Journal ofLatin American Lore 6:2(1980).

155-204 155
Printed in U.S.A.

Who Was Tlaloc?

CECELIA F. KLEIN
University of California, Los Angeles

Of all the deities that were honored throughout the Aztec empire at theft
time of the Spanish Conquest, the one who claimed the most artistic andr
public attention was a fanged and bespectacled being known as Tlaloc/
Fray Diego buran (19/1:154) wrote in the sixteenth century that Tlaloc
was “honored with as many sacrifices and ceremonies as any,” and that
“the whole country was dedicated to his service—lords, kings, noblemen,
and the common people.” Duran’s assessment of Tlaloc’s importance
finds no contradiction in the works of the other chroniclers, and the
appearance of the god’s idol on the top of the twin pyramid of the Aztec
capital Tenochtitlan. where he shared national honors with none other
than the Aztec tribal deity Huitzilopochtli, reinforces the validity of these
reports. Duran (1971:154-155) makes it quite clear, in fact, that Tlaloc
was “no less honored or revered” than Huitzilopochtli himself, and that
not even Huitzilopochtli received the quantity and quality of offerings
presented annually to this most venerable god. Tlaloc emerges in the liter­
ature as indeed a being supreme.
Who was TlalocXpuran\who gives Tlaloc the rave review quoted above, if
merely states that the god was worshiped as “God of Rain and of Light-Il
ning, and Thunderbolts and of all kinds of storms" (1971:154). Other!

NOTE: This paper was originally presented in shortened version at the symposium “The
Eagle and the Serpent: Problems in the Reconstruction of Conquest Period Central Mexi­
can (Aztec) Culture.” chaired by H.B. Nicholson at the University of California. Los
Angeles. February 18-19. 1977. 1 have benefited from the comments of numerous sym­
posium participants, in particular Doris Hevden. and am especially grateful to Betty Ann
Brown for reading and helping with the final version.
 156 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 157
early writers similarly dismiss him as a god of water and rain:/|Sahagun\ these, whom she dubs (‘Tlaloc A? j appears consistently in a context of
(1950-71: III, 208) simply adds native testimony that further connects flowing water and is, in her opinion,'the tr_ue forerunner of the Aztec
him with maize and fertility. In the chroniclers’ descriptions, the only rain god. The second, whom Pasztory labels^Tlaloc B j" and who appears
dues to the god's ultimate junction appear in the various translations of consistently in a terrestrial context in conjunction with jaguars (nocturnal
his name: iPtirdnK 1971:154), for example, translates the name as <5Path creatures par excellence in Mesoamerican belief) and with netting, was
Under the Earth J and (Tong Cavej," The //zs/nire </» Mec/i>7/»e addresses apparently associated with the concept of the dead sun of night. Among'
the ’tain' god as (^T'laloca teutli, lord of tlie cartli^ (de Jonghe 1905), (Ilie Aztecs, the sun was believed to die daily at sunset al the western
while the Historia de lot pivxicntufs per "K phitiirns describes him as horizon and to pass during the night, in this moribund condition, through
Hlie god of the lower rcgiotis^yfPhillips 1883:620), Thelma Sullivan (1974) the earth and underworld to hopeful rebirth at sunrise in the, east. Since
pursues the implications of these appellations in an etymological jm'.esii- in Aztec times this terrestrial passage was correlated with the world direc­
gation which concludes that the god’s name was originally spelleQl'IallocS tions of west and south, the living day sun having been believed to pass
and that it ineam^Jiew'ho has the quality of eartli^' She identifies him, from east to north, Tlaloc was presumably a god of the western and/or
as have 1 (1976</:77—84). as an earth lord who lived in .a mountain cave. southern regions. In addition, since the transition from night to dawn^as
None of the early texts, however, comment on the god's appearance in assigned to the final, central world direction, he may have been affiliated
the codices in a capacity clearly calendric and cosmological, and few With the center. The Aztecs applied the same model to their larger time
modern scholars have attempted to deal with the numerous depictions of periods, including those of the 365-day solar year, or xihtiill. and the all-
Tlaloc that fail to square with the appearance and function ascribed to important 52-year "century,” or xiuhmolpilli, If the Tcotihuacanos did
him bv the early writers,1 Those images link 1 laloe witn the Night Sun, the same, Tlaloc must have been of special importance during the final
\ (lie Evening Star, the concepts of riches and timekeeping, and the Maya days and moments of the year and “century.”’
Bacab-Ycarbearcrs, as well as with the hierarchic priesthood that admin­ The possible association here of the Aztec Tlaloc with the concept of
istered the calendric rites. Failure to deal with this discrepancy between the Terrestrial Night Sun has never been explored, despite the fact tITat
text and image may be attributed in part to the paralysis that strikes those several of the characteristic facial features of Tlaloc B. the "Night Sun
Western scholars so dependent on the written word when, for some k Tlaloc.” persisted in Tlaloc imagery up until the Conquest. One of these
■reason, their verbal sources are strangely silent on a given subject. In such\ features—a large bifurcated tongue—appears together with the ringed
/a situation, only those so bold as to confront the mystique of “art” ate) eyes typical of both Tlalocs on a Classic period figure from Chilpancingo,
I apt to get close to reality, Vybde the true primary sources—the images-^ Guerrero, that bears on its lower torso the date “4 Ollin" (fig. la). For
. may alone supply a message that is not confirmed, an interweaving of \ the Aztecs, this date was the name of the fifth and present cosmic sun,
their implications with modern ethnographic data can produce a fabric ) or era, that was expected to be destroyed in a cataclysmic earthquake on
whoseTexture is even, and whose design structurally parallels the truth. '^x a day “4 Ollin," at the end of an undetermined 52-year cycle. On that day

Tlaloc and the Night Sun

'For a defense of my thesis (hat the nocturnal underworld was assigned to the west and
Part of the problem with our understanding of the Aztec Tlaloc rests south, the day sky to the east and north, and the thesis that the sun was believed to descend
with our failure to absorb the implications of Esther Pasztory’s (1974a; to the underworld during the summer, to reemerge in the winter, see Klein 1975 and 1976a
(cf. Carrasco 1976, Cohodas 1976, and Hunt 1977, who have their own schemata). For
1976) findings on the Tlaloc imagery of Classic period Teotihuacan.
a complete explanation of the Mesoamerican calendar, see Klein 1976a:27-53, Stated in
According to Pasztory, there were/rwo YTIalocs at (Teotihuacan?! One of briefest terms, the Mexicans meshed a divinatory calendar (tonalpohualli) of 260 days,
formed by meshing thirteen numerals with twenty day signs, with the solar year of 365
'See, for example, Codex Laud 2. ill which Tlaloc appears surrounded by the twenty days (xihuitl). This solar year was divided into eighteen months of twenty days each with
day signs of the divinatory calendar. The major exceptions to the tendency to ignore the five "nameless" days (nemontemi; in Yucatan, uayeh) left over at the end. At the con­
"aberrant" images of Tlaloc are: Seler 1960-1961 (various essays); Pasztory 1974a. 19746, clusion of every 52 such solar years, the 260-day cycle and the solar year ended on the same
1976; Millon 1973; P. Furst 1974; and Klein 1976a. Jacqueline Durand-Forest (1976) and day, thus demarcating the largest major time period in Mexico, the 52-year cycle, or
Johanna Broda de Casas (1971) are the only scholars of recent days to discuss the god's xiuhmolpilli. Every 104 years, or two times 52 years, this day marked the end of a Venus
calendr' d cosmic role, however. cycle as well.
158 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 159

time, space, and life itself were also expected to end.' On a well-known Although the Calendar Stone deity bears no overt insignia of I laloc,
I'eotihuacan-style bowl from Las Colinas, Tlaloc A assumes the head-on his pose is compared by Doris Heyden (1971:161) to that adopted by the
pose with outspread arms that distinguishes the central figure on the Aztec stone statue known as the “Coatlicue del Metro” (Heyden 1971:
famous Aztec Calendar Stone, who is enframed by the date-glyph for his "pT. 1). Carlos Navarrete and Heyden (1974:356) point out the similarities
rnamc, iiani hllin. or “4 Ollin” (fig. 2a.b). 1 have elsewhere (1976a .97-113; in treatment of the facial decoration of this figure and that of certain
19766) identified this being as the teirestrial sun of night as he was ex­ beings who frequently appear in relief on the underside of other stone
pected to appear on the day “4 Ollin” at the end of the world after having statues (fig. 2c). These individuals are typically presented in dorsal view
been destroyed forever by earthquakes,' with their arms and legs bent and outspread. I heir knees and elbows take
the form of monstrous faces. Although Navarrete and Heyden identify all ;
of these figures as the earth deitvlTlaltecuhtli\ who elsewhere consistently
appears in dorsal pose with monstrous joints, the figures facial features
are actually those of Tlaltecuhtli’s aspect of the ‘‘Old Lord” earth goddess
llamatecuhtli, also known as Cihuacoatl (“Snake Woman”) (fig 3a).5
Tlaltecuhtli has a huge and bestial head quite unlike that of these
beings, who sport a flayed or bony lower jaw exposing the teeth and gums,
and who wear a painted circle on each cheek (Klein 19766:fig. 6).
llamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl was herself connected to the Night Sun. As
Coatlicue, “Snake Skirt,” she was the mother of Huitzilopochtli, the
tribal deity, who was clearly associated by the Aztecs with the sun.6 She
was also the patroness of the twenty-day month tititl that, according to
Alfonso Caso (1971:338-339), concluded the Aztec solar year in Tenoch-
titlan. Since the sun was believed to be underground at this time, to be
reborn anew on the first day of the new year, the goddess “presided” over
the infant Night Sun's annual passage from her own dark “womb.” Her
necessary relation to the dreaded cataclysm expected to fall at the end of
b some future “century” is indicated in the decoration of an Aztec stone
pulque beaker now in Vienna (fig 3b). Here the carved face of a female
Figure 1, a. Tlaloc B with "4 Ollin,” stone relief, Chil-
pancingo, Guerrero. (Drawing by the author after Caso
appears to arise from the open jaws of Tlaltecuhtli directly beneath a solar
and Bernal 1952:fig. 97); b. Tlaloc A with year sign head­ disk bearing the date-glyph “4 Ollin" partially obscured by a sign for
dress, stone relief, Castillo de Teayo, Veracruz, Aztec? “night.” Although Eduard Seler (1960-1961:11, 913-921) identifies this
Museo Nacional de Antropologia. Mexico. (Drawing by being as a pulque goddess on the basis of its hair of malinalli grass and
the author after Seler 1960-1961:11. 434. fig. 32.) its square ear plate, there were no pulque deities with fleshless jaws.’

'Because of tire nature of tire Aztec calendar at the time of contact, the 52-year cycle ’T he Aztec earth goddess had a number of names and guises, but they can all be seen
could have neither begun nor ended on a day Ollin. T he obvious discrepancy here will be as manifestations of the same basic concept (Nicholson 1971:420-421; Klein 1979). The
dealt with later In tire discussion. special closeness of llamatecuhtli and Cihuacoatl, who appear to have been identical and
4The Calendar Stone deity lias traditionally .been identified as Toiiatiuh, the Aztec sun interchangeable, has been noted many times.
god of (lie day sky who was associated with the beginnings of cosmic cycles and the world •T here is no direct evidence that Huitzilopochtli was actually equated with the sun, but
directions of east and north. Navarrete and Heyden (1974) and I (1975; 1976/z) have he is generally acknowledged to have had solar aspects (e.g., Caso 1958:33; Nicholson
recently concluded, however, that the deity bears traits of the earth goddess (who was a 1971:425-426). T he relative unimportance of the designated sun god, lonatiuh. especially
creature of (lie west and south) and that the figure cannot possibly be Tonatiuh. Navarrete in the official art, suggests that Huitzilopochtli gradually was being substituted for lonatiuh
and Heyden discount entirely any solar aspect of the being, concluding that it is the earth as the major solar deity. ,
goddess herself who appears on the stone. I have hypothesized a hybrid creature instead, ’Seler identifies this individual as the personification of (he day "I Ozomath (1 Monkey)
whose mixed insignia identify him as the dead sun fused with the dead livening Star deep that introduced that Aztec trecena (a "week" or thirteen days) which was patronized by
in the dark bowels of the earth al the time of the destruction of the universe on the fateful the pulque gods. His identification is highly vulnerable, however; by his own admission.
•-.»f ovnmnlr the d«»itv’s name t’lvnh docs not appear.
 C ecelia F. K lein
Figure 2. a. Tlaloc A, relief on underside of clay bowl, Las Colinas (Teotihuacan-
style). Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico. (Drawing by the author after
Pasztory 1974a;fig. 23); b. Night Sun deity inside "4 Ollin," detail of Aztec
Calendar Stone relief. Aztec. Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico. (Draw­
ing by the author after Caso 1958:32); c. Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl. stone relief
on underside of feathered serpent, Aztec. Museo Nacional de Antropologia.
Mexico. (Drawing by the author after Nicholson 1973.fig. 13.)

