Mictlan () is the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

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 ...

. Most people who die would travel to Mictlan, although other possibilities exist (see " Other destinations", below). Mictlan consists of nine distinct levels. The journey from the first level to the ninth is difficult and takes four years, but the dead are aided by the

psychopomp Psychopomps (from the Greek word , , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is ...

Xolotl In Aztec mythology, Xolotl () was a god of fire and lightning. He was commonly depicted as a dog-headed man and was a soul-guide for the dead. He was also god of twins, monsters, death, misfortune, sickness, and deformities. Xolotl is the canin ...

. The dead must pass many challenges, such as crossing a mountain range where the mountains crash into each other, a field with wind that blows flesh-scraping knives, and a river of blood with fearsome jaguars. Mictlan also features in the Aztec creation myth. Mictlantecuhtli set a pit to trap Quetzalcoatl. When Quetzalcoatl entered Mictlan seeking bones with which to create humans, Mictlantecuhtli was waiting. He asked Quetzalcoatl to travel around Mictlan four times blowing a conch shell with no holes. Quetzalcoatl eventually put some bees in the conch shell to make sound. Fooled, Mictlantecuhtli showed Quetzalcoatl to the bones. But Quetzalcoatl fell into the pit and some of the bones broke. The Aztecs believed this is why people's height are different. Mictlan is believed to be ruled by King Mictlantecuhtli ("Lord of the Underworld") and his wife, Mictecacihuatl ("Lady of the Underworld"). Other deities in Mictlan include Cihuacoatl (who commanded Mictlan spirits called

Cihuateteo In Aztec mythology, the Cihuateteo (; , in singular ) or "Divine Women", were the spirits of women who died in childbirth. They were likened to the spirits of male warriors who died in violent conflict, because childbirth was conceptually equiv ...

), Acolmiztli, Chalmecacihuilt, Chalmecatl and Acolnahuacatl.

Relationship to Nahuatl creation mythology

The nine regions of Mictlán (also known as Chiconauhmictlán) in

take shape within the Nahua worldview of space and time as parts of a universe composed of living forces. According to

Mexica The Mexica (Nahuatl: ; singular ) are a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Triple Alliance, more commonly referred to as the Aztec Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island ...

mythology, in the beginning, there were two primordial gods, Omecíhuatl and Ometecuhtli, whose children became the creator gods. The names of these creator gods were Xipetótec,

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 ...

, Quetzalcóatl, and Huitzilopochtli, and they inherited the art of creation from their parents. From the preexisting matter, after 600 years of inactivity, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcóatl organized the vertical and horizontal universes, where the horizontal universe was composed of cardinal or hemispheric directions and the vertical universe was composed of two parts, a higher and a lower. The higher part was supported by four gigantic trees, growing in each corner of the Tlalocán (the central part of the universe). Such imagery is also found in the idea of a world tree, such as

Yggdrasil Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...

in Norse mythology, Jian Mu in Chinese mythology or the

Ashvattha ''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, bo tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipala tree or ...

fig in Hindu mythology. These trees impeded the joining of the Overworld (the higher world) and the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

(the lower world) to Tlaltícpac (the earth). The earth was a land formed from the body of

Cipactli Cipactli ( "crocodile" or "caiman") was the first day of the Aztec divinatory count of 13 X 20 days (the '' tonalpohualli'') and ''Cipactonal'' "Sign of Cipactli" was considered to have been the first diviner. In Aztec cosmology, the crocodile sy ...

, the crocodilomorphic sea monster, and was a solid, living land that generated food for humankind. Cipactli was

mother nature Mother Nature (sometimes known as Mother Earth or the Earth Mother) is a personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of a mother or mother goddess. European concept tr ...

, from whom was created the surface and soil that was Tlaltícpac. The myth recounts the following. From Cipactli's hair sprang trees, flowers and plants, from her skin sprang plains, valleys and river sediments, from her eyes came wells, caves, and fountains, from her mouth sprang rivers, lakes and streams, from her nose came valleys, ranges and mesas, from her shoulders the saw-toothed mountain ranges, volcanoes and mountains. As they organized the universe horizontally and vertically, the four creator gods forged the pairs of gods who would control each area of power: the water ( Tlaloc and

Chalchiuhtlicue Chalchiuhtlicue (from ''chālchihuitl'' "jade" and ''cuēitl'' "skirt") (also spelled Chalciuhtlicue, Chalchiuhcueye, or Chalcihuitlicue) ("She of the Jade Skirt") is an Aztec deity of water, rivers, seas, streams, storms, and baptism. Chalch ...

), the earth (

Tlaltecuhtli Tlaltecuhtli (Classical Nahuatl ''Tlāltēuctli'', ) is a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican deity worshipped primarily by the Mexica (Aztecs, Aztec) people. Sometimes referred to as the "earth monster," Tlaltecuhtli's dismembered body was the basis for ...

and Tlalcíhuatl), fire (

Xiuhtecuhtli In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtēcuhtli ("Turquoise 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 ...

and Chantico) and the dead ( Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacíhuatl).

Other destinations

In addition to Mictlan, the dead could also go to other destinations: *Warriors who died in battle and those who died as a sacrifice went east and accompanied the sun during the morning. *Women who died in

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...

went to the west and accompanied the sun when it set in the evening. *People who died of drowning — or from other causes that were linked to the rain god Tlaloc, such as certain diseases and lightning — went to a paradise called Tlalocan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mictlan Places in Aztec mythology Places in Mesoamerican mythology Underworld

Relationship to Nahuatl creation mythology

Other destinations

See also

References