Astronomical Deities in Ancient Mesoamerica

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Chapter Title Astronomical Deities in Ancient Mesoamerica

Copyright Year 2014

Copyright Holder Springer Science+Business Media New York

Corresponding Author Family Name Milbrath

Particle

Given Name Susan

Suffix

Division/Department Florida Museum of Natural History

Organization/University University of Florida

City Gainesville

State FL

Country USA

Email [email protected]

Abstract The best known astronomical deities in ancient Mesoamerica are the sun,

moon, and Venus. The Milky Way was also deified, and its constellations were

visualized as celestial animals or locations. The sun and Venus were male

deities, but the moon had both male and female aspects. Some of these concepts

survive today in Mesoamerican ethnographic accounts referencing different

transformations of the moon.

Comp. by: SSARATHKUMAR Stage: Proof Chapter No.: 55 Title Name: HBAEDate:27/7/13 Time:17:30:12 Page Number: 1

1 Astronomical Deities in Ancient2 Mesoamerica 553 Susan Milbrath

4 Contents

5 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

6 Sacred Star Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

7 Venus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

8 Solar Deities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

9 Sun and Moon Paired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

10 Lunar Deities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

12Abstract

13 The best known astronomical deities in ancient Mesoamerica are the sun, moon,

14 and Venus. The Milky Way was also deified, and its constellations were visu-

15 alized as celestial animals or locations. The sun and Venus were male deities, but

16 the moon had both male and female aspects. Some of these concepts survive

17 today in Mesoamerican ethnographic accounts referencing different transforma-

18 tions of the moon.

19 Introduction

20 Mesoamerica includes a rich array of astronomical imagery, best known from the

21 lowland Maya and highland Aztec cultures of the Postclassic period

22 (AD 900–1520). This chapter focuses on deities representing the sun, moon, and

23 Venus. Other planets were certainly worshipped, but the associated deities are not

S. Milbrath

Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

e-mail: [email protected]

C.L.N. Ruggles (ed.), Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy,

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_55,# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

1

mailto:[email protected]


24 recorded in ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources. These accounts most often

25 refer to deities of the sun, moon, and Venus but also provide some information

26 about deification of the Milky Way and important star groups.

27 Sacred Star Groups

28 Although more commonly seen as a road, a river, or a place of death, the Milky

29 Way is sometimes visualized as a celestial snake among the contemporary Maya,

30 a reptilian form that may also be evident in Classic Maya art (AD 300–900;

31 Milbrath 1999). This Milky Way “Cosmic Monster” can be represented with

32 a skyband body that bears symbols of the sun, moon, and Venus. A skyband also

33 appears on the Cosmic Monster in Postclassic codices (painted screenfold books),

34 as on Dresden Codex 74, where a Venus God (God L) is paired with the aged

35 goddess O (see Au1“▶Astronomy in the Dresden Codex,” Fig. 55.5). The Postclassic

36 Paris Codex (23–24) depicts a Maya zodiac of 13 constellations, showing five

37 animal constellations on a skyband, symbolizing star groups at the intersection of

38 the Milky Way and ecliptic. Among these are a turtle referencing stars in Orion,

39 a rattlesnake constellation that includes the Pleiades, and a fish-snake formed by

40 stars in Sagittarius (Bricker and Bricker 2011). There is also a scorpion constella-

41 tion representing stars in Scorpius, a surprising and rare congruency with western

42 astronomy. This zodiac accompanies an 1,820-day almanac comprised of five

43 periods of 364 days, each subdivided into sets of 28 days, probably used for

44 computing the sidereal lunar month (Aveni 2001).

45 The Aztecs of highland Central Mexico worshipped the Milky Way as a male

46 and female couple known as Citlaltonac (“resplendent stars”) and Citlalicue

47 (“star skirt”), a goddess also called the “mother of the gods” (Sahagun

48 1950–1982; Seler 1990–2000). This Central Mexican avatar of the Milky Way

49 also appears in the Codex Borgia, which depicts her in an elongated form with a star

50 skirt (Fig. 55.1, Borgia 46; Milbrath 2013). Fire serpents in the central scene may

51 symbolize the stars in Scorpius on the Milky Way. This fire serpent is represented

52 more graphically by a serpent with a curved row of stars on its snout in Aztec art

53 (Milbrath 1980, 1997). To the Aztecs, star groups on the Milky Way were espe-

54 cially important. The Pleiades, described as the celestial “marketplace,” was the

55 focus of the New Fire Ceremony every 52 years in November (Milbrath 1980;

56 Sahagun 1980–1982). Other Milky Way constellations include a bird with

57 a bloodletter symbolizing the Southern Cross (Aveni 2001; Milbrath 2013).

