Xiuhtecuhtli

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Xiuhtecuhtli
Father of the gods
God of fire
Tezcatlipocas[1] (Codex Zumarraga)
SiblingsNone
ConsortChāntico (Codex Zumarraga)[1]
ChildrenWith Chāntico: Xiuhxoxoauhqui (blue fire), Xiuhcozauhqui (yellow fire), Xiuhiztac (white fire) and Xiuhtlatlauhqui (red fire)[1]
Equivalents
Maya equivalentK'awiil (God K)
Statue of Xiuhtecuhtli in the British Museum.[2]

In

Ometecuhtli, the Lord of Duality, and according to the Florentine Codex Xiuhtecuhtli was considered to be the father of the Gods,[10] who dwelled in the turquoise enclosure in the center of earth.[11] Xiuhtecuhtli-Huehueteotl was one of the oldest and most revered of the indigenous pantheon.[12] The cult of the God of Fire, of the Year, and of Turquoise perhaps began as far back as the middle Preclassic period.[13] Turquoise was the symbolic equivalent of fire for Aztec priests.[14] A small fire was permanently kept alive at the sacred center of every Aztec home in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli.[14]

The

cardinal directions, just as the brazier for lighting fire is the center of the house or temple.[20] Xiuhtecuhtli was the patron god of the Aztec emperors, who were regarded as his living embodiment at their enthronement.[21] The deity was also one of the patron gods of the pochteca merchant class.[22]

Stone sculptures of Xiuhtecuhtli were ritually buried as offerings, and various statuettes have been recovered during excavations at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan with which he was closely associated.[23] Statuettes of the deity from the temple depict a seated male with his arms crossed.[24] A sacred fire was always kept burning in the temples of Xiuhtecuhtli.[25] In gratitude for the gift of fire, the first mouthful of food from each meal was flung into the hearth.[21]

Xiuhtecuhtli is depicted in the Codex Borgia.[26]

Attributes

Xochiquetzal and other deities.[31]

Many of the attributes of Xiuhtecuhtli are found associated with

nahual, or spirit form, of Xiuhtecuhtli is Xiuhcoatl, the Fire Serpent.[32]

Xiuhtecuhtli was embodied in the teotecuilli, the sacrificial brazier into which sacrificial victims were cast during the New Fire ceremony.[32] This took place at the end of each cycle of the Aztec calendar round (every 52 years),[33] when the gods were thought to be able to end their covenant with humanity. Feasts were held in honor of Xiuhtecuhtli to keep his favors, and human sacrifices were burned after removing their heart.

Annual festival

The annual festival of Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated in Izcalli, the 18th veintena of the year.[34] The Nahuatl word izcalli means "stone house" and refers to the building where maize used to be dried and roasted between mid-January and mid-February. The whole month was therefore devoted to fire.[14] The Izcalli rituals grew in importance every four years.[35] A framework image of the deity was constructed from wood and was richly finished with clothing, feathers and an elaborate mask.[34] Quails were sacrificed to the idol and their blood spilt before it and copal was burnt in his honour.[36] On the day of the festival, the priests of Xiuhtecuhtli spent the day dancing and singing before their god.[37] People caught animals, including mammals, birds, snakes, lizards and fish, for ten days before the festival in order to throw them into the hearth on the night of the festival.[38] On the tenth day of Izcalli, during a festival called huauhquiltamalcualiztli ("eating of the amaranth leaf tamales"), the New Fire was lighted, signifying the change of the annual cycle and the rebirth of the fire deity.[39] During the night the image of the god was lit with using the mamalhuatzin.[40] Food was consumed ritually, including shrimp tamales, after first offering it to the god.[38]

Xiuhtecuhtli in his role as one of the lords of the night, from the Codex Borgia.[41]