W ho W as T laloc?

Figure 3. a. Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl. Codex Magliabecchiano 45r. Aztec.

(Drawing by the author after 1903 facsimile); b. Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl (as a
pulque goddess?) with ”4 Ollin" and "1 Tochtli." stone beaker, Aztec. Museum
fur Volkerkunde, Vienna. (Drawing by Henry F. Klein and the author after Borland a-
1976:92.)
 Who Was Tlaloc? 163
102 Cecelia F. Klein
Although Seler rejects the idea, it is possible that the goddess is a personi­ A of Teotihuacan, one to several fangs that curve off to the sides of the
fication of the Malinalli day sign, since the sign is typically composed of mouth, and rings that completely surround the eyes. The nose is usually
Malinalli grass emanating from the top of a lower jawbone—the whole composed of a twisted snake and the cylindrical hat is plumed and accom­
often anthropomorphized so the grass reads as hair (Seler 1960-1961:11, panied by the pleated neck fan. In the majority of cases this type assumes
918, fig. 14). The most important mythic being whose name contains the an upright, basically human form, but in at least one instance the god
root word malinalli, however, is Malinalxochill, “Flower of the Malinalli “swims" in dorsal, displayed pose with monstrous faces at each joint
Plant," who can be viewed as an early aspect of Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl (Caso 1958:pl. 4). The second type adopts a displayed, but frontal, pose
(Klein 1979). A goddess highly similar in pose and facial features to
Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl appears in low relief on the back of the same
beaker (Seler 1960-1961:11, 944, fig. 49). Since the only other deities who
consistently appear with skeletal jaws are the death gods Mictlantecuhtli
(“Lord of Mictlan," the Aztec underworld), and his consort Micticaci-
huatl, who was essentially identical with Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl, it is
likely that the goddess on the front of the Vienna beaker is a variant of
the old earth goddess (fig. 10«).

Ciliuacoatl's face and her association with the end oi the year and the
date-glyph “4 Oilin'1 theretore 111 S(ltfle way c<rrnn?cniiat goddesslo
Tlaloc. I'laloc, moreover, or a being related to him, sometimes appears
in Aztec stone reliefs in the displayed pose, and with the monstrous joints,
of the old earth goddess. A stone relief fragment recently discovered in
the course of the Templo Mayor excavations, and reminiscent of several
reliefs from the Aztec site of Castillo de Teayo (Seler 1960-1961:111, pl.
10, fig. 29), strongly suggests that these hybrid creatures represent a
second, possibly bisexual, aspect of the deity (fig. 4). Here\one headjot
fI'laloc. wearing the pleated paper neck fan ol the vegetation and water
“deities? and surrounded by water, is surmounted by what appears to be
a descending, Tlaloc-headed “earth monster." The latter, who wears the
“Ollin" sign at its midpoint and the skull-and-crossbones skirt typically
seen on Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl, has breasts.8 The unidentified petal­
like elements that project from both sides of the torso of other hybrid
’’i'laloc figures may refer to breasts as well (fig. 5).
The joint appearance here of two distinct versions of Tlaloc should
recall Pasztory’s observation that one of the two 'I eotihuacan Tlalocs was
in some way affiliated with the sun at night. In Aztec art images of Tlaloc
do in fact tend to fall into two discrete categories that correspond to the
two Tldlocs on the Templo Mayor stone? The first type sports, like Tlaloc

"I am indebted to Betty Ann Brown for pointing Ibis out. It is worth noting that the low
relief figure on the back of the Vienna pulque beaker also appears to have breasts (H.B.
Figure 4. Tlaloc A (bottom) and Tlaloc B (top) with "Ollin" sign
Nicholson, personal communication). The skewed head of this and virtually all earth
and possible “1 Tochtli," stone relief recently discovered in Templo
goddesses can be attributed to an Aztec myth that tells how she. in Iter aspect of Coyol-
Mayor excavations. Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Hisloria,
xauhqtti. was decapitated (Sabagun 1950-1971 till, 4).
Mexico. (Drawing by the author after photograph by Betty Ann
•Garcia I’ayon (1975) has also noted the existence of at least two different types of 'I'laloc
: .. ................ Ihedbilnctbm Io different cultural origins. Brown.)
164 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 165

and wears skull ornaments attached to the legs and arms with thongs. Tlaloc and the old earth goddess have a number of other traits in com-.
The fillet is decorated with three chalchihuitls, or precious greenstones. moiii One “Tlalocoid” figure, for example, depicted in three-quarter
The fangs of this being, like those of Tlaloc B of Teotihuacan, are even view but with anthropomorphized joints, has hair made of Malinalli (fig.
and vertical, whereas the nose can be, and usually is, essentially human. 6). Just as Tlaloc served as the ninth and last of the so-called Lords of
The eyes are often surrounded on only three sides by bands that grow out the Night, Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl served as the thirteenth and last of
of the nose. It is this “B” version of the Aztec “rain” god who appears the Lords of the Day.10 Tlaloc, like Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl, was inti­
with the cosmic date-glyphs connoting the end of the “century,” whose mately associated with pulque, perhaps because he too was said to be very
last month was patronized by Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl. old; only elderly members of Aztec society were permitted to become
intoxicated, and then only at certain monthly ceremonies (Sahagun 1950-
1971:11, 99). Drunkenness, we know, was regarded as sinful and Ilama­
tecuhtli-Cihuacoatl was herself a “sinful" deity." While flaloc is never
expressly identified as a “sinner,” the Mamlab, counterparts among the
Gulf Coast Huastecs of the Aztec Tlaloque, the dwarfish assistants to
Tlaloc, are believed to annually weaken and fall into a swoon from having
drunk too much liquor (Stresser Pean, cited by Mendelson 1967:406).
Some of the Tlaloque doubled as pulque gods.12 The symbol of drunk­
enness, moreover, was tochtli, the “Rabbit,” which formed the base of
the date “1 Tochtli” with which our Tlaloc B was affiliated. The date “I
Tochtli" appears in the headdress of at least two Aztec Tlaloc Bs and may
have originally decorated the damaged disk on the skirt of the upper
figure, that of Tlaloc B, on the Templo Mayor carving (figs. 5, 4; see also
Seler 1960-1961:11, 841, fig. 35). It exists as well at the base of the large
face of the old earth goddess on the front of the Vienna beaker (fig. 3h).
That Tlaloc was in some way affiliated with the Ollin sign and the sun
at night, as well as with the earth goddess Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl and
the final month of the solar year and the end of the "century,” is therefore
probable. The principal ceremonies to the rain gods were held at night
and the concomitant human sacrifices were usually held at midnight or
dawn (Broda 1971:323). The deity known as Tlalchitonatiuh, or “Sun
Near the Earth,” who almost certainly represented either the rising or
setting sun, appears in the codices (e.g., Borbonicus 16) as a Tlaloc-
headed mummy bundle resting on a sun disk set within the open jaws of

"The relation of the nine Lords of the Night and the thirteen Lords of the Day to the
various temporal cycles is undetermined, but there is some evidence that they successively
ruled the nine “hours" of the night and the thirteen "hours" of the day. If they instead ran
Figure 5. Tlaloc B with "1 Tochtli” in headdress, stone relief on
concurrently through the year, skipping the five nameless days at year-end, they would have
underside of Coatlicue statue, Aztec. Museo Nacional de Antro-
terminated together on the last day of the 52-year cycle.
pologia, Mexico. (Photograph by Betty Ann Brown.)
"As Tlaelquani, “Eater of Filth," she was associated with lust, adultery, and sexual
sin in general. Sahagun (1950-1971:11, 144) says that the “vicar, the likeness, of llamate-
cuhtli" wore a "mask looking in two directions" during the rites of the month feast Tititl.
and the commentator of Codex Telleriano-Remensis (pl. 20), apparently aware of this, calls
Ixcuina, another aspect of Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl. a "shameless, two-raced go^stess."
"For example, Yauhqueme, Tomiyauhtecuhtli, and Nappatecuhtli (Broda I; 1 I).
 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 167
Tlallecuhtli.'1 In Codex Borgia 28 Tlaloc assumes the guise of the Night
I
Sun deity Xochipilli as patron of what Seler (1960-1961:11, 265) identifies
as the fifth and final period of the planet Venus at the joint conclusion,
assigned to the central world direction, of a Venus and a solar cycle.14 On
page 25 of the same manuscript, this same role is assumed by the date­
glyph “4 Ollin.”
The center of the universe, which was conceptually coupled with the
terrestrial south, was further the abode of the Jaguar God of Number
Seven, who appears in Classic Maya art with a twisted nose-cruller similar
in form to the twisted nose of the Postclassic Tlaloc A (Thompson 1960:
/fig. 12, #14). The Maya Jaguar God not only served as the Lord of the
' Earth and Underworld, and represented the terrestrial sun of night
among the Classic Maya, but was the last, or ninth, of the Maya Lords
of the Night and a direct counterpart, therefore, of Tlaloc (Quirarte
1976). Although there is nothing that directly links either the Jaguar God
or Tlaloc to earthquakes per se, many Mesoamericans today believe that
it is the earth and rain deities who cause them. The Totonac rain deity
Juan-Artsini, for example, is known as “El Vibrador,” or “he who makes
I things] to vibrate or tremble” (Ichon 1973:131). Among the Chorti, it is
the Chicchans, or rain snakes, who have the power to “move mountains”
(Thompson 1970a:263).

Tlaloc and the Evening Star

It is noteworthy that the patron of the seventeenth day sign Ollin was
the god of the Evening Star Xolotl because Tlaloc appears to have been
related to the Evening Star as well. Xolotl coruled the sixteenth week of
the Aztec calendar, "1 Cozcacuauhtli." or 1 Vulture, with Tlalchitona­
tiuh, “Sun Near the Earth." At times Tlalchitonatiuh is simply replaced
in this context by the date-glyph “4 Ollin.” Xolotl’s connection with “4
Ollin” is underscored by a statement by the commentator of Codex Vati-
canus 3773 to the effect that “4 Ollin” was merely another name for
Xolotl, and by the commentator of Codex Vaticanus 3738 (Rios), who
marked the day “4 Ollin” as the day of the disappearance of Quetzalcoatl
| = Venus] prior to his rebirth as the Morning Star (Caso 1967:197).
Figure 6. Tlaloc priest, stone relief, Aztec. Museo
Nacional de’Anltopologia, Mexico. (Photograph by '''Thompson (1934:119) argues that 'Tlalchitonatiuh represented the rising sun of the east,
Henry F. Klein.) although most scholars, including myself in the past (1976«:82), have preferred to identify
him as the setting sun of the west. I would reconsider my position at this point, however,
since it was, as we shall see, the successful rebirth of the sun in the east that directly con­
cerned Tlaloc.
HFor the defense of this unorthodox thesis that the "vegetation" god Xochipilli repre­
sented the young Night Sun recently descended to the underworld, see Klein 1976a:99-103.
For an alternate explanation of the Tlaloc imagery of Codex Borgia 28, sec Nowotny
1976:25, 27. Nowotny identifies the five Tlalocs of this section as representatives of the five
 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 169
168
Xolotl's association with the sun at the end of the world can be under­
stood on the basis of the Mesoamerican belief that the Evening Star—in
an apparent fit of sibling rivalry-pushed the sun downward to its death
each time it approached inferior conjunction, and by the joint conclusion
every 104 years of the Venns and the 52-vear solar cycles,15 II is (he con­
clusion of just such a Venus-solar cycle that is alluded to on Codex Borgia
28 where Tlaloc appears in the guise of the nocturnal solar deity Xochi-
pil'li, and on the Aztec Calendar Stone, where the dead sun assumes the
rare’head-on pose adopted centuries earlier on the Las Colinas bowl by\
f Tlaloc It is unclear whether the dead sun and the Evening Star in inferior \
conjunction were actually believed to fuse during their sojourn beneath \
the earth's surface, but their attributes definitely mingle on the Calendar J
Stone deity (Klein 19766). .
The Maya Venus god Lahun-Chan combined the head of the jaguar,
the animal normally associated with the Maya sun of night, with the a
canine body typical of Xolotl. Lahun-Chan was the patron of the Maya
day sign lamat whose Aztec counterpart was Tochtli, the rabbit. 1 laloc s
probable association with Venus as the Evening Star, as well as with the
Night Sun, is supported by the reference in the Chumayel almanacs to
Lahun-Chan as the “jaguar-faced 1 Ahau [ = Venus] with the protruding
teeth” (Roys, cited by Thompson 1960:218-219). Both Xolotl and the
Night Sun appear in Aztec and Mixteca-Pueblan imagery with prom'nent
often clearly bestial teeth (Klein 19766,-figs. 3, 21). Thompson (1960)
interprets the large teeth of Lahun-Chan as a sign of that god s reputed
drunkenness and bad behavior, "sins" reminiscent of those of the Aztec
“rain” gods.

