The gods of Mexico

by Lewis Spence

Etymologically, there is good evidence that Uitzilopochtli originally represented the maguey. The word uitztli means “thorn,” and appears in such compounds as Uitzlampa, “Place of Thorns” (the South), and Uitznauatl, “The Thorn that speaks,” which, as we have seen, was another, and probably an older, title of the god. Uitzoctli, too, as Seler has indicated,[27] means “pricking pulque,” newly fermented octli. It would seem, then, that the name Uitzilopochtli, until now generally translated as “Humming-bird-to-the-left,” and rendered by Seler “Humming-bird of the South,” must possess another significance for us. Opochtli certainly means both “south” and “left,” but it also means “wizard,” as in the compound tlahuipuchtli, “wizard who spits fire,” instanced by Torquemada,[28] who states that some persons derived the god’s name from that word, combined with uitzilinin, “a humming-bird.”[29] It is easy to see how the god came to be associated with the humming-bird, which suspends its nest from the foliage of the maguey. It [[85]]would appear to the Mexicans to emerge from the leaves of that plant, and would come to be regarded as the form which the maguey-spirit took. Indeed, the humming-bird dress or disguise is that in which Uitzilopochtli is almost invariably represented in the codices. It was in the shape of a humming-bird that the god was said to have led the Aztecâ from their ancient home to the Valley of Anahuac, and his flights would probably be considered ominous and suggestive to augurs, like those of the Latin Picus. But it is possible that a certain degree of confusion arose between the elements uitzilinin (humming-bird) and uitztli (thorn), that this assisted the belief that he took the shape of a humming-bird and that the explanatory myth of the hero-god Uitziton refers to this bird in an anthropomorphic shape.

These facts lead me to infer that the name implies “Humming-bird Wizard,” for Uitzilopochtli was, as Sahagun says,[30] “a necromancer and friend of disguises,” and wizards are universally conceived of as “sinister,” which English word means both “on the left hand” and “inauspicious,” and “malign,” as does the Latin word from which it is derived. The same holds good of the Mexican word. The sub-titles of the god, Uitznauatl and Magueycoatl, show—the first, that the ideas of sorcery and oracular speech were connected with him; and the second, that he was of a serpentine or venomous disposition, like the liquor distilled from the plant over which he presided, the intoxicating qualities of which were regarded as inducing prophetic inspiration.

That the maguey-plant entered into Uitzilopochtli’s insignia seems probable from the circumstance that at his festival in the month toxcatl his dough image was surmounted by a flint knife half covered with blood.[31] In the codices the sacrificial stone knife is frequently depicted as growing in plant-like bundles out of the ground, this artistic and conventional form bearing a close resemblance to the maguey plant, with the spines of which the Mexican priests pierced their tongues and ears to procure a blood-offering.

His primary character notwithstanding, Uitzilopochtli in [[86]]later times came to possess a very different significance for the Mexicans of Tenochtitlan—such a significance, in short, as the development of their religious conceptions demanded. Thus we find him at the period of the Spanish Conquest possessing solar characteristics and a place in the Mexican pantheon which, if not the most important, had essentially the greatest local significance in the city of Tenochtitlan, of which he was the tutelary god. His status in the days of the second Motecuhzoma is, perhaps, most clearly illustrated by the circumstances of his myth as given by Sahagun, which is obviously ætiological and exhibits the influences both of priestly contrivance and popular imagination. His mother, Coatlicue, has been elsewhere in this work identified with the earth, but in the myth is euhemerized as a pious widow. That she was originally one of those mountain goddesses, like Xochiquetzal, from whose sacred heights the rain descended to the parched fields of Mexico, seems plain from the name of her abode, Coatepetl (“Serpent Mountain”), the serpents of which her skirt is composed, being symbolical, perhaps, of the numerous streams flowing from the tarns or pools situated on its lower acclivities. That such a mountain actually existed in the vicinity of Tollan is proved by the statement of Sahagun. Uitzilopochtli is the sun which rises out of the mountain,[32] or is born from it, fully armed with the xiuhcoatl, or fire-snake (the red dawn), with which he slays his sister Coyolxauhqui, the moon, whose lunar attributes are clearly defined in her face-painting, which comprises half-moons and a shell-motif, a lunar symbol. Her nose-plate is also the half-moon symbol. The Centzonuitznaua, or “Four Hundred Southerners,” are the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. These the new-born god puts to flight with ease.[33] If further verification of what is obviously [[87]]a most artificial and operose myth is required, it is only necessary to indicate that one of the subsidiary names of Uitzilopochtli, as recorded by Sahagun, was Ilhuicatl Xoxouhqui, “The Blue Heaven,” the expanse of the sky, showing that, like many another sun-god, he typified the blue vault of heaven.[34] Acosta, too, states that the azure colour of his throne signified “that he sat in the heavens.”[35] But the myth possesses an allegorical as well as an ætiological character. Thus Coatlicue, the earth, is fructified by the ball of humming-birds’ feathers, that is, by the humming-bird itself, which, in Mexico, is the means of fructifying the plants, its movements causing the transfer of the pollen from the stamens to the germ-cells.

