the king of Mictlan, the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He was one of the principal gods of the Aztecs and was the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death and the underworld; the worship of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism, with human flesh being consumed in and around the temple. Two life-size clay statues of Mictlantecuhtli were found marking the entrances to the House of Eagles to the north of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Mictlantecuhtli was 6 feet tall and was depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. Although his head was a skull, his eye sockets did contain eyeballs, his headdress was shown decorated with owl feathers and paper banners and he wore a necklace of human eyeballs, while his earspools were made from human bones. He was not the only Aztec god to be depicted in this fashion, as numerous other deities had skulls for heads or else wore clothing or decorations that incorporated bones and skulls.
In the Aztec world, skeletal imagery was a symbol of fertility and abundance, alluding to the close symbolic links between life and death. He was depicted wearing sandals as a symbol of his high rank as Lord of Mictlan, his arms were depicted raised in an aggressive gesture, showing that he was ready to tear apart the dead as they entered his presence. In the Aztec codices Mictlantecuhtli is depicted with his skeletal jaw open to receive the stars that descend into him during the daytime, his wife was Mictecacihuatl, together they were said to dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with spiders, bats, the eleventh hour and the northern compass direction, known as Mictlampa, the region of death, he was one of only a few deities held to govern over all three types of souls identified by the Aztecs, who distinguished between the souls of people who died normal deaths, heroic deaths, or non-heroic deaths. Mictlantecuhtli and his wife were the opposites and complements of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the givers of life.
Mictlanteculhtli was the god of the day sign Itzcuintli, one of the 20 such signs recognised in the Aztec calendar, was regarded as supplying the souls of those who were born on that day. He was seen as the source of souls for those born on the sixth day of the 13-day week and was the fifth of the nine Night Gods of the Aztecs, he was the secondary Week God for the tenth week of the twenty-week cycle of the calendar, joining the sun god Tonatiuh to symbolise the dichotomy of light and darkness. In the Colonial Codex Vaticanus 3738, Mictlantecuhtli is labelled in Spanish as "the lord of the underworld, the same as Lucifer". In Aztec mythology, after Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created the world, they put their creation in order and placed Mictlantecuhtli and his wife, Mictecacihuatl, in the underworld. According to Aztec legend, the twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were sent by the other gods to steal the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlantecuhtli; the god of the underworld sought to block Quetzalcoatl's escape with the bones and, although he failed, he forced Quetzalcoatl to drop the bones, which were scattered and broken by the fall.
The shattered bones were collected by Quetzalcoatl and carried back to the land of the living, where the gods transformed them into the various races of mortals. When a person died, they were interred with grave goods, which they carried with them on the long and dangerous journey to the underworld. Upon arrival in Mictlan these goods were offered to his wife. In another myth, the sagacious god of death agrees to give the bones to Quetzalcóatl if he can finish what would appear to be a simple test; the god informs Quetzalcóatl that he has to travel through his kingdom four times, while a shell sounds out like a trumpet. However, in place of giving Quetzalcóatl the shell from Mictlantecuhtl he gives him a normal shell, without holes in it. In order to not be mocked, Quetzalcóatl beckons the worms to come out and perforate the shell, thus creating holes, he calls the bees to enter the shell and to make it sound out like a trumpet.. Whilst listening to the roar of the trumpet, Mictlantecuhtl, at first, decides to allow Quetzalcóatl to take all of the bones from the last creation, but quickly changes his mind.
Quetzalcóatl is more astute than Mictlantecuhtl and his minions and escapes with the bones. Mictlantecuhtli, now angry, orders his followers to create a deep pit. While Quetzalcóatl is running away with the bones he is startled by a quail, which causes him to fall into the pit, he falls into the pit and dies, is subsequently tormented by the animal, the bones he is carrying are scattered. The quail begins to gnaw on the bones. Despite the fall Quetzalcóatl is revived and gathers all of the broken bones, it is for this reason. Once he has escaped from the underworld, Quetzalcóatl carries the precious cargo to Tamoanchan, a place of miraculous origin. Mictlantecuhtli appears in the 2018 animated web series Constantine: City of Demons The Mezmer skin in the popular video game, appears to be based on Mictlantecuhtli. Maya death gods Santa Muerte Tzitzimitl Leeming, David Adams; the Oxford companion
Nahuas
The Nahuas are a group of indigenous people of Mexico and El Salvador. Their Uto-Aztecan languages and Pipil, consist of many dialects, several of which are mutually unintelligible. About 1.5 million Nahuas speak another million speak only Spanish. Less than 1,000 native speakers of Nahuatl remain in El Salvador. Evidence suggests the Nahua peoples originated in Aridoamerica, in regions of the present day northwestern Mexico, they split off from the other Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples and migrated into central Mexico around 500 CE. They settled in and around the Basin of Mexico and spread out to become the dominant people in central Mexico; the name Nahua is derived from the Nahuatl word-root nāhua-, which means "audible, clear" with different derivations including "language". It was used in contrast with popoloca, "to speak unintelligibly" or "speak a foreign language". Another, related term is Nāhuatlācatl or Nāhuatlācah "Nahuatl-speaking people"; the Nahuas are sometimes referred to as Aztecs.
