Aztec mythology; Indian mythology -- Mexico; Mexico -- Religion
The evolution of the familiar and characteristic face of Tlaloc is
perhaps best exemplified in a stone statuette included in the Uhde
collection in the Royal Ethnological Museum, Berlin. In this striking
example of the Mexican sculptor’s art a representation of the face of
the god is skilfully contrived by the arrangement of two snakes or
serpents, the tails of which form eye-orbits and a species of nose, the
reptiles’ heads meeting in the region of the mouth, their fangs thus
serving the god for teeth. It is rarely in aboriginal art that a
conception so individual and striking is encountered, and great
imaginative ability must be conceded the sculptor who conceived it. It
is not known whether the later pictures and carvings of Tlaloc were
evolved from this effigy, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that
either from it or similar representations the later conception of him
came into being. We observe in the examples shown in the illustrations
that the custom of representing divine beings in profile resulted in
his case in the survival of a mere ring about the eye and a spirally
convoluted band forming the upper lip and depending from it for some
distance. These are painted blue in the MSS. More faithfully preserved
are the long tusk-like teeth, which in certain stone effigies, however,
degenerate into several straight, downward strokes. This head of the
Rain-god is almost invariably reproduced as the symbol for the day-sign
atl (water).
Representations of Tlaloc in the codices of the Borgia group
occasionally show a development of the lip-band, which rises upwards
and includes the nose, thus, perhaps, indicating a transition form. In
the Vatican B, Fejérváry-Mayer, and Laud Codices the prolongation of
the lip-band and its serpentine character are apparent, the snake’s
teeth and eye being clearly visible.
Codex Borgia.—Sheet 14: In this place the body-paint of Tlaloc is
green, although, as a rule, it is black elsewhere. The face is
half-black, half-yellow. The eye and lip-bands are blue. The head is
crowned with white heron-feathers, such as are worn by the octli gods.
A fillet surrounds the forehead, and from this spring four rosettes,
which may symbolize the four quarters from which the rain falls. The
headdress and its accompanying ornaments are painted in alternate
stripes, green and white, sprinkled with liquid rubber. A paper tie
adorns the shoulder, such as was used for the decoration of offerings,
or in the ceremonial arrangement of the dead. The ear-plug is square,
to indicate, perhaps, the four quarters. It is in this codex (sheet 12)
that we obtain the best evidence of the reflection of the various
points of the compass upon the character of the great god of rain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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