Tlaloc and Wealth

The nature of the relation of Tlaloc to the destruction of the sun and
the Evening Star emerges in comparing two Aztec stone reliefs that are
strikingly similar in composition. One of these reliefs represents one o
the Tlaloque pouring rainwater from a jar; the other, judging by his copa
bag, is a priest who combines traits of the Tlaloque and the Night Sun
(fig.’ 7a. 6).“ Two aspects of the latter are worthy of note: the headdress
fillet decorated with a row of exactly three chalchihuitls, and the heavy
•’The antagonism between Venus and the sun during conjunction in the “"^erworld is
alluded to in several Mesoamerican myths. For an analysis of these see Klein I97f>a. 110.
•‘I earlier (1976«) identified the second figure as the Night Sun a lone on te ._
its three-sided eye band and large, but essentially human, teeth; Seler < 96°-19^1.111’39 ’ Figure 7. a. Tlaloc A (as one of the Tlaloque?), stone relief on side
also calls it a “sun god." As has been seen, however, the eye band could as wel be Fla oc of box, Aztec. British Museum. (Drawing by Henry F. Klein and the
... and the figure has either Tlaloc’s moustache or his large fang (it is unclear). Both the author after Nicholson 1971 dig. 14); b. Tlaloc B/Night Sun priest,
address and necklace are typical of Tlaloc, and the priests who served the Night stone relief, Aztec. Musee d'Histoire Naturelle de Lyons. (Drz ’
,.s we shall sec, were priests of Tlaloc who were sometimes called ‘ I laloque. by Henry F. Klein after Seler 1960-1901:111. 399. fig. 14.)
 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 171
170
necklace, again probably of chalcbihuitls, that features a large round Tlaloc and Time “Spent’
pendant inscribed with the symbol for gold. Both the bead necklace and
the gold disk appear on the Tlaloc as well. Although the solar fillet of The full significance of this apparent relation of Tlaloc to the concept
chalcbihuitls is missing here on the Tlaloc, it appears frequently, as does ~7of'abundance can onlvbe appreciatedJjJ terms of a fuller understanding,
the necklace, on wilier Aztec images of Tlaloc, such as a little-known Late of the chalehihuitl.Jn "both the Maya and the Mexican numeric systems,
Postclassic relief from Coatlan (Robelo 19IO:pl,3). Duran (1971:155) chalcbihuitls were"used to represent numerals; in Maya, the chalehihuitl
described the important idol of Tlaloc that stood at the summit of his as a glyph actually meant “to count” (Duran 1971: 274). I hat chalehihuitls
sacred mountain home, Mt. Tlalocan, as wearing a “string of green beads were used in abacus fashion is indicated by the Historia de los mexicanos
called chalcbihuitls in the form of a necklace . . . [that had] hanging por sus pinturas, which defines an item that it terms chalchui as a string
from it a round emerald set in gold." with certain computations” (Phillips 1883:641). The description implies'
The exact meanings of the symbols for gold and the chalehihuitl are f that jade beads were, at least at times, used in place of knots on strings
m'iclpnr. but both signified materials that were regarded as precious. I used for keeping records and taking measurements.
j'GpFcKwas associated directly with the sun and the color yellow and may That the chalchui was specifically used to record the passage of time
have been synonymous with the kan. or “jade,” symbol that was itself is suggested by an important rite still enacted on major festival days and
a variant of the chalehihuitl. The so-called kan cross represented the color Sundays by the Tzotzil Maya inhabitants of Zinacantan. This rite is called
turquoise among the Aztec and Zapotec, where it seems at times to have x'lok ual. a name derived, according to Evon Vogt (1976:123-128), from
symbolized the south (Thompson 1934:221). Among the Maya it repre­ the Tzotzil root u which can mean “month,” “moon,’ or “necklace.
sented yellow, which apparently had replaced blue-green as the color of I’he rite focuses on the uncovering and “counting of a valuable coin
the south and center. Tlaloc was himself, as appropriate to a lord of earth necklace stored in a nest of exactly nine bags. The coins are ritually
and water, a god of the terrestrial south (Klein 1976«:77-84), and the kan counted against kernels of maize and then placed on the shoulders of a
cross, like the heavy bead necklace, is diagnostic ol Tlaloc A al Icoti- # statue of the Crucified Christ where they remain for a day.
Imacan, where like the Aztec chalehihuitls it often appears in rows in the I Vogt says he does not understand why the Tzotzil necklaces are made
god’s headdress (Paszlory 1974:fig. 4). It reappears in Aztec imagery on I of coins, but concludes nonetheless that the coins represent sun, heat,
the torso of (he displayed creature representing the Aztec Tlaloc B who, I money, and the passage of time" (italics mine). I his assumption is sup-
in at least two instances, bears the date “1 Tochtli” (fig. 5). In the Aztec \ ported by the fact that maize kernels, an indigenous symbol of wealth,
calendar, the date “ 1 Tochtli” was itself always affiliated with the south. as Vogt points out, were used in pre-Hispanic times to divine the future;
Thompson (1960:275) emphasizes, however, that the Yucatec root word at Zinacantan the coin count tally is still interpreted as an omen fot the
kan also means “precious, highly esteemed or necessary," Beads that coming year. Vogt himself (1976:127-128) speculates that the coins may
••'tVere’ once used as currency in Yucatan were actually named “kan”; have specifically represented “days as they are counted," and suggests
although these were apparently usually of shell, Thompson (1960) indi­ that the X’lok Ual rite was at one time related to the ancient calendar of
cates that jade beads were used as well. Thompson concludes, in any twenty-day months, or “moons,” presumably computed by means of
event, that the beads were called kan precisely because they were precious, chalehihuitl necklace. The relation of the Tzotzil coin necklace to the
no doubt because “kan” also meant “water," and “water was the pre­ f Pre-Hispanic Tlaloc, who often wears a large chalehihuitl necklace, lie:
cious thing. ” Th at the Aztecs’ ongoing hope for an abundant and timely in the fact that for the Tzotzil, as for so many Catholicized natives, Chris’
rainfall, together with all the benefits that it alone could bring, was ex­ Crucified has fused with the traditional concept of the dead Night Sun it
pressed ritually in terms of valuable material goods, especially jewels, is t the underworld who approaches the end of a temporal cycle (Vogt 1976
evidenced by Duran’s (1971:155) report that “no other idol was more '■128). Even the pre-Columbian Maya title altau, which formed part of th<
adorned or enriched with stones and splendid jewels than (Tlaloc’s).” name of the sun god (e.g., Kinich Ahau), has been translated “Lord o f
The Aztec nobility clearly competed in their offerings of precious orna­ the Necklace” (Forstemann 1904:566-567). This may at least partially
ments to Tlaloc, and once the offerings had been made, the god's temple explain why the necklaces are brought out every Sunday, the last day of
was left “so rich in gold, jewels, stones, cloths, and feathers that (this the European week and the day on which, after contact, I laloc’s own idol
wealth) might have enriched many a pauper” (Dunin 1971:158). atop Mt. Tlalocan received public homage as well (Duran 1971:156)
 172 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 173

