Aztec mythology Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were a culture living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend ...

, Coxcox was the only male survivor of a worldwide flood, which was the fourth destruction of the world in Aztec myth. The

Aztecs The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the ...

believed that only Coxcox and his wife, Xochiquetzal, survived the flood. They took refuge in the hollow trunk of a

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

-or, in some versions, a small boat - which floated on top of the water and finally banked on a mountain in Culhuacan. They had many children, but all of them were mute. The great spirit took pity on them, and sent a

dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

, which attempted to teach the children how to speak. Fifteen of them succeeded, and from these, the Aztecs believed, the

Toltec The Toltec culture () was a Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula (Mesoamerican site), Tula, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoam ...

s and Aztecs were descended.

Another account

In another account, the

Nahua The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as ...

god

Tezcatlipoca Tezcatlipoca ( ) or Tezcatl Ipoca was a central deity in Aztec religion. He is associated with a variety of concepts, including the night sky, hurricanes, obsidian, and conflict. He was considered one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omec ...

spoke to a man named Nata and his wife Nana, saying: "Do not busy yourselves any longer making ''

pulque Pulque (; ), occasionally known as octli or agave wine, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant. It is traditional in central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, ...

'', but hollow out for yourselves a large boat of an ''ahuehuete'' (

) tree, and make your home in it when you see the waters rising to the sky." When flood waters came, the Earth disappeared and the highest mountain tops were covered in water. All other men perished, being transformed into fish.

The legend in art

Ancient Aztec paintings often depict the boat floating on the flood waters beside a mountain. The heads of a man and a woman are shown in the air above the boat and a dove is also depicted. In its mouth the dove is carrying a

hieroglyphic Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

symbol representing the languages of the world, which it is distributing to the children of Coxcox.

References

Aztec mythology and religion Flood myths Legendary progenitors {{mesoamerica-myth-stub