METZTLI = “THE MOON,” OR TECCIZTECATL = “HE FROM THE SEA-SNAIL”
- Symbol: Bone-surrounded disk set in the night-sky, containing a rabbit.
- Calendar Place:
- Ruler of the sixth day-count, miquiztli.
- Ruler of the sixth tonalamatl division, ce miquiztli.
- Ruler of the fifth night-hour.
- Compass Direction: South.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Borgia.—In this codex he is shown as a female, old, with the gobber tooth or lip contraction indicative of extreme age. He is painted yellow, the colour of women. The white of the clothing expresses the relatively dull hue of the luminary when compared with the sun.
Codex Vaticanus B.—Here he is old and white-haired, and is pictured as a priest with the marine snail’s shell on his brow. The body-colour is blue, as is the face, on sheet 30, but on sheet 88, half-blue, half-red, as in the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer [[309]]picture of Mixcoatl. On sheet 30 he is figured with a long beard and wears Xochipilli’s ornaments.
Aubin Tonalamatl.—In this place he is represented by Tezcatlipocâ.
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—Sheet 24: Here he is pictured as an old god with a long beard. The body-colour is blue, and the face half-blue, half-red, like that of Xolotl in the same MS. He wears the sea-snail shell on his fillet.
MYTHS
The principal myths relating to the origin of the Moon-god have already been given in the chapter on Cosmogony.