THE AZTEK'S TALE LEGEND OF EXISTENCE

THE AZTEK'S TALE LEGEND OF EXISTENCE

 The Aztecs, who lived in present-day central Mexico, had a complex belief system based on gods that directly affected people's lives, including those who controlled the rising of the sun, fertility, and rains.

 According to the Aztecs, the creation of the world began with a deity named Ometeotl, also known as the dual deity, as it was made from the union of Tonacacihuatl and Tonacatecuhtli, whom the Aztec believed to be the mistress and lord of their nourishment.  Tonacacihuatl and Tonacatecuhtli had four children:

 Tezcatlipoca, meaning "smoky mirror", is associated with the color black.  He is the god of the world and the most influential and dominant of the four children.

 Xipe Totec, which means "skinned god" in Nahuatl language, is associated with the color red.  He is the god of all seasons and all things that grow on earth.

 Quetzalcoatl, which means "feathered snake", is associated with the color white.  He is the god of air.

 Finally, Huitzilopochtli, meaning "hummingbird in the south", is associated with the color blue.  He is the god of war.

 The four children decided they wanted to create a world with the people they would live in.  Huitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl make the first try, starting by lighting a fire.  This fire turns into the sun, but only half the sun because it wasn't bright enough or big enough to illuminate their entire world.  Later, they made the first woman and man, which they called Oxomoco and Cipactonal, respectively.  Their children were called `` macehuales '' and they would become farmers.  They invented the aftermath and later the hell they called Mictlan.  They created 2 gods named Mictecacihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli to rule this underworld.

 

 Eventually the earth demanded a true sun, so Tezcatlipoca took on the task of transforming itself into the sun.  This will be known as the first age of the sun.  During this time, they also produced giants to settle in the world.  Thinking that the reign of his brothers remained long enough, Quetzalcoatl struck him with a hammer, bringing him down from the sky so he fell to earth and a river.  But he rises out of the water as an angry Jaguar and wants to destroy all the giants, killing them all.  After destroying everyone, it rises back to the night sky and the constellation turns into the great bear.  Quetzalcoatl thus becomes the sun god who gave birth to the second solar age.  Tezcatlipoca does not sit idly by throwing a tremendous storm to the world to take revenge on his brother, which wipes out his brother and many farmers.  But even if some of the farmers are strong enough to withstand the storm and survive, they will eventually turn into monkeys and take refuge in the forests.

 In the third solar age, Tlaloc finally takes over and becomes the new sun of the world.  He is the god of rain that sprouts everything.  This time, Quetzalcoatl tries to overwhelm the world with the rain of flame this time, and this time turns all people into birds in the solar age.  But then he gave the earth to Tlaloc's wife, Chalchiuhtlicue (goddess of streams / rivers and all kinds of water).  During his rule, the world meets the rain and floods the whole world, turning all farmers into fish.  He is not satisfied with this, he drops the sky to the earth and covers and covers it completely, so that there is nothing about the earth.

  The cycle of the fourth sun is completed there.  In the end, realizing how they failed because of their own internal strife, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl set out alone and solve their problems.  They turn themselves into giant trees and sit at one end of the earth.  By extending and joining branches, they manage to keep the sky above.  Their father, Tonacatecuhtli, sees that they have learned from these mistakes, and because he believes they will be more successful in the future, he handed them over the galaxy we know as the Milky Way as a star path.

  

 There are many different stories about how the 5th solar age was formed.  According to one legend, Tezcatlipoca tells his brothers how to take a flint and use it to light a fire again with it, before thinking about what to do.  Ultimately, he decides to create a new sun that feeds on people's blood and hearts.  Five females and four hundred males are made to feed the sun.  The rest is where the story goes in different directions.  Some say that Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl wanted their own children to be the new sun, so each threw their children into the burning Tezcatlipoca.  Before Tlaloc surrenders his son to the scorching sun, he waits for his fire to turn into embers so that it becomes the moon dull than his son.  Quetzalcoatl chooses to throw his son directly into the fire, so he is the fifth and last sun we see today.

 Another legend tells of the gods gathering in the ancient city of Teotihuacan to discuss how to make a new sun.  Accordingly, Nanahuatzin, the god of disease, is trying to throw himself into fire and become the new sun.  The other gods, who thought he was a sick and weak god, were convinced that he was not a suitable god for the job, and they thought that a god stronger than him should be the new sun.

 Although Tecuciztecatl, a very rich god, comes forward and says that he will surrender himself to the sun and become the new sun god, he does not have the courage to do so.  In the end, though a little bit stiff, the god Nanahuatzin surrenders himself to the fires and leaps into the sun.

 

  

 When Tecuciztecatl sees his courage, he decides to surrender himself to the sun and jump.  Thus, they both turn into two different suns, but the lights of these two suns were so dazzling that they could no longer see anything.  So one of the other gods throws a rabbit at Tecuciztecatl, reducing its glow and thus transforming it into a moon.  Nanahautzin, now the new sun, will be reborn as Ollin Tonatiuh and enlighten the world.  But now a new problem arose, for this god he would hang motionless in the sky, not completing his cycle, unless the other gods spilled their blood.

 

 Thus, a god named Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the lord of the dawn, shoots an arrow at Tonatiuh but misses.  Tonatiuh also turns into Itzlacoliuhqui, the god of frost, coldness and obsidian, as a result of throwing that arrow back to Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli and hitting it directly.  Realizing that they cannot resist, other gods open their breasts and offer their hearts to him.  Quetzalcoatl also cut their hearts with a divine knife.  Thus, Tonatiuh, who is filled with the blood of the gods, starts his cycle in the sky as we see it today.  Quetzalcoatl takes and packs the ornaments and clothing of the sacrificed gods.  The Aztecs began to worship these packages ever since.