Certainly the nine bags used to store the Tzotzil necklaces recall the 627) suggests that certain deities were over time “promoted” to more
pre-Hispanic Lords of the Night who ruled over the nights in succession, important posts.” Among the Aztecs the most important task would have
and whose ninth and final member in Mexico was the counterpart of the been to govern the final quarter and ending of the “century.”
Maya jaguar Night Sun deity, Tlaloc,
Tlaloc and the Ancestors
Tlaloc and the Cargo-Holders
Since wealth and attendant rank are a function of time and age in
The X'lok Ual rite occurs whenever the Zinacantan holders of political Mesoamerica, it should come as no surprise that those with the highest
office either stepdown from or take up' their posts. The social and ritual
status and the “greatest wealth” in indigenous society are.the ancient
/responsibilities exchanged during these rites are normally referred to as dead. Their seniority is expressed in their titles; the Tzotzil, for example,
/ cargos, a term that alludes to their conceptual equivalence to the burdens
address them as “my Father,” “Grandmother,” “Grandlather,” and so
( shouldered by pre-Columbian merchants who supported their loads with
on (Thompson 1970a :314-316). Since these titles underscore the impor­
\a tumpline (Bricker 1966). At Zinacantan, as in both sixteenth-century
tance of kinship, Thompson (1970a:314-318) argues that the Tzotzil
Yucatan and numerous towns throughout Mexico and Guatemala today,
ancestor cult, at least, was based on commemoration of specific lineages
most political and religious posts are filled on a rotating basis by members whose founders were of the greatest importance. This may have been the
of the community who have, by virtue of their accumulated wealth, man­ case in Landa’s Yucatan as well (Tozzer 1941:9) and certainly squares
aged to purchase the privilege. These cargueros serve first in a relatively with the emerging data on the importance of genealogy among the Classic
menial capacity and then work their way up, over time and at considerable Maya. Whether or not the Mexicans shared this concern for lineage
expense, to positions of higher rank and responsibility. At the apex of this founderslsTess clear, but the Mixtec historical codices imply that tjiey
social pyramid is the mayordomo, the most venerable and, for obvious may have. Aztec rulers and nobles, we know, identified with certain gods,
reasons, the most “wealthy” and aged of the lot. Wealth thus is. as Vogt and at least some were reputedly deified at death (Acosta 1963:11, 317
(1976:140) states outright, associated with both old age and high rank. Motolinfa 1951:106). The Aztec ruling family clearly placed great stock
While the cargo system per se is thought to have been introduced to in their family tree and, in particular, their tribal founder, Huitzilo-
Mesoamerica by the Spaniards, it was grafted onto a highly compatible — poclffli. According to Sahagun (T950-1971.I,l)r~ffie tribal sun god Hiiib
pre-Hispanic base (Carrasco 1961). In the sixteenth century, the Yucatec zilopochtli was originally a real man, a man who presumably led the
rvlaya observed by Bishop Landa were annually rotating the governing Mexica-Aztecs in carving their tribal identity, and from whom subsequent
and ceremonial responsibilities of their villages among their aristocratic Mexica leaders apparently traced their descent. A new king was certainly
members, and certain deities were believed to take turns presiding over thought to have been “chosen” by, and to resemble, Huitzilopochtli, and
specific time periods correlated with the world directions. Among the there is some evidence that he was believed to incarnate him (Duran 1964:
Classic Maya, successive units of time were actually conceived as “bur­ 40, 50; Fox 1978:287). When the king died, the event was referred to as
dens” carried in turn, via tumplines, by a relay of divine porters (Thomp­ an “eclipse of the sun” (Duran 1964:50, 185).______ _ _____________ ——
son 1960:59, 125). H. B. Nicholson (1966) concludes that the Aztecs [ 1 lalocy own identification as an ancestor can only be surmised, but
shared the concept and that people, as Carrasco (1976:282) points out, lye appears at the beginning ot three of the four Mixtec genealogical manu­
filled many offices, especially priestly ones, according to a principle of scripts (Nuttall. Vindobonensis reverse, and Bodley) as the founder of.
spiraling rotation and scheduled “shifts.” Those who worked their way alLof the important lineages involved there (John Pohl, personal com-
upward to the most important posts were thus usually well advanced in munication).Tfc Pasztory (1975) has suggested that Tlaloc was regarded by
years, as well as highly privileged and wealthy. If the Aztec pantheon
paralleled the structure of the social hierarchy here, as it did in so many
"Ingham argues that the deities thus "promoted” were patron deities of “elite clans,"
other respects (Carrasco 1976:238-239), the major temporal periods
a position not necessarily contradictory to mine.
would have been borne by the oldest, most wealthy and respected deities. ••On Vindobonensis reverse 1, the dynastic founder *'4 Alligator" wears the dress and
Among the Zapotecs, the four quarters of the 260-day divinatory calendar mask of Tlaloc, and approximately half of the seventeen "mythical ancestors” depicted on
were called cocijos after the Zapotec god of rain; presumably Cocijo Bodley reverse 37-40 wear such costumes (sec also Selden I). 1 he latter occurs in the context
and/or hi istants “carried" the quarters in succession. Ingham (1974: of the mythical place of Mixtec origins, Apoala (John Pohl, personal communic?
 Who Was Tlaloc? 175
174 Cecelia F. Klein
the Aztecs and their predecessors as an extremely ancient and important 'Tlaloc was indeed regarded as an archetypal father, then his relation
ancestor of a major Teotihuacan dynasty, with whom both they and the I to the Night Sun may be explained. Among the Maya the Night Sun, as
"~WC~have seen, was a jaguar, a concept significant in light of the con­
Maya wished to identify. Slresser-Pean (cited by Mendelson 1967:406)
states that the Huaslec rain gods, the Mamlab, who live in mountain temporary Huastec Otomi Carnival reenactions of the nocturnal pere­
caves, are divinized ancestors; and the Zapotecs buried their important) grinations of a “fabulous jaguar-child, whose father is the powerful Lord
dead, whom they apparently regarded as’rainbringers, on mountaintops J of the Underworld” (Boiles 1969:32-55).'’ Pasztory (1974a: 15-16) identjA
(Parsons 1936:213-224; Beals 1945:98). In Central Mexico the rain fies the mouth and bifurcated tongue of Tlaloc B at Teotihuacan as those)
were similarly associated with mountains; Duran (19/1:155) contends of the jaguar—not the snake, as has been commonly held (e.g., Garcia/
that the relation 61 llaloc'to Mt. Tlalocan was so close that “it would Payon 1975:144)—and the Maya Lord of the Underworld, as we have
be difficult to say which received its name from which—the god from the seen, was a jaguar. As the old Lord of the Earth, therefore, Tlaloc must
mountain (or the mountain) from the god." The Aztecs believed t+rtrT” have originally served as Lord of the Underworld. In Aztec art, llaloc
-moiature forms on hilltops as a result of the smoke emanating from the shares at limes the fleshless jaw and other attributes of the death gods
burning cigars of the Tlaloque. who sat within the mountain caves. The (see below?.’ '1 he UhamuIaTzotzil believe that the sun returns to the
contemporary Zinacantan Earth Lord, who similarly dwells within a underworld each night expressly to visit his father (Thompson 1970a:304);
mountain, is regarded as the most powerful and prestigious of the local and a parental role for the “rain” god would explain both Tlaloc’s inti-
mate relation to Huitzili ililli-Cihuacoatl, and
'community spirits; as such, like Tlaloc, he is said to be "very rich” (Vogt
1969:16). According to Maud Oakes’s Todos Santos informant (1961:76), his welcoming of the tr
“all cerros have great quantities of money . . . ; the mountains are lull Whether or not 'Tlaloc
of money " nowhere stated, but the
/"Whethi idocumentedA brothers (see Klein 197'
but the 'I iepicted there) traced their own ancest
certainly1 lent (Pasztory I rain god as the most
1974a; 1‘ iubservient to 1 region. Given Pasztory
Tlaloc, w released and / to identify with Tlaloc
treover, which* can see the practical^ r
withheld,
was dedic le ceremonial and royal lineage foun
center an the Tlaloque,
were arrat
and receii
I great respect
Etzalcualiztli
Tlaloc and the Bacab:
SQL t
rite implii c, it is signifi- This ancestral role I11
relation to the CargU *er
cant that i, says Duran
(1971:162 | Chiapas the was, and is, believed
first of tl d Ceiba tree “prestigious of the a1.----- . Ile’
lieved to first are believed to be the living representatives ot a giv«H — . ’es­
through w
i giant Ceiba ters called the Mam, or “Grandfathers.” The Mam are also said to be
emerge, a
960:71). The mountains that both possess and dispense fertility and material wealth,
that grow:
Zapotec ram goa Lightning is actually a collective entity composed of all and Alfred Tozzer (1941:139) relates them to the sixteenth-century Yuca-
distinguished ancestors who are said by the Zapotecs to be “brothers”; tec Maya belief in four supernatural brothers known as the Bacabs. The
Lightning lives in a mountain cave, like Tlaloc, and guards his descen- Bacabs were, if their name translates correctly, "waterspillers," and they
Pants'at the four world directions (Parsons 1936:21 J^Z^jT-Sineer-as-tve
shall see, the Aztec goddess of salt, Huixtocihuatl, was said to be an older '"Boiles, who reports the existence of this remarkable belief, makes no reference to the
sister of the Tlaloque, it follows that the 'Tlaloque, at least, were brothers. enigmatic infants with feline features who appear in the arms of a human adult male in
the art of the I’rcclassic Olmecs. The fact that the Otomi specify that the Lord of the
Whether Tlaloc was simply the oldest of these, or their lather, is still
176 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc?
Tlaloc B, who often adopts the same pose (figs. 8Zr. 5); It is well
that the Tlaloque, like the Bacabs, were often conceived as only
number, each having been assigned to a different world direction.
Several of the Bacabs, and particularly that equated by Joralemon
(1975) and others to the Maya deity known to scholars as Gpd N, are
characterized by a looped headdress with a bowknot and interior cross­
hatching that recall the looped and knotted headdress characteristic of
Tlaloc A at Teotihuacan. Both Yurii Knorozov (1967:84) and David
Kelley (1976:133) interpret the Classic Maya T64 glyph, which consists
of just such a knotted and sometimes cross-hatched loop, as signifying the
word “net” (in Yucatec, hay), while Thompson (19706.4 75) identifies
the cross-hatching with the wings of a bee. Tlaloc’s association with net­
ting dates back to the Classic period in which he appears frequently as
Tlaloc B in the Teotihuacan murals with a body or head made of netting
(Miller 1973:figs. 85, 124). During the Last Postclassic period his imper­
sonators and idols wore a large netted cape (Sahagun 1950-1971 :II, 7).
Thompson’s suggestion that the cross-hatched loops that appear on
b
images ol the Bacabs represent the wings of a bee should not, however,
be discardecf^Bees\were rainbringers throughout Mesoamerica and aig
Figure 8. a. Bacab with bee/net elements and conch shell, Maya. (Draw­ associated witli the rain gods among both the Venezuelan Warao and the
ing by the author after Thompson 197Oa:fig. 10); b. Four "B” Tlaloque. ''Colombian Kogi,“who claim a Mexican heritage (Johannes Wilbert and
painted interior of stone box lid, Tizapan, Aztec. Museo Nacional de Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, personal communciation). The characteristic
Antropologia, Mexico. (Drawing by the author after Pijoan 1964:pl. 1.)

were assigned, like the Tlaloque. to the four world directions. Landa
(Tozzer 1941:135) identified them as “skybearers,” beings who allegedly
supported the four corners of the heavens with their upraised hands, and
in Maya imagery they do often appear with their arms upraised (fig. 8a).
David Joralemon (1975) has concluded, however, that the Bacabs were^
actually creatures of the night, death, and the underworld, an opinion
that matches Tlaloc's reputation as lord of the earth. The Chamula)
Tzotzil say that the earth’s surface is indeed supported in the underworld
by sometimes one, sometimes four “earthbearers” stationed at the inter­
cardinal points (Gossen 1974:22).20 That the Aztec Tlaloque were counter­
parts of these earthbearing Bacabs is further indicated by the fact that
both were depicted with shells and water lilies, and as very old and black.
On the inside of the lid of an Aztec stone box, four Tlaloque oriented
to the four directions raise their arms in the manner of the Bacabs and a
wear the dangling streamers at their temples that elsewhere characterize
Figure 9. a. Tlaloc (A?) as a bee, relief on a clay beaker. Isla de Sacri-
"There are actually several options open to those translating the word bacab: the Perez
ficios, Veracruz, Totonac? British Museum. (Drawing by the author after
Dictionary, for example, gives "around (tic earth” (Thompson 1934:216). T his translation
Burland 1948:pl. 31); b. Tlaloc A (one of the Tlaloque?) as an insect larva,
also sugges'- ‘hat the Bacabs Were earthbearers rather than skybearers, although Joralemon
detail of border of "Tlalocan" murals, Tepantitla, Teotihuacan. (Drawir
(cited by 1976:20) believes that it was the direction gods called Pauahtuns who
by the author after Pasztory 1974a:fig. 21.)
supported ,. surface of the earth.
178 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was ’Tlaloc? 179

facial features of Tlaloc clearly have been applied to a figure engraved huacan vases (e.g., Seler 1960-1961 :V, 515, fig. 167). While the watery
on a vessel from Isla de Sacrificios in Veracruz that combines the upraised environs of the Tepantitla 'Tlaloque argue against an identification of
arms of the Bacabs with what Borland (1948:65, pl. 31) identifies as the these as bees. Tlaloc’s association with some form of larval insect ini
wings of a bee (fig. 9«). The Postclassic Maya of eastern Yucatan and Classic period Central Mexico seems assured. The association augments\
Quintana Boo exalted four beings known as Ah Muzencabs who appar­ Cthe probability that the Tlaloque were originally Mexican counterparts of j
ently were all bees and who were stationed, like the Bacabs and Tlaloque, I the Maya Bacabs. J
at the four world directions. Thompson (19706:472) describes them as
aspects or variants of the better-known Bacabs. The fourth and greatest Tlaloc and the Yearbearers
of the Bacabs was the patron of Yucatec beekeepers, Hobnil, “He of the
Bee Hives," who alone “had never sinned as his brothers had done" The Bacabs were regularly invoked during the Yucatec New Year
(Landa, in Tozzer 1941:142). The Yucatec Maya referred to the evil ceremonies and appear in Landa’s records as directly involved with the
Evening Star asxtik ek. or “bee star.” and said that their dead ancestors ritual cargo-exchanges featured at those ceremonies (Tozzer 1941:137—
periodically descended to earth in the form of insects; for the Quiche 141). 'This sixteenth-century practice of enacting ritual changes of office
Maya these insects were bees (Thompson 1960:85). Since the Quiche are at the end of the solar year survives today in many areas of Mesoamerica,
visited by these ancestors on the day alimak, which is said to mean “sin­ among them Zinacantan, where the ceremonies are still called k'in, or
ner,” it follows that the bees themselves, like llamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl, “sun,” “day,” or “time” (Vogt 1976:141). Such exchanges of social and
Lahun-Chan, the drunken Mamlab, and the other Bacabs, were “sin­ ritual responsibility today, as in Landa’s Yucatan, involve an equation of
ners" (Thompson 1960: 84). Hobnil’s exceptional virtue here is paralleled those duties with the time period for which they are contracted, usually
by that of his Quiche Mam counterpart, who reigns as the “supreme a single solar year. Among the modern Jacalteca, for example, the repre­
judge" and not only diagnoses problems and foretells the future, but sentatives of the deified mountain ancestors called Mam, or “Grand­
metes out rewards and punishments as well (Girard 1966:283-284). father,” are also what are known as "yearbearers,” a term that refers to
While Tlaloc is never identified as a bee in Aztec texts or imagery, his the four indigenous day signs that take turns giving their name to, and
idol was set tin during the Atamalqualiztli festival TieTcTeverveight years, patronizing, the solar year. In sixteenth-century Yucatan, as in pre-His-
at which men danced in the guises of various birds and insects, including panic Central Mexico, these yearbearing day signs further partitioned the
"honeybees” (Sahagun 1980-19/1:11, 163). On a tripod from the Tiqui- 52-year cycle into quarters, the first naming the quarter assigned to the
sate region of Guatemala, known for the Teotihuacan elements in its east, the last naming the quarter to the south. In Yucatan the yearbearers
distinctive art style. Tlaloc B appears with a torso that may be a bee’s were Kan, Muluc, lx, and Cauac, which at contact were the first days of
(Hellmuth 1975:pl. 40). This torso comprises three lobes with borders the Yucatec years. These corresponded respectively to the Aztec year­
that together resemble the “tail” or “skirt" of the Tulum stucco “diving bearers Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, and Tochtli, which Caso (1967:93-98, 128)
gods," which Roys (1933:63) identifies as the Ah Muzencabs (Klein believes were the last days of the Aztec years.21 Acatl, which after the
1976«: fig. 60). Two somewhat more rectangular, but also bordered, lobes dreadful famine of 1454 had replaced Tochtli as the first yearbearer of
form the torso of the Isla de Sacrificios Tlaloc (fig. 9«). The paired lobes the Aztec “century," was therefore assigned, like Kan, to the east—
of the Isla de Sacrificios figure, moreover, project to either side of the neck Tochtli to the south. The five evil nameless days at the end of the year
of the enigmatic profile Tlaloque who, together with frontal busts of and “century” logically corresponded to the central world direction.
Tlaloc A, swim in the borders of the so-called Tlalocan murals at Tepan- As 'Thompson (1934:226) observes, there are no Aztec documents that
tilla, ’Teotihuacan (fig. 9/?). These creatures are unique in that their torsos name specific deities as yearbearers. In Landa's Yucatan, however, the
consist of elongated and legless “larval” forms. Pasztory (1976:129-130) Bacab Hobnil was directly involved with the inauguration, or “seating,”
compares the figures with Agrinier’s "Figure F” on Bone 3 from Chiapa of each new 52-year cycle, which there began with a year named “ I Kan."
de Corzo and concludes that they represent hybrids of the serpent and A clay idol of the Bacab, which was named Kan u Uaueyab, was set up
crocodile. The Chiapa de Corzo figures, however, have two flared wing- at the southern end of the village. Although Landa (’Tozzer 1941:136-137)
or antenna-like elements strikingly similar to those of the diving “bee states explicitly that Kan years were assigned to the south, they were in
gods" at Tulum. Tlaloc’s goggles and distinctive mouth and teeth cer­ "One reason for siding with Caso here is the fact Unit the filth cosmic sun, Nani Ollin,
tainly appear on certain winged and antennaed insects depicted on Teoti- was named by the Aztecs for the day on which it was expected to end.
 Who Was Tlaloc? 181
180 Cecelia F. Klein