58 Venus

59 Feathered serpent images seem to be related to Venus throughout Mesoamerica

60 (Milbrath 1999). Sometimes, Venus symbols are attached to the feathered serpent

61 or his anthropomorphic counterpart, known as Quetzalcoatl (“feathered serpent”) in

62 Central Mexico and Kukulcan in the Maya area (Milbrath 1999). In the central

2 S. Milbrath

http://dx.doi.org/

Chapter 65 is the correct chapter, this citation to 55.5 seems to be wrong. Is it 65.5?


63 highlands, the wind god aspect of Venus, called Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, is associated

64 with round temples, a link also seen in the Maya lowlands of Yucatan with

65 Kukulcan. Aztec ethnohistorical accounts identify Quetzalcoatl as a culture hero

66 who descended into the underworld for 8 days and was transformed into the

67 Morning Star, called Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (“lord of the House of Dawn”). This

68 is a metaphor for Venus transitioning from Evening Star to Morning Star during

69 8 days of inferior conjunction (Aveni 2001; Milbrath 2013). A Central Mexican

70 narrative in the Codex Borgia shows Quetzalcoatl being transformed by fire at the

71 center of the scene on page 46 (Fig. 55.1, Borgia 46). Below, the next scene in

72 the narrative shows Quetzalcoatl drilling a fire on the back of a fire serpent encasing

Fig. 55.1 Codex Borgia 46. Framing elements represent the goddess of the Milky Way, and

Quetzalcoatl burning in a fire surrounded by Fire Serpents in the center alludes to Venus

transitioning from superior conjunction to the Evening Star, who emerges to drill a fire on the

Fire Serpent constellation, representing stars in Scorpius on the western horizon at dusk in

November

55 Astronomical Deities in Ancient Mesoamerica 3


73 the Fire God, Xiuhtecuhtli, apparently referring to the dusk rise of the Evening Star,

74 when Venus was in Scorpius just above the western horizon (Milbrath 2013).

75 Venus imagery in Yucatan often appears to be linked with the number eight,

76 referencing either eight days of inferior conjunction or the 8-year cycle of the

77 Venus almanac. Integration of five synodical Venus cycles with the solar year

78 resulted in a seasonal almanac that repeated after a short period of 8 years, as

79 seen in Mesoamerican codices with Venus almanacs. Tlauhuizcalpantecuhtli is the

80 dominant figure in Postclassic Venus almanacs of Central Mexico (Codex Borgia,

81 Cospi, and Vaticanus B), but subtle variations in the Codex Borgia show that the

82 god of the Morning Star had five different aspects (Milbrath 2013). The Maya

83 Dresden Codex (46–50) also shows five variants of the Morning Star, but here

84 Tlauhuizcalpantecuhtli (Dresden 48) is only one of the five different avatars of

85 Venus, each apparently representing a different seasonal aspect of the Morning Star

86 (Milbrath 1999). On Dresden 49, the Central Mexican fire god appears as a dry

87 season avatar of Venus. Dresden 46 represents a different seasonal aspect of Venus,

88 here in the guise of the Postclassic Maya deity God L, known as a lord of the

89 underworld in Classic Maya art.

90 Another Classic Maya Venus god appears as one of triad of brothers in myth-

91 ological texts at Palenque. A Mopan legend collected in the early twentieth century

92 identifies a related triad, naming, Venus as the elder brother, the sun as the third

93 born, and the middle brother being either Jupiter or Mars (Milbrath 1999;

94 Thompson 1930). Both these planets were probably worshipped in Precolumbian

95 Mesoamerica, but information on them is scarce. A “Mars Beast” does appear in

96 two Postclassic Maya codices (Madrid and Dresden; Aveni 2001; Bricker and

97 Bricker 2011). He may also have a Classic period counterpart represented by

98 a celestial deer (Milbrath 1999). K’awil, a god of royal lineages, is associated

99 with royal rituals linked to dated events involving Jupiter and Saturn (Milbrath

100 2004). His counterpart in Central Mexico may be Tezcatlipoca (“smoking mirror”),

101 a god of the night sky who seems to be connected with the moon and various

102 planets, and also Ursa Major (Milbrath 2013).

