THE OCTLI OR PULQUE (DRINK) GODS
GENERAL
Name: Centzon Totochtin = “Four Hundred Rabbits.”
Area of Worship: Mexico generally.
Festival: The day ome tochtli (“two rabbit”) in the sign ce mazatl
(“one deer”), a movable feast.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
The constituent elements of the insignia of the octli-gods may be
generally described as follows:
(1) A two-coloured face-painting, the front half of the facial profile
(i.e. the middle part of the face) being painted red in its entire
length, both sides at the temples black (or dark green), or else black
with longish yellow spots.
(2) A nasal plate, handle-shaped, the ends involuted outwardly, or
crescent-shaped, the golden Huaxtec nose-ornament, yaca-metztli. It is
usually marked on all articles dedicated to the octli-gods.
(3) A four-cornered ear-pendant, which agrees substantially with that
of the Rain-god.
(4) A neck-ornament falling far down, loose in texture, made of
malinalli grass fibre.
(5) A crown of heron-feathers, such as is worn by the Rain-god, but
here combined with the cuecaluitoncatl, Quetzal’s neck-ornament made of
dark feathers, with some projecting arara plumes.
(6) A stone axe as a weapon.
The most striking of these objects are the first two. So characteristic
are they of the octli-gods, that a juxtaposition of red and black lines
on a tilmatli is explained in the Codex Magliabecchiano as “manta de
dos conejos,” or shoulder-covering of the Two-rabbit octli-god. [305]
ALLUSIONS TO THE OCTLI-GODS IN GENERAL
Sahagun, speaking of the octli-gods, [306] says that Tezcatzoncatl
[307] was the parent or brother of the rest, who were called
Yiauhtecatl, Izquitecatl, Acolua, Tlilhua, Patecatli, Toltecatl,
Papaztac, Tlaltecayoua, Ome tochtli, Tepuztecatl, Chimapaleuecatl, and
Cohuatzincatl.
One of the hymns in Sahagun’s collection alludes as follows to the
octli-gods:
In Colhuacan in fear
Fear has his home.
The God in the Palace, Tezcatzonco,
He was dealt with, therefore he wept (the fire wept?).
Not so, not so (shall it be) (saith he)
The God was dealt with, therefore he wept.
The God in the Palace Axalaco,
He was dealt with, therefore he wept.
Not so, not so (shall it be) (saith he)
The God was dealt with, therefore he wept.
I have followed Seler’s translation of this hymn, but, like him, can
glean little from it. It seems to me to allude vaguely to the cutting
of the agave-plant, and the consequent withdrawal of the sap from which
octli is made.
A report on the Huaxtec territory dated 1579 evidently relates to the
octli-gods. It states that:
“They related another fable, that they had two other effigies as gods,
one called Ometochtli, who is the god of wine; the other Tezcatlipocâ,
which is the name of the most exalted idol worshipped by them, and with
these they had painted the figure of a woman named Hueytonantzin, that
is, ‘our great mother,’ because they said she was the mother of all
those gods or demons. And those four above-mentioned male demons, they
related, had killed this great mother, founding with her the
institution of human sacrifice, and taking her heart out of her breast
and presenting it to the sun. Similarly, they related that the idol
Tezcatlipocâ had killed the god of wine with his consent and
concurrence, giving out that in this way he gave him eternal life, and
that if he did not die, all persons drinking wine must die; but that
the death of this Ometochtli was only like the sleep of one drunk, that
he afterwards recovered and again became fresh and well.”
FESTIVAL
The principal festival of the octli-gods was ome tochtli (“two
rabbit”), and this calendrical name became in a measure deified as a
separate god, who was the same as Tepoxtecatl. [308] Sahagun says of
this festival:
“In the sign ce maçatl, on the second day called ome tochtli, they made
a great feast to the god Izquitecatl, who is the second god of wine,
and not only to him, but to all the gods of wine, who were very
numerous. They ornamented his image in the temple, offered him food,
and made songs and played on instruments in his presence. They placed a
great jar of octli in the court of the temple, and whoever wished drank
from it. The duty of replenishing the jar was given to the men who cut
the maguey. They carried to the house of the god the first-fruits of
the first sap, which they drew from it.”