reality, as Thompson (1934:213) notes, located to the east. Thompson before the year sign One Rabbit had begun. . . . Thus it was said, that
explains this seeming discrepancy by recalling Landa’s statement that the their fathers and grandfathers had succumbed to One Rabbit; hence they
Kan years were the "omen” of the Bacab Hobnil, thus suggesting that took on great sins.” Hobnil apparently did not share Tlaloc's bad repu­
Hobnil both preceded and influenced them in the calendar. I his may have tation.
derived from the Yucatec practice of “seating" new 52-year cycles during Although Landa definitely associates each ol the Maya Bacabs with
the last five days, or Uayeb, of the preceding cycle, a practice that at least one of the four yearbearing days, he points out that the many ceremonies
in theory appears to have been shared by the Aztecs (Klein 1976</:41).22 held in their honor took place during the Uayeb (lozzer 1941:139). At
In any event, the Bacab whose bee attributes appear at least once fused (he end of the Kan New Year’s rites, the clay idol of Hobnil was moved
with 'Tlaloc's was apparently, like him, assigned to the south, where he from the south to the east of the village during the live nameless days
(Tozzer 1941:142). Here it was thrown down and left until needed. The
was clearly associated with the end of the 52-year cycle and the ritual
inauguration and destiny of its successor. Landa implies that he was similarity of this act to that reported by both Cogolludo and Pio Perez,
who tell of an idol called Mam, or “Grandfather,” that was feasted during
responsible for the incoming year in particular.
the Uayeb and then unceremoniously thrown away or hidden, has been
■—t hat Tlaloc was the Mexican counterpart of the Maya bee Bacab Hob­
noted many times (e.g., Tozzer 1941). Although Thompson (19706:482)
nil is indicated by the Aztec reliefs mentioned previously that depict the
rejects any equation of this Mam idol, whom he sees as a symbol of the
facial features of Tlaloc on the body of llamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl, with
Uayeb alone, and the “dying year,” he is not supported in this by most
■ajarge kan cross inscribed within a chalchihuitl on the torso. The kan
scholars (e.g., Joralemon 1975; Kelley 1976:72). Kelley (1976) identifies
cross, in addition to its affiliation with the southern direction, signified
him with God N, whom Thompson (19706:477) docs associate with the
"completion” in Classic Maya script, and is the central feature of the
Bacabs. Kelley further relates the four upright figures dressed as opos­
xiuhuitzolli; or “turquoise headband,” that served as a Zapotec year
sums, who carry idols strapped to their backs in Codex Dresden 25-28,
sign. That it was not just any year, however, but rather the last year of
to the four Mams who are today the yearbearers in Maya villages. These
the 52-year cycle that is signified by the image is indicated by the appear­
figures appear here in the context of the New Year ceremonies, where they
ance on two of these figures of the date-glyph “1 Tochtli” (fig. 5). “One
appear to come together during the Uayeb. 'The precise relation of the
Tochtli” was not only the legendary date of the creation of the earth
ruler of the Uayeb to the patrons of the preceding four quarters of the
according to the Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas (Phillips
1883:234), but, as Sahagun (1950- 1971:VI1, 21) makes clear, “the year “century” is nowhere clarified, but it is possible that originally there were
five deities involved—four assigned to the four quarters and the world
sign and counter of the south” as well. This meant that it both gave its
directions of east, north, west, and south, and one who governed only
name to and governed the southern quarter of the cycle, preparing the
the five nameless days and the center. In time the fifth may have fused
way for “the sign of the east; that is, the year sign of the sun,” Acatl
(Sahagun 1950-1971 :V1I, 21). If, as I am assuming, Caso is right ii\ with the fourth, or southern, Bacab yearbearer, who thereafter ruled both
placing the yearbearers at the ends, rather than the beginnings, of theirl ■the final quarter and the five nameless days of the cycle.23
/ Tlaloc has, to my knowledge, no affiliation with the opossum beyond
respective cycles, then “1 Tochtli” was the last day of the “century.” As/
Pasztory’s (1976:137) tentative identification of the animal headdress
such, it both gave its name to the final year and final, southern, quarter
worn by a Tlaloc in the Tepantitla murals as a representation of that
of that cycle, and “prepared" the way for, and thus “influenced,” the
future. At the time of contact “1 Tochtli's” “omen” was clearly negative,
animal, and her observation that a Tlaloc glyph was incised on a Post-
’ classic plumbate vessel shaped as an opossum. The Motul Dictionary,
no doubt as a result of the 1454 famine. Sahagun (1950-1971:VII. 23-24)
attributes the misery and enslavement of those who survived that famine however, defines hacah as “actor” or “buffoon, and the Chilam Balam
to the fact that they had “prepared nothing . . . and were disposed to evil of Tizimim refers to the Bacab as a “comedian opossum" ( Thompson
19706:471). This association of the Bacabs with clowns and small furry
" Thompson (1934:215) cites Roys to the effect that the word hobnil specifically referred animals recalls the Maya clowning individuals surveyed by Redfield (1936)
to something hollow and that it was applied to the hollow logs used as hives in Yucatan. who today serve as transvestite masters of ceremony at their towns' most
While he gives no explanation for it, Soustelle (1961:109) describes the Aztec Nemoiitcmi.
over whose ->unterpar( Hobnil clearly periodically presided, as "the 'hollow' days." Maya
beehives. ding Io the codices, had doors shaped like a Maltese cross, a motif that,
as we shall .. was associated with Nemontcmi in Mexico.
182 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 183
important annual festivals, and who are either addressed as, or carry in tumplines passed around the wearer’s head like a fillet. The year sign in
their hands, a coati. Redfield, citing Parsons, compares these youths to this case would have alluded to the responsibility for, or burden of, a given
the clowns who play a prominent role in the winter solstice ceremonies time period.25 Just which year within the 52-year cycle was involved, or
ol (he southwestern United States Indians, and who similarly carry small whether there was even consistency, is still undetermined, but there seems
live or stuffed,furry animals, among them the opossum. Parsons points to be general agreement that the sign marked an important moment in
out the resemblance of the Pueblo Koshare clowns, who paint large black time at which responsibilities were shifted and a new period entered into
rings around their eyes and who have a special relation to children, to (e.g., J. Furst 1978:67). In the Aztec calendar at contact no moment was
the Aztec Tlaloc with his large eye rings and preference for sacrificial more important in this regard than the moment at which the old “cen­
offerings of small children. Like that of Lahun-Chan, the pulque gods, tury” witnessed the seating of the new, a moment presided over, I sug­
and the I laloque, the behavior of these clowns is invariably asocial; their gest, by Tlaloc.21’
reversal of norms reflects the reversal of the sun’s travels at the solstice -—Tlaloc’s relation to the Night Sun, who at Zinacantan, as elsewhere,
and signals the start of the new year. It is noteworthy that the “coati” is now identified with the Crucified Christ, is not at all at odds with his
clowns in both areas are involved with the ceremonial cutting and erection apparent connection with the Bacabs, the Mams, the cargueros or the
of a large tree because, as we have seen, a large tree was erected during yearbearers. Thompson himself (19706:473) notes that the Kekchi Maya
Etzalcualiztli in honor of the “rain” god Tlaloc.24 This tree was only one TTCoban, who have transferred the Uayeb to Easter, bury an idol called
of many set up for this festival; Duran (1971:160, 162) describes the result Mam in place of Jesus at that time. Barrera Vasquez and Rendon (1948:
as an “(artificial) forest” and says that it “indicated that the idol (of 100) claim that the Bacabs eventually became identified with Christ and
Tlaloc) was the god of the woods, forests, and waters.” The Maya old report that a Bacab (impersonator?) was ritually killed after being tied
gods, the Mam, who ruled over the Uayeb, are today known as Yumil to a pole. Clearly the Mams and the Bacabs were sufficiently affiliated
Kaxob, or “Lords of the Forest.” Further evidence that Tlaloc was the with the Night Sun that they, like it, could be equated with the concept
Mexican counterpart of the Mam yearbearers of the Maya comes from of (he dead Christ.
modern Momostenango, where the alcalde “Mam" yearbearer becomes Why this was so has been a mystery, but it is worth noting that the
“the great God of the Storms” at his New Year inauguration (Girard Aztec system of Tochtli-Acatl-Tecpatl-Calli yearbearers was preceded by
1966:287). This individual, moreover, on behalf of the “Lord of the an Ehecatl-Mazatl-Malinalli-Ollin set of yearbearers that may have asso­
Year," consults the calendar to determine the “omens” and appropriate ciated the fear that the world would end at the end of a 52-year cycle with
punishments for Quiche “sinners” (Girard 1966:284). an Ollin yearbearer. If Tlaloc was at that time patron of the end of the ,
Tlaloc's critical position in the Mexican calendar as patron of thp last
day of the final year and quarter of the 52-year cycle, and thus host and “Tlaloc’s affiliation with the tumpline is reflected in a ritual enacted by commoners
during Etzalcualiztli in which homage was paid to domestic utensils, among them carrying
augur of the incoming “century,” helps to specify the significance of the cords and tumplines (Duran 1971:430-431). Today in Michoacan, a Tarascan masquerader
“year symbol" so frequently encountered in the hat of the pre-Aztec appears during the New Year cargo-exchange ceremonies carrying goods for the steward
Tlaloc A lind, in inverted form, on the loincloth of the Aztec Tlaloc B of the Virgin on a chair slung over his back and suspended from a tumpline, in a manner
(figs. lb. 5). While the precise meaning of this curious element, which reminiscent of the Codex Dresden opossum yearbearers. This masquerader, who is referred
typically takes the form of an interlaced triangle and oval, is unknown, to as the "Blackman," has numerous counterparts throughout Michoacan who, in more
ways than one, recall the pre-Hispanic Mam-Bacabs and Tlaloc. In addition to carrying
it has been assumed to allude to a solar cycle. The Zapotec rain god whips, for example (as did Tlaloc), they are either children or are charged with protecting
Cocijo wore a kan cross headdress that apparently served the same func­ children. Many of them wear beards and all are regarded as very old; as their expensive
tion, and the Maya God N, who has been identified with the bee, the costumes indicate, they are “rich" as well. In at least one village they are deliberately
Bacabs, and the god Mam, often wears ill his headdress the tun sign that "funny" (Janet Esser, personal communication).
functioned as a Maya glyph for the solar year. Nicholson (1966) argues “There is reason to think, however, that New Fire was at least originally drilled more often
than every 52 years, and that it specifically was used to signal the start of a new ruler’s reign
that the year sign represents the tumpline that was used by porters and (see Klein 1976a: 136-139). Pasztory (1975) suggests that Late Classic Maya and Toltec
the divine bearers of time to secure their loads during transport; these rulers adopted the year sign as a symbol of their lineage ties with the rulers of vanquished
Teotihuacan. Sahagun (1950-197J:XI, 15) says that the Aztec ruler is one who "takes
"Roys compares these Maya rites to the Aztec rite held during xocoil liueizi. when a responsibilities, assumes burdens," a concept that would have been aptly expressed by a
pole was elected, and to which lie tenuously links the Coati,
 184 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc?
cycle, his early association with the date-glyph “4 Oilin’’ would be at least priests were the time-keepers who announced the passing of the hoiqtr
