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Urban
societies flourished in Mesoamerica long before European contact, and the Aztec
Empire overthrown by the Spanish conquistadors in 1521 was only the last in a succession
of organized states that had existed in the region since the mid-2nd millennium
BC. Throughout this period of
some 3,000 years, certain features recur in the different cultures of the
region, which were sometimes fragmented, sometimes under the dominion of a
regional superpower such as the Toltecs (c. AD
900-1180) or Aztecs (c. 1345-1521).
Mesoamerican
mythologies developed an extensive pantheon. Through contact brought about by
long-distance trade and conquest, the gods of a particular culture might be
adopted in different guises elsewhere in the region. The Maya and Aztec
pantheons were especially vast, although many of the named deities are not so
much separate gods and goddesses as varied manifestations of the most powerful
deities (the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca is a good example). A common mythological
theme is that of conflict between powerful rival deities such as Quetzalcoatl
and Tezcatlipoca. Animal imagery is widespread, and supernatural powers were
associated in particular with serpents and jaguars (the latter suggests the
early influence of rainforest mythology). The agricultural cycle was the focus
for many rituals and beliefs; the staple food plant of the region, maize, was venerated
as a deity in its own right.
Vast
ceremonial centres containing temples, plazas, ball courts, and other religious
structures provided an imposing arena for public ritual. At Teotihuacán, north
of Mexico City, which flourished around AD
300 to 650, the so-called Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon
(constructed in the 2nd century AD)
represent early examples of the stepped pyramid of Mesoamerican religious
architecture (see Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture).
The
Mesoamerican ball game had a special place in religious ritual. It was played
on a purpose-built court between two teams with a rubber ball. The losing team
was often sacrificed, but imagery carved on ball courts and other evidence,
especially the mythical accounts of ball games in the Maya sacred book, the Popol
Vuh, suggest that the death theme also had overtones of regeneration. The
belief that death produces and nurtures new life was especially potent in
Mesoamerica and is reflected in widespread sacrificial cults. Images of death
abound in Mesoamerican, especially Aztec, art.
Religious life was governed by a
complex dual calendar. The year was divided into 18 months of 20 days each, to
which 5 “unlucky” days were added to make a total of 365. Each of the 20 days
had its own sign (Day 1 = crocodile, Day 2 = wind, and so on), and the years
were numbered from 1 to 13; when combined with four of the day signs, this
created a 52-year cycle (the Calendar Round) in which no individual year-name
was repeated. In addition to this solar calendar, the sacred calen?dar
consisting of 260 days was divided by combining each of the 20 day signs with a
number from 1 to 13. The number and sign of a particular day were believed to
impart either good or bad luck. By combining both the solar and sacred calendars,
the system provided a unique designation—and thus unique qualities—to every one
of the 18,980 days in the 52-year cycle.
Numerous
Mesoamerican myths recount how the world was formed either by a bisexual
creator deity or by the union of a male and female deity, often associated with
the Sun and Moon. The Earth was conceived as a great cross-shaped land mass
surrounded by the cosmic ocean on the edges of which rested the sky. After
creation, a succession of worlds, each destroyed by a cataclysm, preceded the
present one, which is destined to perish in a final holocaust.
The Olmec
civilization flourished c. 1500 to c. 300 BC
in the humid lowlands on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Olmec ceremonial
centres, such as San Lorenzo and La Venta, contain sacred architecture that is
difficult to interpret: huge pits were dug and lined with blocks of stone, only
to be filled in again, and beautiful mosaic pavements were laid out, then
immediately buried. The Olmecs have given their name to an art style featuring
certain distinctive mythological beings, although it is now thought that these
represent a wider cultural diffusion than the term “Olmec” implies. One is a
half-human, half-jaguar figure known as the “were-jaguar” (a Mesoamerican
equivalent of the werewolf) or “jaguar baby”, shown with baby-faced human
features combined with jaguar fangs and a snarling mouth. Another figure was
that of the “Long-Lipped Dragon”, in which bird, lizard, animal, and other
elements are combined.
