Aztec mythology Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking groups living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. Accor ...

, Xiuhtecuhtli ("

Turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

Lord" or "Lord of Fire"), was the god of fire, day and heat. In historical sources he is called by many names, which reflect his varied aspects and dwellings in the three parts of the cosmos. He was the lord of volcanoes, the personification of life after death, warmth in cold (

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames ...

), light in darkness and food during famine. He was also named Cuezaltzin ("flame") and Ixcozauhqui , and is sometimes considered to be the same as Huehueteotl ("Old God"), although Xiuhtecuhtli is usually shown as a young deity.Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.476. His wife was Chalchiuhtlicue. Xiuhtecuhtli is sometimes considered to be a manifestation of Ometecuhtli, the Lord of Duality, and according to the

Florentine Codex The ''Florentine Codex'' is a 16th-century ethnographic research study in Mesoamerica by the Spanish Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Sahagún originally titled it: ''La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España'' (in English: ''Th ...

Xiuhtecuhtli was considered to be the father of the Gods, who dwelled in the turquoise enclosure in the center of earth.Matos Moctezuma 1988, p.94. Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl was one of the oldest and most revered of the indigenous pantheon.Luján 2005, p.140 The cult of the God of Fire, of the Year, and of Turquoise perhaps began as far back as the middle Preclassic period.Luján 2005, p.141 Turquoise was the symbolic equivalent of fire for Aztec priests.Roy 2005, p.211 A small fire was permanently kept alive at the sacred center of every Aztec home in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli. The

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...

word ''xihuitl'' means "year" as well as "turquoise" and "fire", and Xiuhtecuhtli was also the god of the year and of time.Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.190. Smith 1996, 2003, pp.246-7. Díaz & Rodgers 1993, p.xix.Bezanilla 2000, p.25 The Lord of the Year concept came from the Aztec belief that Xiuhtecuhtli was the

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

.Bingham & Roberts 2010, p.143 In the 260-day ritual

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a phy ...

, the deity was the patron of the day ''Atl'' ("Water") and with the

trecena A trecena is a 13-day period used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars. The 260-day calendar (the '' tonalpohualli'') was divided into 20 trecenas. Trecena is derived from the Spanish chroniclers and translates to "a group of thirteen" in the ...

1 Coatl ("1 Snake"). Xiuhtecuhtli was also one of the nine Lords of the Night and ruled the first hour of the night, named ''Cipactli'' ("Alligator"). Scholars have long emphasized that this fire deity also has aquatic qualities. Xiuhtecuhtli dwelt inside an enclosure of turquoise stones, fortifying himself with turquoise bird water. He is the god of fire in relation to the

cardinal directions The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at ...

, just as the brazier for lighting fire is the center of the house or temple. Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron god of the Aztec emperors, who were regarded as his living embodiment at their enthronement.Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.447. The deity was also one of the patron gods of the '' pochteca'' merchant class. Stone sculptures of Xiuhtecuhtli were ritually buried as offerings, and various statuettes have been recovered during excavations at the Great Temple of

Tenochtitlan , ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...

with which he was closely associated. Statuettes of the deity from the temple depict a seated male with his arms crossed. A sacred fire was always kept burning in the temples of Xiuhtecuhtli. In gratitude for the gift of fire, the first mouthful of food from each meal was flung into the hearth. Xiuhtecuhtli is depicted in the Codex Borgia.

Attributes

Xiuhtecuhtli's face is painted with black and red pigment. Xiuhtecuhtli was usually depicted adorned with turquoise mosaic, wearing the turquoise ''xiuhuitzolli'' crown of rulership on his head and a turquoise butterfly pectoral on his chest, and he often wears a descending turquoise ''xiuhtototl'' bird ('' Cotinga amabilis'') on his forehead and the Xiuhcoatl fire serpent on his back.Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.189. He owns fire serpent earplugs. On his head he has a paper crown painted with different colors and motifs. On top of the crown there are sprays of green feathers, like flames from a fire. He has feather tufts to each side, like pendants, toward his ears. On his back he has plumage resembling a dragon's head, made of yellow feathers with marine conch shells. He has copper bells tied to the insteps of his feet. In his left hand he holds a shield with five greenstones, called ''chalchihuites'', placed in the form of a

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...

on a thin gold plate that covered almost all the shield. In his right hand he has a kind of scepter that was a round gold plate with a hole in the middle, and topped by two globes, one larger than the other, the smaller one had a point. Xiuhtecuhtli is closely associated with youthful warriors and with rulership, and was considered a solar god. His principal symbols are the ''tecpatl'' (flint) and the ''mamalhuatzin'', the two sticks that were rubbed together to light ceremonial fires. A staff with a deer's head was also an attribute of Xiuhtecuhtli, although not exclusively so as it could also be associated with Xochiquetzal and other deities. Many of the attributes of Xiuhtecuhtli are found associated with Early Postclassic

Toltec The Toltec culture () was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 CE. T ...

warriors but clear representations of the god are not common until the Late Postclassic. The '' nahual'', or spirit form, of Xiuhtecuhtli is

Xiuhcoatl In Aztec religion, Xiuhcoatl was a mythological serpent, regarded as the spirit form of Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec fire deity sometimes represented as an atlatl or a weapon wielded by Huitzilopochtli. Xiuhcoatl is a Classical Nahuatl word that tran ...