' in part explained. The Ehecatl-Mazatl-Malinalli-Ollin set ot yearbearers bV blowingTconch.maloc appears frequently with the conch, as does
remained in use until the Conquest, in fact, in just that region of Mexico Maya old god, God N, who apparently personified the Uayeb at the end
—that is, Guerrero—that produced the Classic period relief of Tlaloc B oTthe year. Since the great fear on the part of the Aztecs at the end of
with the date “4 Ollin” on his torso.2’ The Maya themselves at one time a 52-year cycle was that the dead Night Sun would fail to progress through
operated with a comparable set of yearbearers, their counterpart for Ollin the underworld and be “reborn” in the east, the priest or cargo-holder
having been cabait, “earth,” “earthquake,” of which the root cab could who regularly reported the nocturnal advance of that being must have
mean both “earth” and “bee” (Kelley 1976:109). It was immediately pre­ been of utmost importance. Linda Scheie (1976) thinks that the eighth­
ceded by the day cib, “wax,” whose Quiche counterpart is ahmak. or century Mayan ruler Pacal was personally officially responsible for the
“sinner”; it is on Ahmak, as we have seen, that the Quiche beg the insect- winter solstice sun at Palenque.2’ Today, in many northern Rio Grande
housed souls of their ancestors to visit them (Schultze-Jena, cited by pueblos, it is the town chief or cacique who is responsible for “watching”
Thompson 1960:84). In the Yucatan this practice was supervised, either for both summer solstice sunrise and winter solstice sunset (Ellis 1975:
during or just prior to the Uayeb, by the bee Bacab of the south, Hobnil, 73-74); in some pueblos the sun-watcher is a Koshare member whose eyes
and Thompson (1960:86) calls Cib “the day of the Bacabs.” The Aztec are encircled with painted black rings. I have presented evidence else­
counterpart of Cib was cozcacuauhtli, “vulture,” which was ruled by the where (1976a: 206-217) that Tlaloc’s own eye rings were actually mirrors,
skybearer Itzpapalotl, the “Obsidian Butterfly” (a moth?) who was an or symbols of mirrors, that implied extraordinary powers of vision / In A
aspect of Ilamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl. Itzpapalotl was also a member of Mesoamerica, as throughout South America, sun- or time-watchers are I
the tzitzimime, a group of stars and planets who themselves embodied the typically seers or priests. Tlaloc almost certainly evolved out of the very
souls of illustrious ancestors expected to descend to earth and destroy old and widespread concept of a clairvoyant primordial shaman who
the living at the end of the world on a day “4 Ollin” (Thompson 1934: ^controls the elements and certain diseases, and he definitely became.
217-218? 228-236). The Aztec week "1 Cozcacuauhtli,” it should be *ls we are about to see, intimately affiliated with the Aztec priesthood,2I>
recalled, was jointly ruled by the Evening Star deity Xolotl and either the / in any event, no one among the Aztecs could have been more appropriate
Tlaloc-headed Tlalchitonatiuh, “Sun Near the Earth,” or the date “4 I for the task of watching for, and announcing, the end of the “century”
Ollin.” It seems likely, therefore, that Tlaloc’s Postclassic relation to the, \ than the earthly representatives of the sun’s father, Tlaloc.
old earth goddess, the Night Sun, and the end of the 52-year cycle derives The relation of Tlaloc’s parental role to those priests who tended the
’Trom an earlier role as the last of the Ehecatl-Mazatl-Malinalli-Ollin set . conclusion of the Aztec 52-year cycle is intimated by the reliefs that
bl yearbearers. decorate the miniature (4-foot-high) “Pyramid of the Sacred War" (Teo-
calli de la Guerra Saerada) found in the foundations of Montezuma Il’s
royal palace. This famous^stone structure, whose sanctuary bears an
Tlaloc and the Fire Priests
linage of the crucial date “4 Ollin" enframed by a solar disk, carries on
Tlaloc’s affiliation with the clialchihuitl and the kan cross, both of its balustrades the date-glyphs “2 Acatl” and “1 Tochtli.” As the names
which were tied to concepts of counting and measuring (see above), indi­ of the first and last years respectively of the Aztec 52-year "century,”
cates that the “rain" god's role was, among other things, that QfrecorcL_ the dates, as Caso (1927:12) notes, refer to the xiuhmolpilli, or ceremony
I* 's instructive in this regard that, during the end-of-the-vear of the "Binding of the Years,” that witnessed the actual binding and
'cargo-exchange ceremonies held at Zinacantan, the incoming Alferez is ’’Scheie assumes, however, that Pacal was concerned with winter solstice sunset, and
referred to in prayer as “your (Christ’s) servant, your rooster” (Vogt that the sun was believed to descend into the underworld at that time. 'I his is at variance
1976:132). Vogt explains the equation here of rooster and servant by with the schema that I am outlining here (see also note 2).
”Tlaloc’s shamanic origins are obscure, but in Aztec times he was still thought to cause
pointing out that the rooster “serves as time-keeper during the night, and cure certain, often respiratory, diseases. Since rain and thunder beings are viewed as
certain hours of which are called ‘the first rooster crow,’ ‘the second curers, or as assistants to curers, in many Latin American areas today, (he concept must be
rooster crow,’and so on . . . and reminds us that in prc-Hispanic titqes very old. Among the Aztec descendants now living in San Francisco Tecospa, Madsen
(1955) found a strong belief in dwarfish rain deities living in mountain caves who both
cause and aid the shaman in curing respiratory diseases. These beings take ord**— from a
’’This is 'lie area that has produced the earliest known image of Tlaloc (Grove
big chief namedyecacoatl, “water snake.”
1970:fig. 27,
186 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 187
ritual cremation of a bundle of 52 reeds symbolizing (lie 52 “dead" years owner of the tecpatl, or flint knife, however, his place in cosmic space
of the concluding cycle. In Codex Borbonicus this ceremony takes place was to the north. The two priests who sit next to the date-glyph “2 Acatl"
during “2 Acatl" in, according to Caso, the eighteenth and final month symbolic of the beginning of a 52-year cycle therefore appropriately
Tititl, which was patronized by Huitzilopochtli's mother llamatecuhtli- represent deities of the world directions of east and north, the directions
Cihuacoatl. InsBorbonieus 36 the male high priest of the old earth god­ of the first two quarters and yearbearers of the “century,” Acatl and
dess's cult—the official whose title was, in fact, “Cihuacoatl”—presides Tecpatl.
over the year bundle while dressed in the costume and lace decoration Caso (1927:23-27) identifies (he figure to (he right on the opposite side
of llamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl (Acosta Saignes 1946:179). The rite occurs of the pyramid with the Evening Star of the west, to whom he applies the
here two months after the all-important New Fire ceremony that signaled name Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. Since Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli is commonly
the actual start of the new 52-year cycle. specified elsewhere as the Morning Star, however, Xolotl is a preferable
On each side of the Sacred War pyramid appear two seated male figures appellation. Xolotl has no connection, to my knowledge, with the Calli
whom Richard Townsend (1979:61) identifies as priests dressed in the years of the third quarter of the “century,” but his placement in the west
guises of the gods whom (hey impersonated and served in the course is secure. Xolotl, as we have seen, was intimately associated with the
(he New Fire Ceremony."’ Caso (1927:27) identifies the figure to the left disappearance of the sun into the underworld at the western horizon,
of the side distinguished by the date-glyph “2 Acatl” as Xiuhtecuhtli, and with the critical day signs Cozcacuauhtli and Olin.
the “Lord of Fire,” who presided over the drilling of New Fire and whose The figure seated to the left of Xolotl, however, is of the greatest interest
device was the xinhcoatl, or “Fire Serpent" (Townsend 1979:fig. 22f) because it is this figure that clarifies the relation of Tlaloc to the con­
Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron of the month lzcalli which, according to clusion of the Aztec 52-year cycle (fig. 106). Caso (1927:16-23) identifies
Caso, began the new year and century, and served as the first of both the it as Tlaloc on the basis of its goggled eyes and curled moustache. As
Lords of the Night and the Lords of the Day. In conformity with his Caso himself notes, however, the being lacks the fangs of the “rain” god,
obvious association with the beginnings of temporal cycles, Xiuhtecuhtli possessing instead a fleshless lower jawbone with exposed human teeth
was always placed in the east, the same quarter that housed the tribal that can be seen as well on the other three priests. For Caso, this skeletal
solar deity Huitzilopochtli. '• jaw was the hallmark of the death god Mictlantecuhtli whose peculiar
Although Caso (1927:28-30) identifies Xiuhtecuhtli’s companion here headdress element, the cuexcochtechimalli, which consists of a paper cone
as Xoehipilli, who by his own admission is out of context on this stone, set on a pleated rosette, and which is usually paired with a spiral-pleated
the figure's facial decoration is that of Tezcatlipoca.’2 Tezcatlipoca was rosette, likewise appears on this figure (fig. IOct). The fleshless jaw, how­
himself a god of fire, having been credited with drilling the first New Fire ever, also appears on the old earth goddess llamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl who
during a year “2 Acatl"; he is sometimes referred as “2 Acatl." As the governed the month Tititl in which the Binding of the Years ceremony
apparently took place (figs. 2c, 3a, h). Its appearance here therefore
‘"Caso (1927:16-17). tallowing Palacios, identifies these figures as gods. 'Townsend's probably served to identify the four priests with the “death" of the 52-year
interpretation is much more in line with what we now know about the Aztec interest in
cycle and its attendant rituals. Since Tlaloc, I am arguing, was the year-
depicting historical persons and signs of their status, however, and is supported try his
observation that their shirts, copal bags, backpouches, and spiked maguey leaves are bearer of the final and southern quarter of that cycle, that of the Tochtli
"tire identifying garments of the priest hood" (Townsend 1979:61). years, the four priests on the sides of the Pyramid of the Sacred War
"Eor a full discussion of the functions ami directional associations of Xiuhtecuhtli, a\ re present a convocation of priests representing Illi four yearbearers at th e
well as the oilier deities discussed here, see Klein 1976m 162-165. Support for my contention end of the “century," New Fire, and the Binding of the Years ceremony. ~ f
(hat Huitzilopochtli himself was a god of (he east, and not the south, as commonly held;
I laloc’s role as patron of the end of the 52-year cycle anil master Of"
comes from Kohler 197*1,
"This figure is described by Caso (1927:28) as "the most difficult” Io identify, primarily ceremonies at its attendant rites is further reflected in a variety of visual
because its headdress (like that of Xiuhtecuhtli) is that of the vegetation deities. Caso was images. It is instructive, for example, that the Tlaloc priest on the Pyra­
so misled by this clement that be disregarded his own observation (1927:28-30) that (he mid of the Sacred War wears in his headdress a pleated banner from
being's face paint and hair are those of Tezcatlipoca and grasped instead at Seler’s fallacious which depend two paper strips that, as Caso (1927:20—21) observes,
deduction that a somewhat similar being in the Aubin Tonalamatl represents Macuil-
appear in the codices in the headdresses of the important dead whose
xochitl-Xochipilli. Actually. Ilie face paint of (he figure in the Aubin 'Tonalamatl that
Scler identifies as Xoehipili hears no resemblance to that of Xoehipilli, as depicted either wrapped bodies await cremation on the pyre (e.g., Codex Magliabecchiano
there or elsewhere, and appears on the same pages of the Aubin on the lace of ’Tezcatlipoca! 69, 72). 'That Tlaloc’s priest himself appears here in a role related to (he
 b

