THE CREATIVE DEITIES
TONACATECUTLI—TONACACIUATL (TONACATECUTLI = “LORD OF OUR SUBSISTENCE”)
Area of Worship: Mexico; originally Atlantic coastlands, the Olmeca
lands and Tlaxcallan. Anciently Toltec.
Minor Names:
Ometecutli = “Twofold lord.”
Tlachinale = “Lord of Creation.”
Tlatecque = “Lord of the Earthly World.”
Teotlale = “Lord of the Steppe.”
Matlaua = “Lord of the Net.”
Topeua = “Lord of the Mountains.”
Tloque Nahuaque = “Lord of the Close Vicinity.”
Relationship: Father of Quetzalcoatl.
Calendar Places: Ruler of the first day, ce cipactli, of the first
week and of the fourth day-hour.
Compass Direction: West.
Symbol: The human pair beneath the coverlet.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Vaticanus A.—In the Codex Vaticanus A Tonacatecutli’s body-paint
is red and pink. His headdress is bound by a fillet richly encrusted
with turquoises, having in front the conventional bird’s head which is
so frequently encountered in representations of the Mexican gods in the
codices. He wears the nasal ornament of serpentine shape peculiar to
the octli- or drink-gods, as to some of the deities of fertility, and
his fruitful or life-giving nature is symbolized by a foot-stool
composed of maize ears.
Codex Borgia.—In the Codex Borgia (sheet 61, lower half) the lower
portion of his face is painted red, but its upper part, as well as the
rest of his body which is visible, is coloured yellow. On the cheek is
seen a rectangular surface divided into compartments, each of which is
tinted a different colour, the distinctive painting of the maize-gods,
which, it is believed, symbolizes the maize-field with its many hues. A
“gobber” tooth hangs from his mouth as a sign of great age, for as
creator he was regarded as one of the most venerable among the gods.
Around his forehead is a head-band enriched with precious stones, which
recalls that frequently worn by the Sun-god. His necklet consists of a
casket of jewels, with lid and feet, on which is represented the symbol
of the chalchihuitl jewel. [169] On sheet 60 Tonacaciuatl, the female
form of this deity, is depicted in the act of handing Tonacatecutli a
flower, symbolic of life or blood. Above this figure is the picture of
a red snake, also symbolizing blood. The god wears a jaguar-skin and
the goddess an eagle’s, thus illustrating their patronage of the
military orders who wore those dresses. (For similar readings, see
Codex Laud, 34–5 K). In sheet 57 (lower right-hand corner) he is
represented as wearing a beard of black eagle-feathers.
Codex Vaticanus B.—In Codex Vaticanus B (sheet 87) Tonacatecutli is
represented with Quetzalcoatl’s head and neck ornaments, combined with
the jewelled fillet and bird’s head on forehead. He wears a long beard
reaching to the feet.
TONACACIUATL = “LADY OF OUR SUBSISTENCE”
Minor Names:
Omeciuatl = “Twofold Lady.”
Citlalinicue = “Starry Skirt.”
Calendar Place: Same as that of Tonacatecutli.
Compass Direction: Same as that of Tonacatecutli.
Symbol: Same as that of Tonacatecutli.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
General.—In Codex Fejérváry-Mayer (sheet 10) the drawn-in angle of the
mouth and the female figure point to the inference that here is
depicted Tonacaciuatl, who is identified by the interpreters with
Xochiquetzal. In Codex Telleriano-Remensis and Codex Vaticanus A we
find her standing in front of the male creative god Tonacatecutli. In
the latter MS. the first interpreter calls her Tonagacigua, and the
third Xochiquetzal, Oxomoco, and Chicomecohuatl. The picture shown
under the nineteenth week of Codex Telleriano-Remensis pictures her
with precisely the same dress and emblems as Xochiquetzal (q.v.).
MYTHS
These deities were identified by the Mexicans with the Creator, the
Tloque Nahuaque, of whom almost every one of the post-Conquest Spanish
writers speaks. Indeed the Codex Telleriano-Remensis expressly
identifies them with the creative force. The passage runs: “All those
epithets (God, Lord, Creator) they bestowed on their god Tonacatecutli,
who, according to their account, was the god who created the world; and
they painted him alone with a crown as lord of all. They never offered
sacrifices to this god, for they said that he did not regard them.” Of
the female deity the Codex Vaticanus says: “Tonacacigua was the wife of
Tonacatecutle; for, as we have observed, although their gods were not,
as they affirm, united together for matrimonial purposes, still they
assigned to each a goddess as a companion. They called her by another
name, Suchiquetzal and Chicomecoual, which means Seven Serpents, for
they say that she was the cause of sterility, famine, and all the
miseries of life.” [170]
In further descriptive passages concerning Tonacatecutli the same Codex
says: “This is the representation of Tonacatecotle, which name
signifies the Lord of our Bodies; others say that it means the First
Man, or perhaps it means that the first man was so called.” “These are
the figures which have been mentioned; and the first is that of their
greatest god Tonacatecotle. It represented the first god under whom
they affirm was the dominion of the world; who, when it appeared good
to him, breathed and divided the waters of the heavens and the earth,
which at first were all confused together, and disposed of them as they
now are; and accordingly they called him Lord of our Bodies; and also
of abundance, who bestowed everything upon them; and on this account
they paint him alone with a crown. They called him besides Seven
Flowers, for they say that he disposes of the principalities of the
earth. He had no temple, nor did they offer sacrifices to him, for they
say that he did not require them, as if on account of his superior
majesty.... They say that Tonacatecotle presided over the thirteen
signs which are here marked (the day-signs of the tonalamatl, q.v.).
