Many Aztec myths tell all or part of the story of the five suns. The Aztecs believed that four suns, or worlds, had existed before theirs. In each case, catastrophic events had destroyed everything, bringing the world to an end. Many stories related the Loss of the Ancients, the mythic event in which the first people disappeared from the earth. One version says that Tezcatlipoca stole the sun and Quetzalcoatl chased him and knocked him back down to earth with a stick. Tezcatlipoca then changed into a jaguar and devoured the people who lived in that world. The Aztecs combined versions of this story to explain the disappearance of people at the end of each of the four worlds that had existed before theirs. Carvings on a stone calendar found in 1790 tell how, one after another, jaguars, wind, fire, and flood destroyed the Ancients.
According to Aztec myth, at the beginning of this world, darkness covered the earth. The gods gathered at a sacred place and made a fire. Nanahuatl (pronounced nah-nah-WAH-tl), one of the gods, leaped into the fire and came out as the sun. However, before he could begin to move through the sky, the other gods had to give the sun their blood. This was one of several myths that described how the gods sacrificed themselves to set the world in motion. Through bloodletting and human sacrifice, people imitated the sacrifices made by the gods. The example of the deities taught the Aztec people to believe that feeding the sun with blood kept it alive.
Tezcatlipoca created the first sun, known as Nahui-Ocelotl, or Four-Jaguar. It came to an end when Quetzalcoatl struck down Tezcatlipoca, who became a jaguar and destroyed all the people. Quetzalcoatl was the ruler of the second sun, Nahui-Ehecatl, or Four-Wind. Tezcatlipoca threw Quetzalcoatl off his throne, and together the fallen god and the sun were carried off by a hurricane of wind. People turned into monkeys and fled into the forest.
The third sun, Nahuiquiahuitl (pronounced nah-wee-kee-ah-WEE-tl) or Four-Rain, belonged to the rain god Tlaloc. Quetzalcoatl destroyed it with fire that fell from the heavens. The water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue (pronounced chal-choo-TLEE-quay) ruled the fourth sun, called Nahui-Atl (pronounced nah-wee-ATL) or Four-Water. A fifty-two-year flood destroyed that sun and the people turned into fish. Quetzalcoatl gave life to the people of the fifth sun by sprinkling his own blood over the bones of the only man and woman who had survived the flood. The gods created the world with blood and required the sacrifice of human blood to keep it intact. One day, however, the fifth sun would meet its end in a destructive earthquake.
The Aztecs lived in the world of Nahui-Ollin (pronounced nah-wee-oh-LEEN; Four-Movement), the fifth sun. They believed the earth was a flat disk divided into north, east, south, and west quarters, each associated with a color, special gods, and certain days. At the center was Huehueteotl (pronounced hway-hway-tay-OH-tul), god of fire. Above the earth were thirteen heavens. Below the earth were nine underworlds, where the dead dwelled, making nine an extremely unlucky number. A myth about Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl tells how the world was quartered. They made the earth by seizing a woman from the sky and pulling her into the shape of a cross. Her body became the earth, which, angered by their rough treatment, devoured the dead.
Another myth tells of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl working together to raise the sky. After the flood ended the fourth sun, the sky collapsed onto the earth. The two gods became trees, pushing the sky up as they grew. Leaving the trees supporting the sky, one at each end ofthe earth, they climbed onto the sky and met in the Milky Way.
World History