NATURE AND STATUS IN GENERAL
When a man was intoxicated with the native Mexican drink of octli, a
liquor made from the juice of the Agave Americana, he was believed to
be under the influence of a god or spirit. The commonest form under
which the Drink-god was worshipped was the rabbit, that animal being
considered as utterly devoid of sense. This particular divinity was
known as Ometochtli. The scale of debauchery which it was desired to
reach was indicated by the number of rabbits worshipped, the highest
number, four hundred, representing the most extreme degree of
intoxication. The chief octli-gods apart from these were Patecatl and
Tequechmecauiani. If the drunkard desired to escape the perils of
accidental hanging during intoxication, it was necessary to sacrifice
to the latter, but if death by drowning was apprehended, Teatlahuiani,
the deity who hurried drunkards to a watery grave, was placated. If the
debauchee wished his punishment not to exceed a headache, Quatlapanqui
(The Head-splitter) was sacrificed to, or else Papaztac (The
Nerveless). Each trade or profession had its own Ometochtli, but for
the aristocracy there was one only of these gods, Cohuatzincatl, a name
signifying “He who has Grandparents.” Several of these drink-gods had
names which connected them with various localities; for example,
Tepoxtecatl was the octli-god of Tepoztlan. The calendar day
Ometochtli, which means “two rabbit,” because of the symbol which
accompanied it, was under the special protection of these gods, and the
Mexicans believed that anyone born on that day was almost inevitably
doomed to become a drunkard. All the octli-gods were closely associated
with the soil and with the Earth-goddess. After the Indians had
harvested their maize they drank to intoxication, and invoked one or
other of these gods. On the whole it is safe to infer that they were
originally deities of local husbandry who imparted virtue to the soil
as octli imparted strength and courage to the warrior.
Many of the titles of these deities are derived from place-names, as
Acolua, Calhuatzincatl, Chimalpanecatl, etc., and this widespread
denomination would seem to show that their worship must have been
established at an early period, and that each seems to represent a
section of the population of Mexico. Their relation with the moon is
plain—a rabbit dwelt therein, and they were rabbit-gods.
They seem to have been connected in a measure with the cult of fire.
Vetancurt states that the natives in his day, when they had brewed the
new octli, and it was ready to be drunk, first built a fire, walked
round it in procession, and threw some of the new liquor into the
flames, chanting the while an invocation to Tezcatzoncatl to descend
and be present with them. [309] Duran says that “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, at other times it was poured
out around the fireplace. [310] Sahagun also states that the liquor was
poured on the hearth at four separate points. [311] Jacinto de la Serna
describes the same ceremony as current in his day. [312] The invocation
ran: “Shining Rose, light-giving Rose, receive and rejoice my heart.”
May not this connection with fire have arisen out of some such train of
thought as connected the lightning with the sacred oak of Zeus? In his
Ascent of Olympus, Dr. Rendel Harris has shown that the oak was
regarded as the “animistic repository of the thunder,” and therefore of
the heavenly fire. May not the ubiquitous and overshadowing
maguey-plant, from which the octli sap was taken, have had a like
significance for the Mexicans?
The principal octli-gods may now be examined more particularly.
TEZCATZONCATL = “MIRROR COVERED WITH STRAW”
Area of Worship: Chichimec territory.
Relationship: Husband of Coatlicue.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
A stone figure of this god from Tacubaya shows him in the recumbent
position often observed in the statues of the octli-gods, and holding a
large octli jar on his stomach. A headdress resembling that of an Arab
covers the head, and from underneath it descend the strands of what
seems to be a wig. What appears to be a serpent motif, the ends of
which are square in form, encircles the eyes almost like a pair of
spectacles, and he wears the usual lunar nose-plug of the octli
deities. An elaborate necklace, wristlets, and leg-pieces of precious
stones are worn, and the underside of the statue is incised to
represent the ripples of water and is covered with representations of
marine animals and shells.
