Mictlantecutli, it would seem, is neither more nor less than a god of the dead, that is, his original conception was probably that of a prince of Hades, a ruler of the realm of the departed, who in time came to possess the terrific aspect and the punitive attributes of a deity whose office it was to torment the souls of the erring. The fact that he presides over the eleventh hour—the hour of sunset—shows that he was in a measure identified with the night, as certain aspects of his insignia would appear to show. In a manner he must be regarded as the earth, which in its form of the grave, yawns or gapes insatiably for the bodies of the dead. (See Mictecaciuatl.) He appears to have analogies with the Lords of Xibalba, or the Place of the Dead, alluded to in the Popol Vuh, of the Quiches of Guatemala.[1]
MICTECACIUATL = “LADY OF THE PLACE OF THE DEAD”
- Area of Worship: Mexican Plateau.
- Minor Name: Chicunaui cipactli = “Nine Earth-monster.”
- Relationship: Wife of Mictlantecutli.
- Calendar Place:
- Ruler of the tenth day-count, itzcuintli.
- Fourth of the four guardians of the Third Venus Period, denoting the north.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 90: She has a skull for head, with round eye and marked supraciliary arch, tousled, dark [[332]]hair studded with eyes symbolizing night and stars. The skull and body are painted yellow, and one breast is showing. Her wig has eyes for ornaments, and she wears the nape-ornament of paper usually placed on corpses. Her earring is also fashioned after the eye-motif. The feather balls at her wrists are set with eye-like jewels. She is engaged in thrusting a mummy-pack into the yawning jaws of the earth.
Codex Bologna (Cospi).—Sheet 27: The date “nine earth-monster” (chicunaui cipactli) stands here beside Mictecaciuatl as her hieroglyphic name.
Codex Borgia.—Sheet 57: Here she is represented opposite Mictlantecutli. She has a wig decorated with stars. The face is human, but the fleshless lower jaw resembles the sign malinalli. Her nape ornament of paper is painted red and white, and her costume is red with white cotton borders and an upper border of variegated white and yellow.
NATURE AND STATUS
See Mictlantecutli.