103 Solar Deities

104 The principal Central Mexican solar god is Tonatiuh (“sun”), often represented as

105 youthful warrior with a rayed disk (Fig. 55.2, Borgia 55, right). Tonatiuh is rarely

106 mentioned in mythology, but both Piltzintecuhtli (“prince lord”) and Xochipilli

107 (“flower prince”) appear in mythic cycles. Piltzintecuhtli is most probably the sun’s

108 nocturnal avatar. Xochipilli, a youthful solar god, seems to be linked with the rainy

109 season, the season of flowers and butterflies (Milbrath 2013). Huitzilopochtli

110 (“hummingbird of the south”) seems to represent a dry season aspect of the sun

111 (Milbrath 1997). His name and costuming indicate that he is closely associated with

112 the hummingbird. Other birds representing the sun in Aztec cosmology include the

113 eagle and roseate spoonbill (Milbrath 2013).

4 S. Milbrath


114 Among the Maya, the sun’s animal avatars include the red macaw, the hum-

115 mingbird, and the puma (Milbrath 1999). The sun incarnate is Kinich Ahau (“sun

116 lord”) in Classic and Postclassic texts. Kinich Ahau is youthful in Classic Maya art,

117 but in the Postclassic codices, he is an aged, bearded male who is known as

118 God G. A separate deity, Hun Ahau (“one lord”), one of the youthful Hero Twins

119 who plays ball in the underworld, represents an underworld aspect of the sun. Hun

120 Ahau can be linked with the third born of the Palenque triad (GIII), who also

121 represents a nocturnal aspect of the sun (Milbrath 1999). In the Palenque triad,

122 a lunar goddess (“Lady Egret”) is the mother of the three brothers, but more often

123 the moon and sun as siblings or youthful rivals.

124 Sun and Moon Paired

125 Chatino ethnographic accounts from the highlands of Oaxaca say the sun and

126 moon are brothers who rose up to the sky on their mother’s cotton thread

127 (Baez-Jorge 1988). In a similar fashion, the Classic Maya solar twin, Hun Ahau,

128 is paired with his lunar twin, Yax Balam (“first Jaguar”). They are the counterparts

129 of Hunahpu (“one hunter”) and his twin brother, Xbalanque, who is a jaguar aspect

130 of the moon in the colonial-period Tıtulo de Totonicapan (Milbrath 1999). Like the

131 Popol Vuh, this chronicle describes the primordial birth of the sun and moon, with

132 Hunahpu as the first to emerge from the underworld, followed closely thereafter by

133 Xbalanque.

134 Aztec accounts of the birth of the sun and moon are somewhat similar, with the

135 sun emerging before the moon, and the pair being youthful males (but not brothers).

136 Legends say that Nanahuatl threw himself into the fire and emerged as the resplen-

137 dent sun, but the cowardly Nahuitecpatl (“4 Knife”) or Metztli (“moon”) entered

138 the fire after it had died down, so the moon was not burned, only covered with ashes,

139 apparently an explanation of why the moon is darker than the sun (Milbrath 2013;

140 Sahagun 1950–1982).

Fig. 55.2 Codex Borgia 55, detail. On the right is Tonatiuh, the sun god with his solar disk, andon the left is Tlazolteotl with the lunar symbol showing the rabbit on the moon



141 Almanacs recording subdivisions of the 260-day calendar in the codices pair

142 Tecciztecatl (“conch-shell lord”) with Tonatiuh, contrasting the sun’s youthful

143 appearance as a warrior with that of Tecciztecatl, who is invariably old and often

144 bearded, and sometimes has attributes of a priest. Another pairing of the sun

145 and moon is seen in the solar god Xochipill who is married to the lunar goddess,

146 Xochiquetzal (“flower quetzal”), both being rainy season deities associated

147 with butterflies and flowers. The Codex Borgia 57 shows them as an antagonistic

148 marital pair, for Xochiquetzal turns her back on Xochipilli, just as the moon seems

149 to move away from the sun right after the new moon (Fig. 55.3, Borgia 57;

150 Milbrath 2013).

151 Aztec legends also recount an antagonistic pairing of the sun and moon in

152 the legend of Huitzilopochtli and his sister, Coyolxauhqui (“she of the bells”).

