OPOCHTLI = “THE SOUTHERN,” “LEFT-HANDED,” OR “THE WIZARD”
- Area of Worship: The shores of Lake Texcuco.
- Relationship: One of the Tlaloquê.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
The Sahagun MS. describes the insignia of this god as follows: He is painted black and has a patch or spot made from crushed seeds on his face. His crown is cut out of paper, and from it rise plumes of heron-feathers, mingled with those of the quetzal bird. He has a band made of paper round his shoulders, a loin-cloth and white sandals. His shield bears the solar emblem and he carries a rattle-staff in his hand.
NATURE AND STATUS
Sahagun (bk. i, ch. 17) says of Opochtli, that he is one of the Tlaloquê. To him was attributed the invention of fishing-nets and of the minacachalli, or three-pronged harpoon, an instrument recalling the classical trident, which was also used for spearing birds. He it was who originally contrived the nets used by the fowler to ensnare the aquatic birds which frequented the banks of Lake Texcuco, and the paddle was likewise his invention. Of all the Tlaloquê he appears to have been the most practical, as well as the most closely identified with human pursuits, and naturally he figured as the patron of the fisher, the fowler, and those generally who plied their occupation on the water of the lake or on its shores. Upon the occasion of his festival they offered him food and octli, the ears of maize, flowers, and burned tobacco before him as an incense, as well as copal and the [[267]]absinthe herb. They also placed before him toasted maize. The older priests chanted his praises and filed before his idol in procession. As we have seen in the case of Uitzilopochtli, the word opochtli may signify “wizard,” and I believe that the net, which would appear to a primitive people an apparatus of the most ingenious kind, would be regarded by them as the invention of a magician. Opochtli would almost inevitably come to be connected with the Tlaloquê because of the employment of his invention to catch fish and snare the aquatic birds which rested on the shores of Lake Texcuco. [[268]]
[1] See remarks upon the Tlaloc cult in the Introduction. [↑]
[2] See my remarks upon Quetzalcoatl in the section which deals with him, and where he is identified with the trade-wind which brings the rain. [↑]
[4] See Appendix, the Tonalamatl and the Solar Calendar. [↑]
[5] See digest of the passage in chapter on Cosmogony, p. 49. [↑]
[6] See Spence, The Popol Vuh. London, 1908. [↑]
[7] Sahagun (bk. x, c. xxviii, § 10) states that Tlalocan was in the Olmec or Mixtec country; but Camargo (Hist. de Tlaxcallan, Nouvelles annales des Voyages, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 135–137) is a better authority on this particular subject. [↑]
[12] Beside the stalle (or banner). [↑]
[16] Covered with mugwort. [↑]
[19] The Pantitlan = “Near the Stake.” [↑]
[21] All of the deities known by these names were octli-gods. [↑]
[25] Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 41, states that girls were sacrificed by the Toltecs to Tlaloc and buried. [↑]
[26] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, in Ternaux-Compan’s Nouvelles annales de Voyages, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 133, 135–7. [↑]
[27] Vol. i, bk. vi, p. 251 (English translation). See also Torquemada, bk. vi, c. xxiii; Veytia, vol. i, p. 27; Velasquez de Leon, Nevadade Toluca, Bd. Inst. Nac. Geog. Estad. Mex., 1850. [↑]
[29] Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, c. ii. [↑]
[30] Förstemann, Die Maya-Handschrift-zu Dresden, Leipzig, 1880. Second edition, 1892. [↑]
[31] Codex Borgia, sheet 14, and Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, sheets 1 and 3. [↑]
[32] Unless the costume be spotted like that of her spouse Tlaloc, with ulli rubber-gum, to represent rain. [↑]
[33] This picture of Tlaloc and Chalchihuitlicue is reminiscent of the Japanese myth of Susa-no-o and his sister Ama-terasu, the Sun-goddess, who, desirous of progeny, stood one on either side of a “river” (the Milky Way), dipped jewels into the “river,” crushed them into dust and “blew them away”; gods were born from the dust so breathed upon. See Kojiki, translated by Basil Hill Chamberlain, in supplement to vol. x of Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 1882, pp. 47–49. The Mexican picture has probably a similar generative significance. [↑]
[34] Hist. Antig. de Mej., tom. i, c. xxviii. [↑]
[36] Commentary on the Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 56. [↑]
[37] The resemblance of this festival to the uei teciulhuitl, the feast of Xilonen, is obvious. (For a fuller description, see Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxvii.) [↑]