Those above denote the thirteen causes or influences of the sky which
are under subjection to him, and the others below are the thirteen
signs of their superstition and sorcery. This man and woman represent
the first pair who existed in the world; their names are Huehue (very
old ones). Between them is placed a knife or razor and an arrow above
each of their heads, typifying death, as in them death originated.”
“They called this god Tonacatecotli and by another name Citallatonalli
[171]; and they said that he was the constellation which appears by
night in the sky, St. James’s or the Milky Way. They paint these
figures and all the others which follow, each of them in its own
manner; because as they considered them their deities, each had its
peculiar festival. It was necessary to wear in these festivals the
habit of the god.”
The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas regards these deities as
appearing at the commencement of creation, but says nothing of their
relations to the precise creative act.
The Anales de Quauhtitlan says of them:
And they say
that in the inner heaven
he [Quetzalcoatl] dedicated a cult
and called on them:
her with the star-studded robe, together with the astral Sun-god.
the mistress of our flesh, the lord of our flesh,
who is clothed in charcoal, clothed in blood,
who giveth food to the earth;
and he cried aloft
—as they (the old people) were informed—
to the Omeyocan,
to the heaven lying above the nine that are bound together.
And—as they learnt—
those having their abode there,
those he called upon, those he worshipped.
(See also chapter on Cosmogony for further mythical material relating
to these deities.)
NATURE AND STATUS
In examining the characteristics of these deities we find:
(1) That they were among the oldest of the Mexican divinities.
Tonacatecutli is called, among other names, “Lord of the Steppe,” [172]
which does not necessarily indicate that he was a deity of the
Chichimec or hunting tribes, who from generation to generation raided
the Mexican valley, but may apply to his stellar or heavenly
significance. Reference is also made in the Anales de Quauhtitlan to
the circumstance that he and his female counterpart were gods of the
ancient Toltecs, and that their cult was founded by Quetzalcoatl, the
typical Toltec priest-king.
(2) That these gods were regarded by the Mexican priesthood in more
modern times at least, as abstractions, ideal beings who arose out of
philosophic speculation. That they had become rather neglected in the
popular Mexican faith is clear from the circumstance that they had no
temples and that no offerings were made them. Tonacatecutli
represented, indeed, that great invisible and intangible figure which
at all times and in all religions has loomed behind most pantheons—the
great god behind the gods—the principle of causality, that first cause
beyond which the speculations of theology cannot proceed.
(3) They presided over the food supply. Although other deities occupied
the positions of maize and vegetable gods, the creative deities were in
the ultimate the great givers of all food. Thus they were designated
“Lords of Food Supplies” and “Lords of Superabundance.”
(4) They must be regarded as the direct creators of the spirit of man.
To the Mexican man flesh was merely maize in another form. But apart
from this conception the pair typified the first human couple, and as
such they are represented in all the MSS. lying side by side and
cross-legged under a blanket, in the attitude of procreation. They are,
indeed, the great initiators of life, and must be comprehended as
sending the human soul to occupy the body made by human procreation,
giving warmth and breath to the infant before birth. [173]
(5) They commence the series of twenty day-signs, and this alone
symbolizes their creative and original nature.
(6) They represent the sign cipactli, the animal from which the earth
was made.
(7) They are gods of the Omeyocan, the highest or thirteenth heaven,
which fact further illustrates their supreme character.
CONCLUSIONS
From these facts we may be justified in concluding:
(1) That in the most early times Tonacatecutli and his consort typified
the father-sky and mother-earth respectively, but that this aspect of
them had been forgotten and they came to have a purely abstract
creative significance for both priests and people. That Tonacaciuatl
originally represented the earth there is no doubt, and her
identification with Xochiquetzal and Chicomecoatl alone would show this
to be so. Again, the association with the sign cipactli proves the
connection of one of the divine pair with the earth, and from what has
been said regarding this sign in the introduction, and by the constant
association of goddesses in the Mexican mind with the terrestrial
sphere, it is plain that Tonacatecutli, her male counterpart, is not
likely to have represented it in early times. The suggestion that he
symbolizes the sky is perhaps assisted by the nature of his abode, the
uppermost heaven, and from his close identification with Citlallatonac,
the god of the night heaven, who was supposed to represent the Milky
Way.
(2) That in later times the early concepts of these divinities became
fused almost into one, and that in some measure they had come to be
regarded as androgynous. This view may be traversed by the circumstance
that they are frequently represented separately, but on the other hand
their names appear as one in the form Tonacatecutli-Tonacaciuatl in
many passages. The same may be posited of their counterparts in the
Quiche Popol Vuh, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane. [174]
Tonacatecutli and his spouse are to be regarded as the parents of
Quetzalcoatl, but this is probably a theogonic myth of late origin,
brought about by the constant association of Quetzalcoatl with the
creative gods as deities of the ancient Toltecs, and the frequent
references to him as the founder of their cult.
Ixtlilxochitl states in his fourth Relacion that Tonacatecutli and his
wife were the chief gods of the Toltecs, who represented them as the
sun and the moon, and he goes on to say that at certain seasons of the
year criminals were sacrificed to them by a method called
Telimonamiquian, “which is to say grinding between the stones.” Two
great stones, he says, were balanced opposite each other, and the
victim was crushed between them as they fell—the slain man thus
representing the corn-spirit, or, indeed, the corn itself in the
process of being ground.