Using this term for the Nahuas has fallen out of favor in scholarship, though it is still used for the Aztec Empire. They have been called Mēxihcatl, Mēxihcah or in Spanish Mexicano "Mexicans", after the Mexica, the Nahua tribe which founded and predominated in the Aztec empire. At the turn of the 16th century, Nahua populations occupied territories ranging across modern-day Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua as far south as Panama; these were assimilated into mestizo society in most places. The last of the southern Nahua populations are the Pipil of El Salvador. Nahuatl was a lingua franca for rule during the apogee of the Aztec empire. There are many Nahuatl place names in regions. Nahua populations in Mexico are centered in the middle of the country, with most speakers in the states of Puebla, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí, but smaller populations are spread throughout the country, following recent population movements within Mexico. Within the last 50 years, Nahua populations have appeared in the United States in New York City, Los Angeles, Houston.
Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggest that the Nahuas came from the deserts of northern Mexico and migrated into central Mexico in several waves. Before the Nahuas entered Mesoamerica, they were living for a while in northwestern Mexico alongside the Cora and Huichol peoples; the first group of Nahuas to split from the main group were the Pochutec who went on to settle on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca as early as 400 BCE. From c. 600 BCE the Nahua rose to power in central Mexico and expanded into areas earlier occupied by Oto-Manguean and Huastec peoples. Through their integration in Mesoamerican the Mesoamerican cultural area the Nahuas adopted many cultural traits including maize agriculture and urbanism, religious practices including a ritual calendar of 260 days and the practice of human sacrifices and the construction of monumental architecture and the use of logographic writing. Around 1000 CE the Toltec people assumed to have been of Nahua ethnicity, established dominion over much of central Mexico which they ruled from Tollan Xicocotitlan.
From this period on the Nahua were the dominant ethnic group in the Valley of Mexico and far beyond, migrations kept coming in from the north. After the fall of Toltecs a period of large population movements followed and some Nahua groups such as the Pipil and Nicarao arrived as far south as Nicaragua, and in central Mexico different Nahua groups based in their different "Altepetl" city-states fought for political dominance. The Xochimilca, based in Xochimilco ruled an area south of Lake Texcoco. One of the last of the Nahua migrations to arrive in the valley settled on an island in the Lake Texcoco and proceeded to subjugate the surrounding tribes; this group were the Mexica who during the next 300 years became the dominant ethnic group of Mesoamerica ruling from Tenochtitlan their island capital. Allying with the Tepanecs and Acolhua people of Texcoco they formed the Aztec empire spreading the political and linguistic influence of the Nahuas well into Central America. In 1519 an expedition of Spaniards sailing from Cuba under the leadership of Hernán Cortés arrived on the Mexican gulf coast near the Totonac city of Quiyahuiztlan.
The Totonacs were one of the peoples that were politically subjugated by the Aztecs and word was sent to the Aztec Emperor of Tenochtitlan Motecuhzoma II. Going inland the Spaniards encountered and fought with Totonac forces and Nahua forces from the independent Altepetl of Tlaxcallan; the Tlaxcaltecs were a Nahua group. After being defeated in battle by the Spaniards, the Tlaxcalans entered into an alliance with Cortes that would be invaluable in the struggle against the Aztecs; the Spanish and Tlaxcaltec forces marched upon several cities that were under Aztec dominion and "liberated" them, before they arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. There they were welcomed as guests by Motecuhzoma II, but after a while they took the ruler prisoner; when the Aztec nobility realized that their ruler had been turned into a Spanish puppet they attacked the Spaniards and chased them out of the cit
Huēhuecoyōtl
In Aztec mythology, Huehuecóyotl is the auspicious god of music, dance and song of Pre-Columbian Mexico. He is the patron of uninhibited sexuality and rules over the day sign in the Aztec calendar named cuetzpallin and the fourth trecena Xochitl He is depicted in the Codex Borbonicus as a dancing coyote with human hands and feet, accompanied by a human drummer; the name "Very old coyote" conveyed positive meanings for the Aztec populace. The prefix "huehue" which in Nahuatl means "very old" was attached to gods in Aztec mythology that were revered for their old age, philosophical insights and connections to the divine. Although appearing in stories as male, Huehuecóyotl can be gender changing, as many of the offspring of Tezcatlipoca, he can be associated with male sexuality, good luck and story-telling. One of his prominent female lovers was Temazcalteci, the goddess of bathing and sweat baths known as Mexican sauna and Xochiquetzal, the goddess of love, female sexuality, prostitutes and young mothers.
As all Aztec deities, Huehuecóyotl was dualistic in his exercise of evil. He was perceived as a balanced god. In most depictions of Huehuecóyotl, he is followed by a human drummer or groups of humans that appear to be friendly to him, exceptional in Mesoamerican culture. Stories derived from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis make him a benign prankster, whose tricks are played on other gods or humans but tended to backfire and cause more trouble for himself than the intended victims. A great party-giver, he was alleged to foment wars between humans to relieve his boredom, he is a part of the Tezcatlipoca family of the Mexica gods, has their shapeshifting powers. Those who had indications of evil fates from other gods would sometimes appeal to Huehuecóyotl to mitigate or reverse their fate. Huehuecóyotl shares many characteristics with the trickster Coyote of the North American tribes, including storytelling and choral singing; the fourth day of the thirteen day Mexican week belonged to Huehuecóyotl.
He was the only friend to Xolotl, the god of twins and deformity and accompanies the dead to Mictlan. Their association is born from the canine nature of both gods. Karl Young, The Continuum of Life in Codex Borbonicus