The idea
of human sexual union with a jaguar, or of magical transformation into a beast,
suggests the powers of the shaman (an important figure in indigenous religions
throughout the Americas). The jaguar also features prominently in later
Mesoamerican religions as an Earth spirit and the embodiment of power. The
sacred quality associated with jade and greenstones found in Olmec art, which
interestingly parallels the very ancient East Asian veneration of jade, is
another recurrent theme in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Later Mesoamerican
deities who may have originated in Olmec mythology include the rain god Tlaloc,
the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, and the fire god Huehueteotl.
From the
Pre-Columbian period to the present day, the Maya people have inhabited an area
centred on the Yucatán Peninsula, western Mexico. Maya civilization reached its
high point between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD,
but some Maya centres continued to flourish up to the Spanish Conquest. The
Maya kept written records in their hieroglyphic script, which has still to be
fully deciphered, and practised sophisticated astronomy and mathematics. Almost
the whole of Maya literature was destroyed during the Conquest, so that the
detailed nature of what was evidently a highly complex mythology is difficult
to reconstruct with any certainty.
The most
important source for Maya mythology is the Popol Vuh (“Book of Advice”),
which was written in the Quiché Maya dialect but in European script soon after
the Conquest. The Popol Vuh presents versions, sometimes possibly with a
Christianized colouring, of many myths and legends. One main element is an
account of the Maya cosmogony, in which the universe is conceived on three
levels: an underworld; a middle, earthly world; and a heavenly realm. The four
corners of the world were marked by different colours and supported by four
Atlantean deities corresponding to the colours and directions:
Mulac-white-north; Kan-yellow-east; Cauac-red-south; and Ix-black-west. The
great Ceiba tree connected all three levels and provided a route along which
the souls of the dead and the gods could travel. The gods made several attempts
to create humans—out of mud, wood, and finally maize.
The
principal Maya deity was Itzamná (“Lizard House”), who was the supreme creator
and Moon deity, and the patron of writing and learning. He shares some
characteristics with another major deity, Kukulcán (“Feathered Snake Who
Traverses the Waters”), who was later adopted by the Aztec mythology as
Quetzalcoatl. Itzamná’s consort was Ix Chel (“Lady Rainbow”), the goddess of
childbirth, weaving, and medicine. The Sun god, Ahau Kin, took the form of a
jaguar to travel through the underworld between sunset and sunrise.
The Popol
Vuh also describes the exploits of the heavenly twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque,
who were challenged to a ball game by the Lords of Xibalba (the underworld).
Through bravery and cunning the twins survived many trials before engaging the
gods in a game. The gods were impressed by the twins' ability to dismember then
put themselves back together again. When the gods allowed themselves to be cut
up, however, the twins left them in pieces, thus winning the contest. After
this, Hunahpu and Xbalanque were deified as the Sun and Moon.
The
Aztecs were the last of the indigenous peoples to hold sway in Mesoamerica.
Their empire flourished for some two centuries c. 1345 to 1521. Before this the
Aztecs had undergone a long migration from north-western Mexico during which
they developed a spartan culture attuned to warfare and opportunities for
conquest. In 1345 they finally settled on Tenochtitlán, a swampy island in Lake
Texcoco. Here they established a city (now the site of Mexico City), draining
rich agricultural land by means of a system of canals and linking their capital
to the mainland by causeways. Tenochtitlán was the centre of the cult of the
Aztec tribal god Huitzilopochtli (“Hummingbird of the South”).
Huitzilopochtli,
who may have begun as a real-life tribal hero or leader, came to be regarded as
the patron deity of the Aztecs who had sent his people on their great migration
from their mythical home Aztlán (“Place of Reeds”) and had guided them through
its dangers and setbacks. He promised that they would ultimately subdue all
other peoples and conquer the world.