How, then, may we reconcile the primitive fetish of the maguey-plant with the later solar deity? In my view the course of development of the concept of Uitzilopochtli is much the same as that of the Hellenic god Apollo, who, originally a spirit of the apple-tree,[36] came in like manner [[88]]to be regarded as the god of the sun. But, to adhere to the Mexican concept, the sun was regarded by the peoples of Anahuac as the great eater of hearts and drinker of blood. These must be obtained for him by war, or he would perish, and all creation along with him. Uitzilopochtli, as the spirit of the maguey-plant, was the tribal fetish of the Aztecâ, and therefore their natural leader in battle. The connection is obvious and does not require to be laboured. Because of his tribal leadership in war, a governance of which Mexican myth and history bear eloquent testimony, he became confounded with the luminary which demanded blood and lived by human strife.

The solar connection of the octli liquor yielded by his plant is also most clear. Says Duran[37]: “The octli was a favourite offering to the gods, and especially to the god of fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases; sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush (aspergillum?); at other times it was poured out around the fire-place.” Fire is, of course, a surrogate of the sun, and Seler has already identified Uitzilopochtli as a fire-god in virtue of his status as a sun-deity,[38] showing that the drilling of the solar fire before the beginning of the new cycle of fifty-two years was deferred until the panquetzalitztli, the great feast of Uitzilopochtli. Jacinto de la Serna, too, says that the octli ritual invoked the “shining Rose; light-giving Rose, to receive and rejoice my heart before the god.” The “rose,” of course, referring to the fire or sun. It would seem, however, that before he became confounded or identified with the sun, Uitzilopochtli may have possessed a lunar significance, and this may have obtained in the period while yet the calendar was reckoned upon a lunar basis and its solar connection still remained undefined. The name Mexitli, which has already been remarked upon, and which means “Hare of the Maguey” appears to place Uitzilopochtli upon a level with the other gods of octli, if not to class him as one of these. It bears a suspicious [[89]]resemblance, too, to the name of the Moon-god, Metztli. The hare or rabbit in Mexico was invariably associated both with the moon and the octli-gods, whose chief characteristic, perhaps, is the lunar nose-plate. But among many of the native tribes of North America the hare or rabbit is the representative of the sun or the dawn, under the names of Michabo, Manibozho, Wabos, and so forth, being described in myth as a warrior, hero-god and culture-bringer. Perhaps the Nahua, while still in a more northern region where the agave was unknown to them, worshipped the rabbit of the sun or moon, and on establishing themselves in a region where the maguey was one of the salient features in the landscape, fused his myth with that of a newly-acquired fetish, discarding later the more ancient belief, or retaining but a confused memory of it. But this train of reasoning lacks evidence to support it. Nor need the consideration of Uitzilopochtli’s serpent-form detain us long. I think I see in the myth which recounts how the Aztecâ, on settling in Tenochtitlan, beheld an eagle perched on a cactus with a serpent in its talons, some relation to Uitzilopochtli, but what it precisely portends is still obscure to me. In any case the symbol of the eagle enters into his insignia, as does that of the serpent. We will recall that he was known as Magueycoatl,[39] “Serpent of the Maguey.” Again the solar character of the serpent in America, as elsewhere, readily accounts for his later connection with it, and for the prevalence of serpentine forms in his insignia and temple. But I confess that these two points of contact with the serpent do not altogether satisfy me as regards the god’s connection with it, nor does the fact of the serpentine character of his mother commend itself to me as altogether explanatory of this, and I think we must look to Uitzilopochtli’s nature as a wizard or sorcerer to enlighten us upon this point. Jacinto de la Serna[40] states that in his time some of the Mexican conjurers used a wand around which was fastened a living [[90]]serpent, in much the same way as the priests of the Pueblo Indians do at the present day; and as the great invisible medicine man of the tribe, Uitzilopochtli may have been thought of as doing the same. “Who is a manito?” asks the Meda chant of the Algonquins. “He,” is the reply, “who walketh with a serpent, he is a manito.” For the connection of the Indian magicians with the serpent the reader is referred to the pages of Brinton.[41]

In many lands the serpent is the symbol of reproductive power and has a phallic significance. In Mexico he casts his winter skin near the time of Uitzilopochtli’s first festival, about the beginning of the rainy season. Moreover, this reptile is connected with soothsaying, and in this respect resembles the god.

His myths, as well as his status in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, of which he was the tutelary deity, make it plain that Uitzilopochtli was a tribal god of the Aztecâ, their national god par excellence. The brave Quauhtemoc, the last native defender of the city, imagined himself invincible when armed with the bow and arrows of Uitzilopochtli, and we know that the advice of the oracle of that deity was sought by the Mexicans when hard pressed by the Conquistadores.

Nor is there any dubiety regarding his character as a god of war. This may have arisen from the circumstance that he presided over the liquor which was given to the troops when about to engage in battle, or, as has been said, may have followed his promotion to the rank of sun-god, the deity of human sacrifice, the god who demanded human hearts and blood. A larger number of captives were devoted to him than to any other divinity, and as the waging of war was the only means by which so many victims might be procured, the sun would naturally become the great patron of strife.

As the sun is the great central cause of all agricultural success, so Uitzilopochtli came to be looked upon as one of the promoters of plant growth, as is witnessed by his festivals, which synchronize with the first rainfall of the year, the [[91]]growth of plant life, and the end of the fruitful season, when, in the form of a paste image, the god was slain. He is thus the sun of the season of plenty, as his “brother” Tezcatlipocâ represents that of sereness and drought. He is the “young warrior” of the South, who drives away the evil spirits of the dry season and causes the land to rejoice.