Aztec mythology; Indian mythology -- Mexico; Mexico -- Religion
man and woman, the progenitors of the entire human race, who differ in
bulk and stature as the pieces of the rescued bone varied in size and
shape. Thus were born Iztac Mixcoatl the first man and Ilanceuitl or
Ilamatecutli, his wife.
CREATION OF THE SUN AND MOON
These deeds had, however, passed in a world of darkness, for as yet the
sun had not risen. A council of the gods was assembled at Teotihuacan,
a locality of great sanctity, and seated round a council fire, it
considered the means by which the luminary might be created. It was
resolved that he who first cast himself into the fire should be
transformed into the sun. The offer was accepted by Nanahuatzin, who
was afflicted with a painful disease, had therefore found life
intolerable and did not dread the transformation. Nothing happened for
some time after his self-immolation, and the waiting gods began to make
wagers with one another regarding the place in the heavens where the
sun would be likely to show itself. None of them had considered it
probable that it would rise in the East, and when at last it became
visible in that quarter, it was as a stationary mass which directed
such scorching rays upon them that they dispatched the hawk messenger
to request it to depart. Whether or not Nanahuatzin in his rôle of
Sun-god was wroth with his brothers for personal reasons, he replied
that it was his intention to destroy them utterly. A great fear seized
upon some, whilst others grew angry and caught up their weapons. Among
the latter was Citli, who fitted an arrow to his bow and fired at the
transformed Nanahuatzin. The sun-god avoided the shaft. He could not,
however, evade all those which followed, but seizing one, cast it back
at Citli, whom it transfixed and slew. Fiercer became the heat, until
at length the gods could tolerate it no longer, and felt that it
behoved them to perish by each other’s hands rather than by the ignoble
death of suffocation. They agreed that Xolotl should dispatch them one
by one, cutting open their breasts, and this holocaust he undertook,
finally slaying himself. Before perishing, the gods left their raiment
to their personal servants, of which each retainer made a bundle,
wrapping his master’s clothing round a stick, placing a small green
stone inside to serve as a heart, and naming it after the god to whom
it had belonged. Olmos himself encountered such a relic in Tlalmanalco,
exhibiting evidences of very considerable age. [55] On the death of the
gods the sun began to move in the heavens, and a god, Tecciztecatl, who
had hidden himself in a cavern when Nanahuatzin leaped into the fire,
now emerged from his hiding-place and took the form of the moon. The
retainers carried the bundles from place to place, and one of them, the
servant of Tezcatlipocâ, coming to the sea-shore, had a vision of his
deceased master, who commanded him to betake himself to the house of
the sun and to bring him singers and players of instruments to assist
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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