C ecelia F. K lein
Figure 10. a. Mictlantecuhtli, detail of Codex Borbonicus 10, Aztec.
(Drawing by the author after Caso 1958:57); b. Head of a Tlaloc priest,
detail of stone relief on side of Pyramid of the Sacred War, Aztec. Museo
Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico. (Drawing by the author after Caso
1927:fig. 17); c. Funerary year bundle, detail of Codex Borbonicus 36,
Aztec. (Drawing by the author after Caso 1967:130. fig. 2).

W ho W as T laloc ?

Figure 10. d. New Fire priest, detail of Codex Borbonicus 34. Aztec.
(Drawing by the author after Caso 1927:fig. 56): e. Head of a New Fire
Tlaloc priest, stone, Aztec. Museo Nacional de Antropologia. Mexico.
(Drawing by the author after personal photo of the original); f. Chachal-
meca priest, Sahagim's Codices Matritenses (Ms. Bib. Pal. Madrid), Aztec. —
(Drawing by the author after Seler 1960-1961:11. 456.)
190 Ceceija F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 191
Binding of the Years is indicated by the reappearance in Borbonicus 36 rituals to be addressed as, or carry, small furry animals. The same eye
of the cuexcochteehimalli and spiral rosette on a wrapped bundle of ornaments and pleated rosette (albeit here lacking the cone) appear,
reeds representative of the “dead” century shortly to be put to the torch moreover, on an Aztec stone head now in the Museo Nacional de Antro-
(fig. 10c). At Teotihuacan, Tlaloc B and several deities and individuals pologia (fig. lOe). The head has a thick upper lip that wraps around a
clearly related to Tlaloc actually appear in the imagery as anthropomor­ set of four huge, protruding upper teeth similar to Tlaloc’s, The same
phized year bundles." Maltese cross eye plates, rosette, and long teeth appear on the three-
I he connection hypothesized here between the Tlaloc priest of the quarter view relief figure discussed earlier that combines features of Tla­
Pyramid of (he Sacred War and the ritual binding of the years in the loc with the monstrous joints, Malinalli hair, fleshless jawbone, and other
month Tititl is substantiated by the appearance on the Borbonicus 36 attributes of Ilaniatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl (fig. 6). Here the upper lip even
bundle of a paper streamer decorated with a Maltese cross. Among the assumes the moustache-like form so characteristic of Tlaloc. The being
Maya the Maltese cross formed a glyph for the word “completion”; it wears on its head an inverted eagle foot that can be seen as well in the
appears in Central Mexico in the rim of Veytia’s Calendar Wheel No. 5 headdress of the Tlaloc priest on the Pyramid of the Sacred War (fig 106).
in that section assigned to nemontemi, the Aztec five nameless days at As Caso (1927:22) notes, this device is associated by Sahagun (1950-1971:
the end of the year (Kubler and Gibson 1951 :lig, 16).14 The cross re­ II, 88) with the salt goddess Huixtocihuatl. Huixtocihuatl, who also wore
appears, however, on page 34 of Borbonicus in an image depicting (he paper rosettes, was honored during the month of tecuilliuitontli at the
New Fire ceremony that there takes place in the month panquetzaliztli. Temple of Tlaloc and was, as noted earlier, the older sister of the Tlaloque
two months prior to Tititl. Here a temple that shelters a burning hearth (Sahagun 1950-1971:11, 86, 89).
decorated with exactly three chalchihuitls—the same number seen on Although Sahagun (1950-1971:11, 88) specifies only that the imper­
the decorated fillet of the “tain" god Tlaloc—is studded with Maltese sonator-victims of Huixtocihuatl, who were dressed as the goddess, wore
crosses. The cross appears as well around the eyes of the four black priests the eagle claw headdress, it is possible that her officiating priests wore it
carrying torches who wear cuexcochteehimalli like the year bundle of page too. During the month festival following that dedicated to Huixtocihuatl,
36 (fig. 10c/). These priests’ importance is indicated by the addition to huei tecuilhuitl, the priest who decapitated the impersonator of the maize
their headdress of the xiuhuitzolli, or “turquoise headband,” which goddess Xilonen wore the eagle claw device, together with a rosette, on
among the Aztecs was reserved for the very wealthiest and most powerful his back (Sahagun 1950-1971:11, 99). In Codex Borbonicus 29, usually
and “responsible” members of the nobility (Nicholson 1967:72). Among thought to depict part of the ochpaniztli month festival, but more apt,
the Zapotec its counterpart served, as we have seen, as the year symbol. I will argue shortly, to illustrate Hueitecuilhuitl, two trumpet blowers
While these four individuals bear little overt resemblance to Tlaloc, standing opposite the Xilonen impersonator wear the eagle claw head­
it is worth noting that they each carry small furry animals under their dress. Sahagun (1950-1971:11, 98) says that the men who blew shell trum­
arms. While these may Represent dogs sacrificed to accompany the dead pets prior to the sacrifice of Xilonen in Hueitecuilhuitl were priests. In
cycle to the underworld, they parallel the tendency elsewhere, mentioned the Primeros Meinoriales illustration of Hueitecuilhuitl (Jimenez Moreno
earlier, for the Bacabs and modern-day masters of ceremony at annual 1974:pl. 2, #7), a priest holding the flint knife reported held by Xilonen’s
"This can be demonstrated by comparing them to tlie well-known Early Postclassic, sacrificer (Sahagun 1950-1971:11, 99) wears a headdress with a cuexcoch-
possibly Classic, and Teotihuacan-inspired, depictions of year bundles on Mausoleum 111 techimalli and a spiral rosette. While this hat lacks the eagle claw ele­
at Chichen Itzn (Seler 1960-1961 :V, 367, fig. 43). The constrictions of these bundles at ment, it is very similar to that of the Pyramid of the Sacred War Tlaloc
top and bottom, formed by the ropes that land them, create a set of concentric diamonds priest and the three-quarter view “Tlalocoid” earth goddess (figs. 1 Oh. 6).
that reappear at Ihe base of Ihe torso of Tlaloc B on a painted vase from Teotihuacan
(Pasztory 1974/>:lig. 15), and at the base ol the so-called Jade l lalocs in the Tetitla murals
Hueitecuilhuitl is particularly interesting here because Sahagun (1950-
at the same site (Pasztory 1974/>:fig. 5). These personified year bundles emerge from 1971:11, 98-99) says of it that Xilonen’s impersonator, prior to her death,
dishlike objects that are shaped exactly like the brazier that supports the Aztec date-glyph ritually visited four sites that “were a part of, and carried together, the
"2 Acall” and the twisted cord that signified the Binding of the Years (Saenz 1967:figs. 4, 5). four year-bearers—Reed, Flint, House, and Rabbit. . . . Thus do the
It is possible that the peculiar, inhuman head of (he Teotihuacan “Tepantitla deity.” year-bearers go describing circles, whirling around [as a measure of
who is surrounded by Tlalocs. is also a segmented year bundle (Pasztory (974/>:fig. 11).
The figure's eyes are the small rhomboids that, as part of the Teotihuacan "Diamond Sign,"
time|.” Why the yearbearers would come together in this month, as
and in combination with the brazier, signify "sacred fire" (von Winning 1977:14). opposed to Tititl, is not clear, but where Izcalli was the first month of the
”( am indebted to Donald Hales for pointing this out to me. year, as Caso says it is.in Borbonicus, Hueitecuilhuitl marked the end of
192 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlai.oc? 193
the first half of the ritual year; that is, it was the ninth of the eighteen principal character. Even the small ithyphallic males on page 30, who are
months. If the Mexicans conceived of the second half of their year as the usually identified as 'Foci’s “Huastecs," wear the black striped face paint­
reverse of the first half, as the Maya almost certainly did (see Klein ings and carry the pine firebrands (here unlit) ascribed by Sahaguti
1976<i:256-258), the month that marked the halfway point may have been (1950-1971:11, 94-95) to the randy male youths who danced during
conceived as a “pivot.” Carrasco (1976:268-281).argues that the year Hueitecuilhuitl. Betty Ann Brown (personal communication) doubts that
began with the month atemoztli and ended in Panquetzaliztli, which he the Borbonicus month festival illustrations correlate either in number or
locates at the winter solstice, thus making Etzalcualiztli the last month sequence with the month festivals listed by the chroniclers, an opinion
of the first half of the year. If the year began with Izcalli, however, and that would explain the appearance of Hueitecuilhuitl in the space tradi­
Tititl at the same time corresponded to winter solstice, Hueitecuilhuitl tionally assigned to Ochpaniztli.
would have celebrated the pivotal summer solstice. This, I suspect, was
the original situation.55 It is worth noting, on the other hand, that Fray
Juan de Torquemada (1975:177) says that Tecuilhuitl was the last month
of the Mexican year. Were this so, Hueitecuilhuitl, which immediately
followed, would have been the first month, and thus most appropriate
for a convocation of yearbearers.
Moreover, pages 29 through 31 of Codex Borbonicus, which are tradi­
tionally interpreted as depicting the sacrifice of Teteoinnan-Toci during
Ochpaniztli, include a number of additional features that suit as well
or better the events of Hueitecuilhuitl. The most important of these is
the dress of the main priest-impersonator which, although it includes
the flayed skin of the sacrificed victim-impersonator (Xilonen’s imper­
sonator apparently was not flayed), is essentially that of Xilonen (fig. 11).
This is best seen by examining the costume of that goddess as depicted
in Codex Magliabecchiano, page 24, the page devoted to Hueitecuilhuitl,
which combines the red skirt with a border, the double-plumed head­
dress, the red and yellow pair of maize cobs, the staff with red and white
paper streamers, and the large blue “butterfly” nose ornament all seen
on the various Borbonicus figures. The headdress of the central figure on
page 30, with its square substructure and its four huge paper rosettes
and two dangling tassels, matches Sahagun’s (1950-1971:11, 97) descrip­
tion of the Xilonen-impersonator’s paper cap as having “four corners”
from which “hung quetzal feathers in the form of maize tassels.” The
headdress appears often on both codical and carved images of fertility
goddesses carrying twin maize cobs, who are never identified as loci
(e.g., Nicholson 1963:figs. 14, 15). Nicholson (1963:25) clearly realizes
that this figure does not refer to 'Foci, for he labels it an “impersonator
of a fertility goddess (probably Chicomecoatl) during Ochpaniztli cere­ Figure 11. Hueitecuilhuitl (?) ceremony, with Tlaloc priestesses,
mony.” That the figure is decidedly not Toci is confirmed by the de­ Codex Borbonicus 30, Aztec. (Photograph by Betty Ann Brown after
emphasized appearance in the lower right corner of page 30 of Toci 1899 facsimile.)
herself, who here as elsewhere shares virtually none of the features of the
"My reasons for thinking that the year ended in Tititl at Tenochtittan, and that lititl
originally c ended to winter solstice, are simply too numerous and complex Io sum­
marize here. the best glimpse of these, see Klein 1975.
 194 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc? 195
Recognition ol pages 29 through 31 of Borbonicus as representing the patron; Sahagun (1950-1971: I, 75) calls them “priests of Tlaloc.” While
rites of Hueitecuillmitl is essential, because the priest-impersonator ol' their tasks were relatively menial, the Tlamacazque “were organized to
Xilonen is attended, on page 30, by five females who are almost certainly take turns beating the hours with the drum during the night” (Carrasco
priestesses, Sahagun (1950-1971:11, 98) says that special priestesses 1976:282, my translation). Some of these priests were specifically desig­
danced in circles at this time, “enclosing Xilonen.’’ Four of these figures nated as “watchers” who announced the hours and quarters at strategic
stand atop the platform that supports the main figure, two to each side temples and crossroads so that other priests would awaken' to perform
and facing (he center. As their headdresses each include a section decor­ the sacrifices. These same priests kept the ritual fires burning (Acosta
ated with two chalchihuitls and a maskette of Tlaloc, it can be assumed Saignes 1946:168).
that they were in some way associated with the “god of rain," In light of Above the Tlamacazque in age and rank, however, were the tlenama­
Sahagun's statement that the Xilonen-impersonator traced the route of caque, who had worked their way up over time. Tezozonioc (cited in
the four yearbearers, however, it is possible that these priestesses repre­ Acosta Saignes 1946:153) says “they were those of the night, with incen-
sent the yearbearers as well. I he dress of each of the four on the platform sarios and with fire. ..." Acosta Saignes thinks that it was specifically
is a different color: from left to right they are blue, white, yellow, and New Fire that Tezozomoc refers to, since Serna links the I lenamacaque
red—colors often assigned in Mexico to the four world directions ( Thomp­ directly to the ritual act of lighting and dispensing New Fire at 'Teoti­
son 1934:220-221). I he tilth and largest of the group stands apart huacan. The Tlenamacaque were also apparently painted black, to judge
wearing a costume that, like the deity-impersonator's, combines all of by the priests who gather to dispense New Fire in Codex Borbonicus 34,
these colors. This woman, moreover, wears a hat with three chalchihuitls and on occasion apparently wore Maltese cross ornaments over their eyes.