, the Fire Serpent.Fernández 1992, 1996, p.107. Xiuhtecuhtli was embodied in the ''teotecuilli'', the sacrificial brazier into which sacrificial victims were cast during the New Fire ceremony. This took place at the end of each cycle of the Aztec calendar round (every 52 years), when the gods were thought to be able to end their covenant with humanity. Feasts were held in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli to keep his favors, and human sacrifices were burned after removing their

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

Annual festival

The annual festival of Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated in ''Izcalli'', the 18th veintena of the year.López Austin 1998, p.10. Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.47 (Book I, Chapter XIII). The Nahuatl word izcalli means "stone house" and refers to the building where maize used to be dried and roasted between mid-January and mid-February. The whole month was therefore devoted to fire. The Izcalli rituals grew in importance every four years. A framework image of the deity was constructed from wood and was richly finished with clothing, feathers and an elaborate mask. Quails were sacrificed to the idol and their blood spilt before it and

copal Copal is tree resin, particularly the aromatic resins from the copal tree ''Protium copal'' (Burseraceae) used by the cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as ceremonially burned incense and for other purposes. More generally, copal includes re ...

was burnt in his honour. On the day of the festival, the priests of Xiuhtecuhtli spent the day dancing and singing before their god. People caught animals, including mammals, birds, snakes, lizards and fish, for ten days before the festival in order to throw them into the hearth on the night of the festival.López Austin 1998, p.10. Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.48 (Book I, Chapter XIII). On the tenth day of Izcalli, during a festival called ''huauhquiltamalcualiztli'' ("eating of the amaranth leaf tamales"), the New Fire was lighted, signifying the change of the annual cycle and the rebirth of the fire deity. During the night the image of the god was lit with using the ''mamalhuatzin''. Food was consumed ritually, including shrimp

tamale A tamale, in Spanish tamal, is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa, a dough made from nixtamalized corn, which is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. The wrapping can either be discarded prior to eating or used as a plate. Tam ...

s, after first offering it to the god. Every four years a more solemn version of the festival was held at the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli in

, attended by the emperor and his nobles.Sahagún 1577, 1989, pp.48-9 (Book I, Chapter XIII). Slaves and captives were dressed as the deity and sacrificed in his honour. Godparents were assigned to children on this day and the children had their ears ritually pierced. After this, the children, their parents and godparents all shared a meal together.

New Fire Ceremony

Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated often but especially at the end of every 52-year period. This was the time the 365-day solar and the 260-day sacred calendars ended on the same day and the Aztec celebrated the Binding of the Years with the New Fire Ceremony. In order to perform the ritual, priests marched in solemn procession up the Hill of the Star on a peninsula near ''Culhuacán'' to wait for the star ''Yohualtecuhtli'' (either

Aldebaran Aldebaran (Arabic: “The Follower”, "الدبران") is the brightest star in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. It has the Bayer designation α Tauri, which is Latinized to Alpha Tauri and abbreviated Alpha Tau or α Tau. Aldeba ...

in the Taurus constellation or the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance ...

as a whole) to get past its zenith. Having ascertained this, they would tear out the heart of a sacrificial victim and kindle a flame in a small wooden hearth they placed inside the hole left in his chest. Priests used a drill method to generate this sacred flame. It was then carried on pine sticks to light the fires anew in every hearth, including the sacred braziers of perpetual fire, that numbered over 600 in the capital alone.Roy 2005, p.316.

In popular culture

A set of six postage stamps issued by the

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

in 2003 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the British Museum featured a mask of Xiuhtecuhtli alongside other Museum objects such as the

Sutton Hoo helmet The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo Ship burial, ship-burial. It was buried around 625 and is widely associated with King Rædwald of East Anglia; its elaborate decoration ma ...

and

Hoa Hakananai'a Hoa Hakananai'a is a moai, a statue from Easter Island. It was taken from Orongo, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1868 by the crew of a British ship and is now in the British Museum in London. It has been described as a "masterpiece" and among t ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * Olvera, Silvia Limón. "Fire Deities." In

David Carrasco Davíd Lee Carrasco is an American academic historian of religion, anthropologist, and Mesoamericanist scholar. As of 2001 he holds the inaugural appointment as Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of Latin America Studies at the Harvard Divinity Schoo ...