153 The Aztec festival of Panquetzaliztli reenacted Huitzilopochtli’s triumph over

154 Coyolxauhqui at the onset of the dry season in November. The newborn

155 Huitzilopochtli decapitates Coyolxauhqui with the Xiuhcoatl (the fire serpent),

156 a creature symbolizing stars in Scorpius seen on the western horizon in

157 November during Panquetzaliztli (Milbrath 1997). The birth of Huitzilopochtli

158 represents the seasonal triumph of the sun in the dry season, when

159 the sun dominated the cloudless sky (Milbrath 1980). The myth also refers to

160 the water drying up after Coyolxauhqui was decapitated, another metaphor

161 of seasonal transition. Because the Aztecs believed that the moon died

162 when it disappeared at the time of the new moon (Sahagun 1950–1982), the

Fig. 55.3 Codex Borgia 57, Deities pairs as marital couples. Among the couples only the solar

and lunar deities are in disaccord, with Xochiquetzal, the young Moon Goddess, turning away

from the solar god Xochipilli. Both deities have similar seasonal associations, being associated

with flowers and butterflies, which are abundant during the rainy season

6 S. Milbrath


163 death of the moon goddess in the legend could allude to the new moon, or

164 alternatively, her death could symbolize a lunar eclipse at the time of the full

165 moon (Milbrath 1997).

166 Lunar Deities

167 Because of the complexity of lunar imagery, the remainder of this chapter focuses

168 on the moon. Many lunar attributes seem to be linked with gender roles. Female

169 lunar imagery is dominant, but male moon deities can be recognized in Maya and

170 Central Mexican art, and occasionally, the same deity has both male and female

171 avatars. Female lunar deities are often linked to spinning, weaving, and childbirth,

172 all feminine activities. Male lunar deities are involved in masculine roles, such as

173 ball playing or the priesthood. Some ethnographic accounts from Central Mexico

174 describe the moon as a bisexual being with both male and female aspects (Milbrath

175 1995, 1999; Sandstrom and Sandstrom 1986). Usually Au2, a female aspect of the moon

176 controls menstruation, as among the Quiche Maya and the Tepehua, Nahua people

177 who call this lunar goddess the Red Siren. This realm, however, is not always under

178 the control of a feminine moon, for the Totonac of Veracruz say that the Moon God

179 controls menstruation and formation of the fetus.

180 Among the Nahua, Tonantsi (“our sacred mother”) and the Virgin of Guadalupe

181 are equated with the moon, just as the Aztecs identified Tonantzin (Tonan) with the

182 Virgin during the early colonial period (Broda de Casas 1991; Sahagun 1950–1982;

183 Sandstrom and Sandstrom 1986). Tonantsi, the most important spirit in Nahua

184 religious thought, is associated with positive aspects of the moon. She is also an

185 earth deity because she lives in a sacred cave on earth and controls the seeds,

186 including most prominently maize (Sandstrom 1991; Sandstrom and Sandstrom

187 1986). Thompson (1971) Au3noted long ago that there is a link between the moon

188 and maize agriculture in ethnographic accounts, and this connection is confirmed

189 in Classic Maya images that show the moon merged with the Maize God

190 (Milbrath 1999).

191 During the Classic period, the Moon Goddess is most often youthful, like

192 Goddess I in the Postclassic codices, but there are both young and old moon deities

193 in the codices, and also male and female aspects, with varying seasonal associa-

194 tions. On Dresden 74, the aged Goddess O pouring water is probably an aged aspect

195 of the moon producing rainfall during the rainy season, whereas on Madrid 79, an

196 aged lunar goddess is weaving, performing an activity associated with the dry

197 season (Figs. 55.4, 55.5; Milbrath 1999). Specific lunar phases may be implicated

198 in the gender of the moon, as seen in the colonial-period Popol Vuh, where

199 Xbalanque may represent the full moon and a youthful goddess could be the

200 moon in other phases (Tedlock 1985). Xbalanque seems related to the Postclassic