Every four years a more solemn version of the festival was held at the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli in Tenochtitlan, attended by the emperor and his nobles.[42] Slaves and captives were dressed as the deity and sacrificed in his honour.[43] Godparents were assigned to children on this day and the children had their ears ritually pierced. After this, the children, their parents and godparents all shared a meal together.[42]

New Fire Ceremony

Xiuhtecuhtli was celebrated often but especially at the end of every 52-year period. This was the time the 365-day solar and the 260-day sacred calendars ended on the same day and the Aztec celebrated the Binding of the Years with the

New Fire Ceremony.[17] In order to perform the ritual, priests marched in solemn procession up the Hill of the Star on a peninsula near Culhuacán to wait for the star Yohualtecuhtli (either Aldebaran in the Taurus constellation or the Pleiades as a whole) to get past its zenith. Having ascertained this, they would tear out the heart of a sacrificial victim and kindle a flame in a small wooden hearth they placed inside the hole left in his chest. Priests used a drill method to generate this sacred flame. It was then carried on pine sticks to light the fires anew in every hearth, including the sacred braziers of perpetual fire, that numbered over 600 in the capital alone.[44]

In popular culture

A set of six postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2003 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the British Museum featured a mask of Xiuhtecuhtli alongside other Museum objects such as the Sutton Hoo helmet and Hoa Hakananai'a.[45]

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 970-07-3149-9
    .
  2. ^ Website of the British Museum. Archived May 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Fernández 1992, 1996, p.104. Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.476. Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.189.
  4. ^ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.433.
  5. ^ Olvera, Silvia Limón. "Fire Deities." In David Carrasco (ed).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. : Oxford University Press, 2001
  6. ^ Coe & Koontz 2002, p.55.
  7. ^ Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.47. (Book I, Chapter XIII).
  8. ^ Fernández 1992, 1996, p.104.
  9. ^ a b Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.476.
  10. ^ Fernández 1992, 1996, p.104. León-Portilla 2002, pp.25, 26.
  11. ^ a b Matos Moctezuma 1988, p.94.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Luján 2005, p.140
  13. ^ a b Luján 2005, p.141
  14. ^ a b c Roy 2005, p.211
  15. ^ a b Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.190. Smith 1996, 2003, pp.246-7. Díaz & Rodgers 1993, p.xix.
  16. ^ a b Bezanilla 2000, p.25
  17. ^ a b Bingham & Roberts 2010, p.143
  18. ^ Díaz & Rodgers 1993, p.xix. Smith 1996, 2003, p.248
  19. ^ Luján 2005, p.145.
  20. ^ Luján 2005, p.147.
  21. ^ a b Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.447.
  22. ^ Coe & Koontz 2002, p.197.
  23. ^ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.172, 476.
  24. ^ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.172.
  25. ^ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.414.
  26. ISBN 9780486275697
    .
  27. ^ Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.189. Barrera Rodríguez & López Arenas 2008, p.19.
  28. ^ a b Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.189.
  29. ^ Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.189. Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.419-20.
  30. ^ Fernández 1992, 1996, pp.104-6.
  31. ^ Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.468.
  32. ^ a b Fernández 1992, 1996, p.107.
  33. ^ Smith 1996, 2003, p.249.
  34. ^ a b López Austin 1998, p.10. Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.47 (Book I, Chapter XIII).
  35. ^ Luján 2005, p.143.
  36. ^ Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.47 (Book I, Chapter XIII).
  37. ^ Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.48 (Book I, Chapter XIII).
  38. ^ a b López Austin 1998, p.10. Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.48 (Book I, Chapter XIII).
  39. ^ Luján 2005, p.142.
  40. ^ López Austin 1998, p.10.
  41. ^ Díaz & Rodgers 1993, pp.xix, 64.
  42. ^ a b Sahagún 1577, 1989, pp.48-9 (Book I, Chapter XIII).
  43. ^ López Austin 1998, p.10. Sahagún 1577, 1989, p.98 (Book II, Chapter XVIII).
  44. ^ Roy 2005, p.316.
  45. ^ CollectGBStamps.

References

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