MYTH
A passage in a report on the Huaxtec territory, dated 1579, states that
Tezcatzoncatl was killed and revived by Tezcatlipocâ, by which act the
drunkard’s sleep became harmless in the future for men. The passage
runs:
“They related that the idol Tezcatlipocâ had killed the god of wine
with his consent and concurrence, giving out that in this way he gave
him eternal life, and that if he did not die, all persons drinking wine
must die; but that the death of this Ometochtli was only like the sleep
of one drunk, that he afterwards recovered and again became fresh and
well.”
FESTIVALS
Allusion is made to Vetancurt’s mention of a special ceremony to
Tezcatzoncatl on the preceding page.
PRIESTHOOD
Sahagun says [313] that a priest called by the same name as the god was
charged with the preparations for the festival of tepeilhuitl, in which
four victims, one of whom bore the name of Mayauel, an octli-goddess,
were slain. (See Tlaloc—Festivals.)
NATURE AND STATUS
Tezcatzoncatl appears to have been the god of intoxication par
excellence, father of the other octli-gods, to whom special invocation
was made when the new liquor was brewed.
TEPOXTECATL = “HE OF THE AXE”
Area of Worship:
Chichimec quarter of Amantlan, Mexico.
Tepoxtlan in Cuernavaca.
Symbol: The copper axe.
APPEARANCE AND INSIGNIA
In the Codex Magliabecchiano, Tepoxtecatl is pictured as wearing the
peculiar nose-plug of the octli-gods, the motif of which reappears on
his shield. He is crowned with a panache from which leaves sprout, and
lunar and stellar symbols appear here and there in his insignia. He
carries the copper axe symbolical of the octli-gods, and wears the
malinalli herb necklace.
TEMPLE
The best-known temple of Tepoxtecatl is that at Tepoxtlan so fully
described by Seler (see Bulletin 28 of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, pp.
341 ff.), and Professor Marshall H. Saville (Proc. of Amer. Assoc. for
the Advancement of Sciences, vol. viii of the Bulletins of the American
Museum of Natural History).
NATURE AND STATUS
Tepoxtecatl was the octli-god of the Chichimec people of the quarter,
or barrio, of Amantlan, in the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. His idol
was placed beside that of others in the holy place of that quarter,
which boasted another octli-god, Macuil tochtli. One of the captives
slain in the month tepeilhuitli, at the temple called Centzon totochtin
inteopan, was named after him. The interpreter of the Codex
Magliabecchiano, speaking of Tepoxtecatl, says: “This is the
representative of a great iniquity which was the custom in a village
named Tepoxtlan; namely when an Indian died in a state of intoxication
the others of this village made a great feast to him, holding in their
hands copper axes, which were used to fell wood.”
The question arises: in what manner was the axe connected with the
octli-god? The axe is, of course, the implement of the Tlaloquê, or
rain-gods, and of the Chac, or rain-gods of Yucatan. Therefore, I take
it, the axe of Tepoxtecatl gives him a certain pluvial significance,
which the octli-gods as strengtheners of the soil, the deities who gave
“courage” to the earth, undoubtedly possessed.
PATECATL = “HE FROM THE LAND OF THE MEDICINES”
Area of Worship: Originally the Huaxtec country.
Relationship: Husband of Mayauel.
Calendar Place:
Lord of the twelfth day, malinalli.
Lord of the eleventh “week,” ce ozomatli.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Borgia.—Sheet 57: He sits opposite Tlazolteotl and wears a
crescent-shaped Huaxtec nasal ornament, and on his breast a remarkable
comma-shaped curved ornament which is, perhaps, a piece of a large
spiral snail’s shell, and which is peculiar to Patecatl and
Tlazolteotl. He has the half-black, half-light face of the octli-gods.
He wears Quetzalcoatl’s fan-like nape adornment, the fillet of unspun
cotton distinctive of Tlazolteotl, and an ear-plug of the same
material. He holds a stone hatchet, which is the symbol and weapon of
the octli-gods, painted blue to indicate nephrite or some such stone.
Sheet 13: He wears a fillet which affects the form of the Mexican royal
crown, consisting of white fur with an ape’s head set on the frontal
side, evidently a barbaric ornament peculiar to the district whence he
came.
