Tlaltecuhtli (deity)

Culture: Mesoamerican/Aztec

Tlaltecuhtli was an Aztec deity who was usually presented as an earth monster with a huge toadlike body. Considered both an earth goddess and an earth god, Tlaltecuhtli had a dual-gender identity. The name Tlaltecuhtli meant "earth lord," and although the name suggested a masculine entity, Tlaltecuhtli was almost always depicted as a female. A common position for this deity was the birth-giving posture; Tlaltecuhtli was related to the concept of fertility and was often invoked by midwives.

Tlaltecuhtli was also associated with the sun god, Tonatiuh. It was believed that Tlaltecuhtli swallowed the sun each night, but regurgitated it in the morning. Such an act signified enormous power because the sun was all-important to the Aztecs.

Representations of Tlaltecuhtli showed a figure with a large gaping mouth; frequently its teeth were made of sharp flint knives. The tongue very often protruded, and in certain renderings, it was split. Some scholars think this open mouth could be interpreted as a womb. In another interpretation, the gaping mouth symbolized a tomb into which sacrificial victims were deposited. The Tlaltecuhtli figure usually had an oversized head, bulging eyes, curly red hair, and clawlike hands and feet.

The ordering of time was of great importance in the Aztec world, and Tlaltecuhtli was the second of the Lords of the Day in the Mesoamerican calendar. In the Tonalamatl, or Book of Days, thirteen Aztec deities were associated with particular identities and birds. Thus, Tlaltecuhtli was the source of a "soul spirit" for days with the number two. The bird associated with Tlaltecuhtli was the green hummingbird.

In Mythology

The story of Tlaltecuhtli was part of an emergence creation myth. Such myths were common among many Mesoamerican groups as well as among North American people including the Hopi, Acoma, and Tewa Pueblo. The emergence myth of the Aztecs was called The Legend of the Sun and was central to the Aztecs’ lives. In the myth, there were five ages called suns, and each of the first four suns ended with a disaster. Jaguars devoured the first sun, while the second sun was ended by the winds of a hurricane. A rain of fire razed the third sun, and the water of a flood destroyed the fourth sun. In the story, two Aztec gods, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, descended from the sky to create the fifth sun.

According to the myth, Tlaltecuhtli was at that time a great sea monster floating through primordial waters. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca decided to destroy the monster in order to create the earth of the fifth sun. They transformed themselves into giant serpents and seized Tlaltecuhtli from both sides. The gods pulled so hard that Tlaltecuhtli was broken into two parts. The monster’s upper body became the earth; some parts were tossed into the sky to become the heavens. In some versions of the story, the other deities were displeased by these actions and decreed that Tlaltecuhtli must be consoled. Thus, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca gave Tlaltecuhtli the honor of providing mortals with whatever they needed from her body. The gods used Tlaltecuhtli’s hair to make trees and flowers. They made fountains and caves from her eyes, valleys from her nose, and mountains from her shoulders.

Nevertheless, it was said that Tlaltecuhtli could sometimes be heard weeping because of the pain she suffered. To appease her, the Aztecs believed it was necessary to make sacrifices of human blood. Life in the form of human hearts was the highest gift people could offer. In this sense, the earth was the gift of Tlaltecuhlti to humans, and the sacrifices humans made were their gift to her. Thus, the myth reflected the life and death cycle, a cycle of creation and destruction.

The Aztecs also believed that the fifth sun made by Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca from the body of Tlaltecuthli was the last age and would eventually be demolished by an earthquake that would send the world into chaos. Therefore, it was crucial to delay that chaos by offering blood to claim blessings from the gods. Human sacrifice became preventative, and it was also a way of repaying gods for past favors.

Priests in temples, many of which were on top of pyramids, made sacrifices. The number of sacrificial victims, mostly young men and captive soldiers, increased as the empire grew. According to Aztec records, thousands of people lost their lives in bloody sacrifices each year.

Origins and Cults

The Aztec civilization—which lasted from the 1300s to 1521—was the last of the advanced early civilizations in Mesoamerica. Numerous Aztec gods were borrowed from earlier cultures such as that of the Toltec and Maya. The concept of an earth goddess was a common one, and this deity very often took the form of a giant turtle, lizard, crocodile, or toadlike creature such as Tlaltecuhtli.

In the Aztec world, statues of gods and goddesses were everywhere. Most homes had a statue of the earth goddess, and even the introduction of Christianity after the Spanish conquest in 1521, did not stop people from keeping an image of the goddess in dark corners of their houses and continuing to worship this familiar deity in secret.

The legacy of the Aztec pantheon continues to play an important role in Mexico. The country’s capital, Mexico City, lies over what was once the great Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. Under much of the city are the remains of Aztec homes, temples, and other buildings. When the Mexico City subway, called the Metro, was built in the 1960s and 1970s, many Aztec artifacts were found, and the remains of a huge temple were uncovered. Archaeologists named it the Templo Mayor meaning "main temple." The Templo Mayor was excavated and became part of a new museum. In 2006, an enormous monolith of Tlaltecuhtli was found near the Templo Mayor archaeological site. The colossal sculpture weighs about twelve tons and is carved in a stone called andesite. The restored image of Tlaltecuhtli went on exhibit at the museum in 2010.

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