—the same number as Tlaloc's—and carries the serpent staff usually Acosta Saignes (1946) thinks (hat the Tlenamacaque were under the
carried by him. In her other hand she carries a panel decorated, like the supervision of the Quetzalcoatl Totec llamacazqui, not the head Ilaloc
skirt of llamateeuhtli-Cihuacoatl, with leather braids and shells. Since priest, but their obvious iconographic relation to Tlaloc suggests other­
this priestess, who is clearly the highest ranking of the five, further wears wise.” It was, moreover, presumably a Tlenamacaque fire priest who
in her headdress—as does the Xilonen-impersonator himself—a pro- served as epcoaquacuiltzin. a sort of “master of religious ceremonies’
‘nouticed version of the year sign, it is conceivable that we are seeing here according to Remi Simeon (1977:149). Writes Sahagun (1950-1971:11,
priestly representatives of the Aztec yearbearers. These, it must be empha­ 194) of this official: “Behold what were his duties: when feasts should be
sized. are here definitely associated with Tlaloc,’6 celebrated, perchance when a new fifty-two year cycle should start—verily,
Sahagun (1950-1971:11, 98) specifically identifies (he priest who decap­ all feasts—all of them he announced; or when fire was laid. In truth, all
itated Xilonen's impersonator as “the fire priest." The hierarchic Aztec that should be done, all things this man thus commanded and furthered."
priesthood was allegedly governed by two extremely powerful and wealthy The relation of the Epcoaquacuiltzin to Tlaloc and, by implication,
(men, the quetzalcoatl totec tlamacazqui and the tlaloc totec tlamacazqui. the head Tlaloc priest is reflected in the name epcoatl given to certain
It is generally agreed that the former officiated the main cult and temple children who, dressed as Tlaloque, were sacrificed to the “rain” gods.
of the tribal founder and solar deity Huitzilopochtli, and the latter, the Epcoua (Epcoatl), “Serpent of Mother-of-Pearl,” was a name of Tlaloc
i cult and temple of Tlaloc (Acosta Saignes 1946:158, 161). Serving under (Broda 1971:274).
t|he Tlaloc Totec Tlamacazqui were several grades of priests, the lowest There was, however, an even more elite class of priests who were quite
ranking and youngest of whom were the tlamacazque. Sahagun (1950- elderly and always of the nobility. Of these, there was a special group
1971:IV, 45) compares them to the Tlaloque and the Tlaloque in turn known as the chachalmeca. There were at least four, probably five or
sometimes were referred to as Tlamacazque (Acosta Saignes 1946:152). even six, of these priests, all of whom participated in key human sacri­
Acosta Saignes agrees with Paso y Troncoso that these young priests, fices. Four members reputedly held the limbs of the victim while the fifth
whose skin was blackened like Tlaloc’s, had the “rain” god as their (or sixth?) actually dealt the lethal blow. 'The Chachalmeca, as their name
indicates, probably came from the Chalma calpulli, or ward, which was
'"If 1 am light about Hueitecuillmitl having marked the midpoint of the solar year, then
it is worth noting (hat its festivities were characterized by illicit’sexual activity, excessive ,7A more indirect line of evidence that Tlaloc was associated with the drilling of New
ritual drinking, and a final judgment and punishment of (hose “sinners’’ who happened Fire conies from Durin (1971:161): the giant tree called " Iota" (Father) that was felled
to get caught. Unfortunately,.we are not told who the "judges’’ were (Sahagun 1950- and reerected in honor of Tlaloc during Etzalcualiztli was specifically taken from the so-
1971:11,91-100), called Hill of the Star (Huixachtepetl) on whose summit New Fire was drilled.
 197
196 Cecelia F. Klein Who Was Tlaloc?
therefore sat in judfimwt-on those who had “sinned. At this time tl e
one of the oldest and most prestigious in the capital, and whose patron souls of the deadTrturnedto earth as insects and the future was divined
deity was llamatecuhtli-Cihuacoatl (Acosta Saigties 1946:200; Sahagun
with his necklace. Everything at that point depended on the successful
1950-1971:11, 211), The goddess Chalmecacihuatl, a presumably female
rebirth or the old couple’s offspring-the sun and, most likely, Venus
aspect of the Chachalmecas, shares many attributes with the patroness
who assumed their father’s jaguar traits while in the underworld. I Ik
of Tititl (see, for example, Seler 1960-1961:11, 5, illus.; Ill, 82).’" 1 hat
father was held personally responsible for their safe reappearance, and
the Chachalmeca were also associated with Tlaloc, however, is indicated
by a male being labeled “Chachalmeca" whom Sahagun illustrates as an thus he presided over their terrestrial travels and return to the living.
In time, consequently, Tlaloc acquired a calendr^Lrole^1^ when his
Aztec "deity" (fig. 10/). This figure, who is almost certainly depicted in
transpired is obscured by centuries, but it appears to have happened a
the dress of the priests of that name, has the large eye rings, pronounced
Teotihuacan. By this time Tlaloc officially presided, like the Maya god
upper lip, and long fangs of Tlaloc, He wears as well, not surprisingly,
Mam, over the end of certain temporal cycles, where he cou d watch for,
the cuexcochtechimalli and spiral rosettes worn by so many of the “Tlalo-
“seat ” and influence the incoming eras. Here he took up the burden
coid” beings, and by the priest-sacrificer of Huixtocihuatl in Sahagun’s
of the final quarter and five nameless days of those cycles which wete
Primeros Memoriales depiction of Tecuilhuitontli (Jimenez Moreno 1974:
presumably assigned to the south and center of the cosmos. At some pom
pl, 2, #7). Since the chief sacrificer in Tenochtitlan (as well as Texcoco)
he was promoted to the final quarter of the most important cycle-that
was the Cihuacoatl himself, it is even possible that that individual, second
of the 52 years that made up the “century”-which at that tmie may have
in command to the king, served as the chief of the Chachalmeca. ft is
ended at winter solstice on “4 Ollin.” At Teotihuacan this role was sym­
extremely likely, in any event, that the Tlaloc priest of the Pyramid of the
bolized by the year sign in the hat of Tlaloc A and by the nets «'’d jaguar^
Sacred War, like several of our other “Tlalocoid" figures, represents the associated with Tlaloc B. In time Tlaloc B may have come to be identified
especially wealthy and powerful, as well as elderly, priests—the I letia-
directly with the dead cycle and the year bundle cremated upon its demise.
macaque and Chachalmeca—dedicated to Tlaloc. I hese priests, it ap­ I his ritual cremation, like the preceding drilling of New Fire, was prob­
pears, worked at night to serve the interests of the “lochtli” yearbcarer ably officiated by priestly representatives ol the ram gods, who were
aspect of Tlaloc, which usually appears in the imagery as the Aztec ver­ members of the oldest, most powerful lineages of the community. One
sion of Tlaloc B, ___ - of these may have functioned as a “master of ceremonies, tending the
erection of a large tree symbolic of Tlaloc. At some point ritual trans­
Conclusion vestism and clowning, as well as small furry annuals and presenbed
So who was Tlaloc? The imagery indicates that, during the first stages drinking, became part of the festivities.
By the time of European contact, at the latest, Tlaloc had come to
of his existence at least, Tlaloc was the Lord of the Earth and Underworld.
represent the most ancient and most “legitimate” groups or lineages m
As such fie was the superior of the souls of the ancestors and was indeed Central Mexico and thus to personify the concept of antiquity itself. As
the most ancient and wealthy of them. His special province was rain and such he was elevated by the intrusive Aztecs to a place of eminence along­
water; from his mountain cave he loosed thunder and lightning while side their own deity, Huitzilopochtli, whom they were in the process of
storing up great quantities of food. Together with four of his dwarfish identifying as his son. A hierarchic priesthood now administered t e
insect assistants, who may have been his children, he supported the sur­
duties of the old earth and water god. dividing them up and assigning
face of the earth; shifts of the load they carry still cause earthquakes them to members of different ranks. Some took turns "watching the
today. He was intimately associated with the old earth goddess, who was skies for signs of the Night Sun’s progress through the underworld, win e
his spouseTand like her was regarded as ugly and very old. As the “great some tended the New Fires and orchestrated the rites. The most elderly
grandfather” or “father of them all,” however, he was also greatly revered and prestigious, the Chachalmeca, whose chief may have been the Cihua­
and respected and as such was permitted to “drink.” At the ends of coatl performed key sacrifices throughout the year. 1 he cihuacoatl lepte-
certain time periods, probably solar years and Venus-solar cycles, he sented the old Earth Lord’s spouse, the old Earth Mother Ilamatecuhth-
'"These traits include the bizoned face painting and the cuexcochtechimalli ornament "Among the Zufti Indians of New Mexico, an elderly man representing an.agedI super­
(Seler 1960-1961:11. 456, illus.). In Codex Vaticanus 3738 (Rios) 3. Chalmecacihuatl natural who is "deputy" to the sun tends the kiva hre durmg (he all-m.portant
appears, with three other, highly similar-looking, death-earth goddesses, paired with
winter solstice ceremony (Ellis and Hammack 1968:41).
Tzontcmc rd of the night and underworld.
 198 Who Was Tlaloc? 199
Cecelia F. Klein
jCihuacoatl, who mothered Tlaloc’s famous sons and thus ruled the last \ Barrera Vasquez, Alfredo, and Silvia Rendon
1948 El libro de los lihros de Chilam Ralam. Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica.
I month of the year. As Tlaloe and Ilamateeuhtli-Cihuaeoatl were the \
Beals. Ralph Leon
I parents of the tribal deity, and thus the joint “omen” of the future, I 1945 “Ethnology of the Western Mixe." University of California Publications in
\ their features often merge in Aztec art. Tlaloe B at the time may even 1 American Archaeology and Ethnology 4 2( 1): 1 -76.
liavtybeen bisexjial. ------ . Boiles, Charles Lafayette, Jr.
^x^'i’he Aztecs, however, were a polity in flux whose rapid territorial \ 1969 “Cognitive Process in Otomi Cult Music.” Ph.D. dissertation, Tulane University.
expansion and practice of “adopting” the rites and deities of those they 1 Bricker, Victoria R.
1966 "El hombre, la earga y el camino: antiguos eonceplos mayas sobre tiempo y
\conquered led to endless alterations of their calendrical system. Whey—J espacio y el sistema zinacanteco de cargos,” In Evon Z. Vogt, ed., Los Zina*
tTie'Central Mexicans shifted from the old Ehecatl-Mazatl-Malinalli-Ollin cantecos. Mexico: Institute Nacional Indigenista.
set of yearbearers to a new set, Tlaloe managed to retain his responsibility Broda de Casas. Johanna
for the infant sun. Exactly how this was effected is uncertain, but once 1971 "Las fiestas aztecas de los dioses de la lluvia: una reconstruccion segun las
fuentes del siglo XVI.” Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana 5:245-
“1 ’Tochtli” had been moved back one step because of the famine, Tlaloc’s
317.
“omen” clearly was feared as evil. Perhaps it is this dread of the year- Brundage, Burr Cartwright
bearer “1 Tochtli” that explains the curious silence on the part of the 1972 A Rain of Darts: The Mexica Aztecs. The Texas Pan American Series. Austin:
chroniclers’ informants regarding the god’s calendric and cosmic role. University of Texas Press.
Certainly Tlaloe does not play a central part in the Borbonicus illustra­ Burland. Cottie A.
1948 Art and Life in Ancient Mexico. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer.
tions of the New Fire and Year-Binding ceremonies, and many elements
1976 Peoples of the Sun. New York: Praegcr.
of former century-ending rites, like the Tlaloque yearbearers and the god Carrasco, Pedro
himself, by contact had been distributed among other month feasts. The 1961 "The Civil-Religious Hierarchy in Mesoamerican Communities: Pre-Spanish
old fear that the sun would fail to rise at the end of the “century” on a Background and Colonial Development." American Anthropologist 63:483-497.
day “4 Oilin’’ had been displaced as well. The Spanish friars, as a result^ 1976 "La sociedad mexicana antes de la Conquista.” In Historia General de Mexico.
vol. 1. Guanajuato: El Colegio de Mexico, Centro de Estudios Historicos,
sketched a costume for Tlaloe that was as devoid of calendric elements as
Pp. 165-288.
the “rain" god role they described; Tlaloe B, father of the Night Sun Caso, Alfonso
and, perhaps, the Evening Star, ^vas left out. The result is a marked 1927 £7 teocalli de la guerra sagrada. Monografias del Museo National de Arqueolo-
discrepancy between the colonial chronicles and many pre-Hispanic visual, gia, Historia y Etnografia. Mexico: Talleres Graficos de la Nation.
images of Tlaloe. z 1958 The Aztecs: People of the Sun. Translated by Lowell Dunham. Norman:
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reads in books, it is worth remembering that the images alone were Indians, vol. It). Edited by Robert Wautimpe. Austin: University of Texas
■designed and authorized by those who knew just who Tlaloe really was. Press. Pp. 333-348.
Caso, Alfonso, and Ignacio Bernal
1952 Urnas de Oaxaca. Mcmorias del Instituto National de Antropologia e Historia
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