Lords of the Night
In Mesoamerican mythology the Lords of the Night (Classical Nahuatl: Yohualtecuhtin) are a set of nine deities who each ruled over every ninth night forming a calendrical cycle. Each lord was associated with a particular fortune, bad or good, that was an omen for the night that they ruled over.[1]
The lords of the night are known in both the Aztec and Maya calendar, although the specific names of the Maya Night Lords are unknown.[2]
The glyphs corresponding to the night gods are known and Mayanists identify them with labels G1 to G9, the G series. Generally, these glyphs are frequently used with a fixed glyph coined F. The only Mayan light lord that has been identified is the God G9, Pauahtun the Aged Quadripartite God.[3][4]
The existence of a 9 nights cycle in Mesoamerican calendrics was first discovered in 1904 by Eduard Seler. The Aztec names of the Deities are known because their names are glossed in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis and Codex Tudela. Seler argued that the 9 lords each corresponded to one of the nine levels of the underworld and ruled the corresponding hour of the nighttime; this argument has not generally been accepted, since the evidence suggests that the lord of a given night ruled over that entire night.[5] Zelia Nuttall argued that the Nine Lords of the Night represented the nine moons of the Lunar year.[6] The cycle of the Nine Lords of the Night held special relation to the Mesoamerican ritual calendar of 260-days and nights which includes exactly 29 groups of 9 nights each, and also, approximately, 9 vague lunations of 29 days each.
The Nine Lords of the Night in Aztec mythology are:[5]
- Xiuhtecuhtli ("Turquoise Lord/Lord of Fire")
- Tezcatlipoca ("Smoking Mirror")
- Piltzintecuhtli ("Noble Lord")
- Centeotl ("Maize God")
- Mictlantecuhtli ("Underworld Lord")
- Chalchiuhtlicue ("Jade Is Her Skirt")
- Tlazolteotl ("Filth God[dess]")
- Tepeyollotl ("Heart of the Mountains")
- Tlaloc ("Rain")
Sources
- ^ Anthony F. Aveni. 2001. Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. University of Texas Press. pp. 156-57
- ^ Gabrielle Vail, Christine L. Hernández. 2010. Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual Interchange Between the Northern Maya Lowlands and Highland Mexico in the Late Postclassic Period. Harvard University Press p. 291
- ^ Lynn V. Foster. 2005. Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World. Oxford University Press. p. 259
- ^ http://www.pauahtun.org/Calendar/gglyph.html Archived 2006-02-22 at the Wayback Machine Night Gods discussion in Pauahtun
- ^ a b Elizabeth Hill Boone. 2007. Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate. University of Texas Press pp. 44-45
- ^ Zelia Nuttall. 1904. The Periodical Adjustments of the Ancient Mexican Calendar. American Anthropologist , New Series, Vol. 6, No. 4 pp. 486-500
- v
- t
- e
- Ōmeteōtl: Ometēcuthli and Omecihuātl (or Tōnacātēcuhtli and Tōnacācihuātl)
(Four Tezcatlipocas)
- Lords of the Night
- Centeōtl
- Chalchiuhtlicue
- Cinteotl
- Mictlāntēcutli
- Piltzintecuhtli
- Tepēyōllōtl
- Tezcatlipoca (see Creator gods)
- Tláloc
- Tlazōlteōtl
- Xiuhtecuhtli
- Lords of the Day
- Acolnahuacatl
- Acuecueyotl (see Chalchiuhtlicue)
- Atlahua
- Atlacoya
- Chalchiuhtotolin
- Chantico
- Chicomecōātl
- Chīmalmā
- Cihuacōātl
- Cihuatecayotl
- Cipactonal
- Cōātlīcue
- Coyolxāuhqui
- Ehecatl
- Huēhuecoyōtl
- Huitztlampaehecatl
- Huixtocihuatl
- Ilamatecuhtli
- Ītzpāpālōtl
- Itzpapalotlcihuatl
- Itzpapalotltotec
- Itztlacoliuhqui
- Ixtlilton
- Macuiltochtli
- Macuilxochitl
- Malinalxochitl
- Mayahuel
- Metztli
- Mictlanpachecatl
- Mixcoatl
- Opochtli
- Oxomoco
- Painal
- Patecatl
- Tēcciztēcatl
- Temazcalteci
- Tepoztēcatl
- Tlacotzontli
- Tlalocayotl
- Tlilhua
- Toci
- Toltecatl
- Tonantzin
- Xilonen
- Xōchipilli
- Xōchiquetzal
- Xochitlicue
- Xocotl
- Xolotl
- Yacatecuhtli
- Zacatzontli
- Anahuac
- Aztlán
- Cemanahuac
- Chicomoztoc
- Huēyi Teōcalli
- Mictlān (The Underworld)
- Tamoanchan
- Teotihuacan
- Thirteen Heavens
- Tlālōcān
- Tlillan-Tlapallan
- Tōllān
practice
- Aubin Codex
- Aubin Manuscript no. 20
- Aubin Tonalamatl
- Codex Azcatitlan
- Codices Azoyú I & II
- Badianus Manuscript
- Codices Becker I & II
- Boban Aztec Calendar Wheel
- Codex Bodley
- Codex Borbonicus
- Codex Borgia
- Codex Boturini
- Mapas de Cuauhtinchan 1-4
- Codex Chimalpahin
- Codex Chimalpopoca
- Codex Colombino
- Codex Cospi
- Codex Cozcatzin
- Codex Dresden
- Codex Durán
- Codex Fejérváry-Mayer
- Codex Florentine
- Codex Huamantla
- Códice de Huichapan
- Codex Huexotzinco
- Humboldt fragment 1
- Codex Ixtlilxochitl
- Codex Laud
- Lienzo Antonio de León
- Lienzo de Coixtlahuaca I & II
- Lienzo de Santa María Nativitas
- Lienzo de Santiago Ihuitlan
- Lienzo de Zacatepec I & II
- Codex Madrid
- Codex Magliabechiano
- Matrícula de Tributos
- Codex Mexicanus
- Crónica Mexicayotl
- Códice Maya de México
- Codex Osuna
- Oztoticpac Lands Map of Texcoco
- Paris Codex
- Plano en papel de maguey
- Primeros Memoriales
- Codex Porfirio Díaz
- Mapa Quinatzin
- Codex Ramírez
- Codex Reese
- Relación de Michoacán
- Codex Ríos
- Romances de los señores de Nueva España
- Codex Santa Maria Asunción
- Selden Roll
- Mapa Sigüenza
- Codex Telleriano-Remensis
- Tira de Tepechpan
- Anales de Tlatelolco
- Codex Tlatelolco
- Mapa Tloztin
- Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca
- Codex Totomixtlahuaca
- Codex Tudela
- Anales de Tula
- Codex Vaticanus B
- Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I
- Codex Xolotl
- Codex Zouche-Nuttall