TZITZIMIMÊ = “MONSTERS DESCENDING FROM ABOVE”
- Minor Name: Petlacotzitzquique = “Upholders of the Cane Carpet.”
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ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Certain wall-paintings at Mitla afford a good representation of the Tzitzimimê, who are represented as pulling the sun out of his cave by a rope. In this case their character as stellar deities or demons is well exemplified. The face often resembles that of a death’s-head and the hair is puffed up in wig fashion. In Codex Borgia the Tzitzimimê are represented as female figures with death’s-heads and jaguar-claws.
The insects pictured in the Codex Borbonicus are unquestionably representations of the Tzitzimimê gods in their demon forms.
MYTHS
The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A equates them with the gods of Mictlampa, or Hades, but his contemporary who edited the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says of them:
“The proper signification of this name is the fall of the demons, who, they say, were stars; and even still there are stars in heaven called after their names, which are the following: Yzcatecaztli, Tlahvezcal pantecuvtli, Ceyacatl, Achitumetl, Xacupancalqui, Mixauhmatl, Tezcatlipocâ, and Contemoctli. These were their appellations as gods before they fell from heaven, but they are now named Tzitzimitli, which means something monstrous or dangerous.”