Aztec mythology; Indian mythology -- Mexico; Mexico -- Religion
Each of the 20 tonalamatl divisions, or “weeks” of 13 days each, as
they are sometimes erroneously but usefully designated, had also a
patron god of its own which ruled over its fortunes. The initial days
of these “weeks” gave the name to the entire “week,” therefore the
designation of the 20 weeks was the same as that of the 20 day-signs;
but the “weeks,” or rather the week-names, did not follow each other in
the same incidence as the days, as will be seen from the foregoing
table. The patron gods of the 20 weeks were, however, the same as those
of the 20 days, with this exception, that whereas the gods of the first
10 day-signs were taken also as the rulers of the first ten weeks,
[338] the god of the eleventh day, Xochipilli, was allowed to drop out,
the god of the twelfth day, Patecatl, taking his place, the god of the
thirteenth day taking the twelfth place, and so on, the deficiency in
the twentieth place being made up by adopting Itztli and Xiuhtecutli as
joint gods of the twentieth “week.” The list of gods of the “weeks”
would thus be as follows:
1 Ce cipactli Tonacatecutli
2 Ce ocelotl Quetzalcoatl
3 Ce mazatl Tepeyollotl
4 Ce xochitl Ueuecoyotl
5 Ce acatl Chalchihuitlicue
6 Ce miquiztli Tecciztecatl
7 Ce quiauitl Tlaloc
8 Ce malinalli Mayauel
9 Ce coatl Xiuhtecutli
10 Ce tecpatl Mictlantecutli
11 Ce ozomatli Patecatl
12 Ce quetzpallin Itzlacoliuhqui
13 Ce ollin Tlazolteotl
14 Ce itzcuintli Xipe Totec
15 Ce calli Itzpapalotl
16 Ce cozcaquauhtli Xolotl
17 Ce atl Chalchiuhtotolin
18 Ce eecatl Chantico
19 Ce quauhtli Xochiquetzal
20 Ce tochtli Xiuhtecutli and Itztli
“LORDS OF THE NIGHT”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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