| Object Name: | Tlaltecuhtli, male God of the Earth |
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| Creation Date: | 1325-1521 A. D. | |
| Culture: | Aztec, Post-Classic | |
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| Image source: | © Dr. Manuel Aguilar | |
| Tlaltecuhtl literally means "Earth Lord", but some scholars like Sahagun, depict this creature as female. Usually in a hocker, or birth-giving squat, with head flung backwards and her mouth of flint blades open, Tlaltecuhtli menaces humanity and demands constant appeasement. Tlaltecuhtli’s image is usually carved on the bottom of Aztec sculptures, where it makes contact with the earth. Acording to the Histoyre du Mechique, Quetzalcoattl and Tezcatlipoca carried Tlaltecuhtli down from the Heavens and turned themselves into great serpents. One grasped the right hand and left foot and the other took the left hand and the right foot; they squeezed Tlaltecuhtli until they had rent his body asunder. After they had taken one half away to the sky, other gods descended to the earth to console him, and from the remaining violated half of body, they formed the surface of the earth, making of her hair "trees and flowers, of her eyes wells and fountains and little caverns, of her shoulders mountains. And this god cried many times in the night desiring the hearts of men to eat. And he/she would not quiet just with......fruit unless it was sprinkled with the blood of men." | ||