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—Sheet 35: Here he wears a wedge-shaped Huaxtec
cap, painted blue and red, and a disk-shaped shell on his breast. His
earring is formed of a trapeze-and-ray motif, like those on the stone
head of Coyolxauhqui. The ends of his loin-cloth are rounded like
Quetzalcoatl’s. Sheet 90: He wears a breast-ornament consisting of a
black, leaf-shaped, obsidian knife.
Aubin Tonalamatl.—He holds in his left hand some spikes of the
agave-leaf, and in his right hand Quetzalcoatl’s throwing-stick, which
is involuted snail-fashion at the end and painted with a stellar
design. An eagle and jaguar stand before him holding paper flags, these
symbols of the warrior signifying the courage-giving nature of octli
drink. They are in sacrificial array, with the sacrificial cord round
their necks and the sacrificial flag in their claws. The half-night and
half-day symbol is above them, signifying the time of the octli orgies.
Codex Magliabecchiano.—Instead of the stone axe he holds in his hand
Quetzalcoatl’s throwing-stick, and also wears his shell breastplate.
MYTHS
The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A says: “Patecatl was the
husband of Mayaguil (Mayauel), the woman with four hundred breasts, who
was metamorphosed into the maguei plant or vine, and was properly the
root which they put into the water or wine which distils from the
maguei in order to make it ferment. And the unhappy man to whose
industry the art of making wine by causing fermentation by means of
this root was due, was afterwards worshipped as a god.”
The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis states that:
“Patecatle was the god of these thirteen days, and of a kind of root
which they put into wine (the opactli or peyote); since without this
root no quantity of wine, no matter how much they drank, would produce
intoxication. Patecatle taught them the art of making wine, for wine
was made according to his instructions; and as men when under the
influence of wine are valiant, so they supposed that those who were
born during this period would be courageous. They considered these
thirteen days all as fortunate, for Patecatle, the god of wine, the
husband of Mayaquel, who was otherwise called Cipaquetona, he who was
saved from the deluge, ruled over them. They placed the eagle and the
lion near him as a sign that their sons would be valiant men.”
NATURE AND STATUS
Patecatl was originally a Huaxtec god. Tradition said that the tribal
ancestor of this people was the first drunkard. In the Sahagun MS.
Patecatl is called “the finder of the stalks and roots of which octli
is made,” that is those roots which were added to the octli to enhance
its intoxicating or narcotic strength. Motolinia states that those
roots were called oc-patli or octli-medicine, and the interpreter of
the Codex Magliabecchiano confirms the passage, as do the interpreters
of the Codex Vaticanus A and the Codex Telleriano-Remensis.
I fail to find corroboration elsewhere of the interpreter’s statement
that Patecatl was “saved from the deluge.” He seems to me to bear a
general resemblance to Apollo, as recently explained by Dr. Rendel
Harris, [314] that is, he seems to have been named in accordance with
some conception of him in which he was thought of as coming from a
“Land of Medicines” (in his case the Huaxtec country, which was also
the Tlillan Tlapallan, the “Land of Writing” or of Civilization). The
herbal conception of many Greek and other deities—that is, their actual
development from plants, the evolution of the god from the medicinal
herb—is now well authenticated, as can be seen from a perusal of Dr.
Harris’s remarkable work. Nor is the proven development of many deities
from mineral substances any less remarkable.
MAYAUEL = “SHE OF THE MAGUEY-PLANT”
Minor Names:
Ce Quauhtli = “One Eagle.”
Cipactonal = “Cipactli Sun.”
Calendar Place: Ruler of the eighth day, tochtli; of the eighth
week, ce malinalli.
Symbols: The agave-plant; the octli jug or vase.
Compass Direction: The lower region, or south.
Relationship: One of the octli-gods and the Tzitzimimê; wife of
Patecatl.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Borgia.—Sheet 12: She is painted yellow, the women’s colour, and
is seen issuing from an agave-plant. In sheet 16 she has the general
aspect of Tlazolteotl, and her hair is bound up with a band of unspun
cotton, a plug of which also hangs from her ear. About the mouth she is
painted with black rubber, and as a nasal ornament wears the golden
crescent. Her face is white, and her tippet and skirt are painted in
the semblance of water and both garments have a fringe of snail-shells.
