TEPOXTECATL = “HE OF THE AXE”
- Area of Worship:
- Chichimec quarter of Amantlan, Mexico.
- Tepoxtlan in Cuernavaca.
- Symbol: The copper axe.
APPEARANCE AND INSIGNIA
In the Codex Magliabecchiano, Tepoxtecatl is pictured as wearing the peculiar nose-plug of the octli-gods, the motif of which reappears on his shield. He is crowned with a panache from which leaves sprout, and lunar and stellar symbols appear here and there in his insignia. He carries the copper axe symbolical of the octli-gods, and wears the malinalli herb necklace.
TEMPLE
The best-known temple of Tepoxtecatl is that at Tepoxtlan so fully described by Seler (see Bulletin 28 of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 341 ff.), and Professor Marshall H. Saville (Proc. of Amer. Assoc. for the Advancement of Sciences, vol. viii of the Bulletins of the American Museum of Natural History).
NATURE AND STATUS
Tepoxtecatl was the octli-god of the Chichimec people of the quarter, or barrio, of Amantlan, in the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. His idol was placed beside that of others in the holy place of that quarter, which boasted another octli-god, Macuil tochtli. One of the captives slain in the month tepeilhuitli, at the temple called Centzon totochtin inteopan, was named after him. The interpreter of the Codex Magliabecchiano, speaking of Tepoxtecatl, says: “This is the representative of a great iniquity which was the custom in a village named Tepoxtlan; namely when an Indian died in a state of intoxication the others of this village made a great feast to him, holding in their hands copper axes, which were used to fell wood.” [[292]]
The question arises: in what manner was the axe connected with the octli-god? The axe is, of course, the implement of the Tlaloquê, or rain-gods, and of the Chac, or rain-gods of Yucatan. Therefore, I take it, the axe of Tepoxtecatl gives him a certain pluvial significance, which the octli-gods as strengtheners of the soil, the deities who gave “courage” to the earth, undoubtedly possessed.