Huitzilopochtli
was also worshipped as a Sun god. He sprang fully formed from the womb of his
mother, the Earth goddess Coatlicue (“Snake Skirt”), and immediately fought and
vanquished his sister, the Moon goddess Coyolxauhqui, and his 400 brothers the
stars. In his solar role Huitzilopochtli required constant nourishment to give
him strength to fight the forces of darkness. He obtained this through human
hearts and blood, thought to contain the divine food chalchihuatl. The
necessary supply of victims was provided by prisoners of war, and European
observers left vivid accounts of the scale of human sacrifice at
Huitzilopochtli's shrine in Tenochtitlán, the Templo Mayor (Great Temple). It
is estimated that some 10,000 to 50,000 human sacrifices were made each year.
Mesoamerican
creation myths shared the concept of a succession of worlds, each one ending in
violent destruction (as will the present world in due course). This theme is
exemplified in the Aztec myth of the Five Suns, or world-ages, in which each age
was named after the calendrical date on which it began and ended together with
the nature of its cataclysmic ending.
The First
Sun, known as Four Jaguar, was ruled by Tezcatlipoca (“Lord of the Smoking
Mirror”), the supreme creator deity. During this era the world was peopled by
giants who were finally destroyed by jaguars. The Second Sun, Four Wind, was
governed by Ehecatl, Quetzalcoatl's manifestation as god of the wind. When the
Second Sun was destroyed by hurricanes, all humans were turned into monkeys.
The Third Sun, Four Rain, was the province of the rain god Tlaloc and was
consumed by a fiery rain. This time the human population were transformed into
butterflies, dogs, and turkeys. The Fourth Sun, Four Water, was ruled by the
water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue and ended in a great deluge, with humankind being
turned into fish. The Fifth Sun, Four Movement, is the present age. Ruled by
the solar deity Tonatiuh, it is destined to be destroyed by earthquakes. Some
myths tell of survival from one era to the next: the giant Xelhua escaped the
deluge by climbing on to the mountain of Tlaloc, while the human pair Nata (a
Noah figure) and Nena built a ship (see also Flood).
The Aztec
pantheon incorporated many deities from earlier or conquered peoples. The numerous
manifestations of Tezcatlipoca, originally a Toltec (9th to 11th century) god,
included the jaguar god and Lord of the Night, Tepeyollotli, and Xipe Totec
(“the Flayed Lord”), a fertility deity adopted from Zapotec mythology; his cult
involved the flaying of victims whose skins were then worn by the priests.
Tezcatlipoca was conceived as omniscient and invisible. He could dispense both
good and bad fortune, and with the aid of his mirror could read people's
thoughts and foretell the future.
Quetzalcoatl
(“Feathered Serpent”) is another major Aztec deity with much earlier origins.
The Toltecs had worshipped him at their capital Tula in the guise of the
morning and evening star, and the motif of the feathered serpent can be traced
earlier still to the civilization of Teotihuacán (3rd to 8th century). For the
Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was the patron of priests and craftsmen and the inventor
of the calendar.
Myths of
Quetzalcoatl became confused with the legends surrounding the late 10th-century
Toltec ruler Topilzin-Quetzalcoatl, who had been expelled from Tula after a
struggle with the god Tezcatlipoca. He was said to have sailed east on a raft
of snakes and it was prophesied that he would one day return. When Spanish
ships—vessels of a type and size totally new to Mesoamerica—appeared on the
eastern horizon, it was believed that Quetzalcoatl had come back to claim his
own.
Agricultural
fertility was presided over by many deities, the most important of which was the
rain god Tlaloc. Tlaloc could dispense both life and, through floods, death and
destruction. His cult involved the sacrifice of children on mountain tops where
rain clouds gathered, and his high status in Aztec religion is shown by the
fact that his shrine stood next to that of Huitzilopochtli on the pyramid of
the Templo Mayor