She suckles a fish. Sheet 68: In this place she is represented as ruler
of the eighth week. She has a two-coloured face-painting, the upper
half yellow, and the lower green or blue. The octli colour is
represented in her garments, which are white. In the pictures of the
Borgia group generally she is shown wearing the blue indented
nose-plate which is assigned to Xochiquetzal. In Codex Borgia generally
she wears as a back-device a quemitl after the style of Tlaloc, but
coloured white and blue or green. On her flame-coloured locks she
sometimes wears a jewelled chain with a conventional bird’s head
decorating the front of it, while the feather-tuft on her head
resembles that worn by the Sun-god in Codex Borgia (sheet 15), and is
intended to symbolize the fiery nature of the octli liquor.
Aubin Tonalamatl.—Sheet 8: She is painted the colour of the
Maize-goddess and her maidens—red. As a headdress she wears a bandage
with a neck-loop formed and coloured like that of the goddess
Chalchihuitlicue, and connected with a high crown. She bears a copal
incense bag.
Codex Vaticanus A.—She is shown with the upper half of her face yellow
and the lower blue, thus depicting the typical two-coloured
face-painting of the octli-gods. On her head she wears the
characteristic octli-god’s headdress, also worn by Tlaloc, and holds a
drinking-vessel brimming with octli.
Codex Borbonicus.—Her face is blue with a few oblique lines after the
style of the warrior’s face-paint. She wears as a headdress a bandage
of unspun cotton (usually the characteristic of Tlazolteotl), spindles
in her hair, a quail’s wing and long plumes of a yellow colour. In her
hand she bears a bunch of octli-wort, a root which, if added to the
agave liquor, makes its powers of intoxication more potent.
Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheets 31 and 89: She is represented wearing the
headdress typical of Tlaloc and of the octli-gods—a bandage coloured
white and blue, with knots to the right and left, which leaves these
tips or tippets sticking out. Two large white and blue rosettes with
similarly coloured tassels depend by strings from the right and left of
this bandage.
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—Sheet 28: Clothed in a yellow-striped tippet
like that of Chalchihuitlicue, with a border painted in the colours of
the jewel, she lies in her agave-plant. She is crowned with a wreath of
flowers and wears a blue skirt.
Codex Laud.—Sheet 9: The agave-plant rises from a turtle resting upon a
dragon. Adjacent to this lie a copper hatchet and a throwing-weapon,
while in her hand she holds an octli bowl ornamented with gems and
flowers.
Secondary Aspects.—She is very often suggested by the octli jug, which
in the Borgia group is represented as a big two-handed vessel standing
on serpentine coils, while to it are attached votive papers of the type
frequently offered to the Tlaloquê, and bannerets are placed on the
sides, on which the V-shaped point is depicted. The night-and-day
symbol surmounts the whole. Though she is spoken of as having many
breasts, the goddess is very rarely depicted in this manner.
MYTHS
The interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A says of her:
“They feign that Mayaguil was a woman with four hundred breasts, and
that the gods on account of her fruitfulness changed her into the
maguei, from which they make wine.”
He also speaks of her as the mother of Cinteotl, remarking that all the
gods had their origin from the vine which bears the grape (the
maguey-plant).
The third interpreter of Codex Telleriano-Remensis calls her “Mayaquel,
who was otherwise called Cipaquetona” (Cipactonal), and wife of
Patecatl.
NATURE AND STATUS
Mayauel, as her name implies, is primarily a deity of the maguey-plant.
But evidence is not wanting that she also partakes of the nature of the
Earth-goddess, as her occasional appearance in the insignia of
Tlazolteotl and her wearing of the colours of the Maize-goddess would
seem to show. As the wife of Patecatl, the god “from the land of
medicines,” she bears the ropes which symbolize the octli-wort, the
plant which gave a narcotic quality to the octli drink, and which was
thought of as strangling or choking the drunkard. Her bounteousness of
fertility was symbolized by the possession of four hundred breasts, and
in this she resembles the old mother-goddess of Asia Minor. She has
also affinities with Xochiquetzal and Cipactonal.
TOTOLTECATL = “HE OF TOLLAN”
Relationship: One of the octli-gods.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio).—The deity wears a paper crown
surmounted by a panache of heron-feathers and a nose-plug like that
worn by the other octli-gods. His wig or hair falls over his shoulders.
The upper part of his body is nude, but he wears a red-bordered cloth
round the head. His shield is a peculiar one, and Sahagun calls it a
“shield of the boat.” In shape it is almost like a modern door, and
from it depends what seem to be paper strips. He wears bands of some
textile material, which are tied behind with knots round the leg, and
he is shod with sandals. In his hand he carries the obsidian axe
typical of the octli-gods. He seems to have been a drink-god of the
Toltecs.
MACUILTOCHTLI = “FIVE RABBIT”
Area: Mexico.
Compass Direction: West.
Symbol: Five tochtli sign.
Relationship: One of the Uitznaua.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
General.—In both Codex Vaticanus B and Codex Borgia he is painted a
yellow colour, but in Borgia very deep yellow, almost brown, to
distinguish the rectangularly bordered yellow field which is seen in
the neighbourhood of the eye, and is characteristic of all the gods of
the “Macuil” series. In Codex Vaticanus B this process is reversed, the
yellow field being painted a darker, greyer shade. In this MS., too,
the god resembles Macuil Cozcaquauhtli, but has a bundle of stone
knives before his mouth, and he wears at the frontal side of the
head-fillet a flower, from which stone knives project. On his breast is
seen the eye, the original form of Tezcatlipocâ’s white ring, and on
his upper arm he has a large armlet, painted a blue colour.
Sahagun MS.—The Sahagun MS. describes him as having the hand motif in
the region of the mouth. On the head is a feather helmet surmounted by
a comb of feathers, and he wears a necklet of animal claws. A
red-bordered cloth is twisted round the hips. The sandals are white.
The shield, which is described as a “sun-shield,” is red, and has claw
ornaments. The god carries an obsidian axe, and a staff with a heart
inset and painted with quetzal-feathers.
NATURE AND STATUS
From his possession of the hand-symbol in the region of the mouth,
Macuiltochtli, the “Five Rabbit,” seems to me to be in some measure
equated with the gods Macuilxochitl and Xolotl, and thus partakes with
them of the quality of a deity of pleasure and conviviality.
TOTOCHTIN
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Sahagun MS.—The face is painted in two different colours, and the head
is surmounted by a crown of feathers. The god wears the half-moon
nose-plug of the octli-gods, and an ear-plug made of paper. On his back
he wears the wing of the red guacamayo, and he has a feather collar. A
net cloth decorated with the figures of scorpions is hung round his
hips. On his feet he wears bells and shells, and the sandals peculiar
to the octli-gods. The shield common to the octli-gods hangs on his
arm, and he carries in his hand the obsidian or copper axe with which
they are usually represented.
NATURE AND STATUS
Sahagun (bk. i, c. xii) alludes to Totochtin as “the god of wine.” He
seems to me to be a personification of the Centzon Totochtin (four
hundred or “innumerable” octli-gods), a figure in which the entire body
of drink-gods seem to have become merged in the Aztec mind.
TOMIAUHTECUTLI = “LORD OF THE MAIZE-FLOWER”
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Sahagun MS.—The god is painted black and on his face is a plaster of
salvia chia. He wears a crown of paper and another of heron-feathers,
variegated with plumes of the quetzal. Around his shoulders is cast a
band of paper, and his loin-cloth is of the same material. On his feet
he wears shells and white sandals. His shield is decorated with a
water-rose, and in his hand he bears a rush-staff.
NATURE AND STATUS
This god was connected with the flowering of the maize, on which
occasion, during the month tepeilhuitl, octli was drunk and his
festival celebrated. (See Sahagun, Appendix to bk. ii.)