201 God CH, who is a youthful, jaguar-spotted god (Milbrath 1999).

202 Thompson (1972) identified most of the females in the Dresden Codex as the

203 Postclassic Maya Moon Goddess. Some have questioned his identifications

204 (Bricker and Bricker 2011), but multiple lunar deities would seem to be the norm



205 in ethnographic accounts, where the moon plays many different roles. Variations in

206 representations of the lunar complex may allude to different lunar phases or

207 seasons. There is also a similar multiplicity of lunar deities in highland Central

208 Mexico (Milbrath 1995, 1999, 2013).

209 Although the highland Moon God, Tecciztecatl, is usually an aged male, he

210 appears as an aged female in one section of the Codex Borgia (10). His name,

211 Conch-shell Lord, links him with a marine environment, evoking how the moon

212 controls the tides. As previously noted, he is co-regent with the sun god, Tonatiuh,

213 in the 260-day calendar, and in this context, Tecciztecatl is sometimes fused with

214 Tezcatlipoca, as on Codex Borbonicus 6. Tezcatlipoca shares traits with the moon.

215 Like the ever-changing moon, he is a master of deception. Tezcatlipoca has many

216 disguises in the epic tale of his conflicts with the Venus god, Quetzalcoatl. He

217 transforms himself into an old man, a naked Huastec, and an old woman, and he

218 also appears as a spider that transforms itself into a jaguar in a ball game with

219 Quetzalcoatl (Sahagun 1950–1982).

220 Tezcatlipoca seems to have so many different aspects that he may embody the

221 night itself, including the stars, planets, and the moon (Milbrath 2013). Tepeyollotl,

222 the jaguar aspect of Tezcatlipoca, is a calendar deity in a number of contexts, and he

223 plays a nocturnal role as eighth Lord of the Night. Another avatar of Tezcatlipoca

Fig. 55.4 Madrid Codex30a, Aged Goddess O pours

water during the rainy season

(After Milbrath 1999,

Fig. 4.8a)

8 S. Milbrath


224 (Itztli) appears as second among the Lords of the Night, a calendar sequence of nine

225 deities that may embody a lunar count (Milbrath 2013).

226 In Central Mexico, Xochiquetzal is a weaving goddess who seems to represent

227 the moon in her role as wife of a solar god (Xochipilli or Piltzintecuhtli in different

228 mythic cycles). According to the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (22v), Xochiquetzal

229 was the patroness of pregnant women, and those that knew how to spin, weave, and

230 embroider honored her because she was the first to spin and weave. Xochiquetzal

231 was honored in the Aztec festival of Atamalcualiztli, a ceremony performed every

232 8 years (Sahagun 1950–1982, 1997; Nicholson 1971). The timing of the ceremony

233 corresponds to an 8-year cycle of 99 lunar months that coordinates with five Venus

234 cycles of 584 days each (Milbrath 2000, 2013).

235 In the Aztec festival of Hueypachtli, a young woman impersonating

236 Xochiquetzal was sacrificed. A man then donned her skin and deity costume and

237 was forced to weave (Sahagun 1950–1982). This transformation of the goddess

238 represents a gender change, and the peculiar act of making a man to do a woman’s

239 work relates to the gender ambiguity surrounding the cult of the lunar deities


241 Tlazolteotl is often identified as a lunar deity, although she clearly represents

242 a different lunar goddess than Xochiquetzal (Milbrath 1995, 2013; Thompson

243 1939). She is most closely connected with spinning and cotton, whereas

244 Xochiquetzal is linked to weaving and embroidery. Spinning is a generic female

245 task appropriate to Tlazolteotl’s role as a goddess of the moon. Spinning itself

246 may be linked to the waxing and waning of the moon, as the spindle grows

247 fat with thread, just as the moon grows round as it waxes (Sullivan 1982).

Fig. 55.5 Madrid Codex79c while her aged dry seasoncounterpart weaves cloth

during the dry season (After

Milbrath 1999, Fig. 4.9a)



248 This in turn becomes a metaphor for pregnancy with the winding thread

249 representing the growing fetus. Tlazolteotl is the Moon Goddess in her role as

250 the goddess of childbirth. Her association with snake imagery probably symbolizes

251 the moon’s monthly trip into the interior of the earth, the abode of snakes,

252 and possibly also the serpentine path of the moon. Maya lunar goddesses are

253 similarly associated with snakes, pregnancy, childbirth, spinning and weaving


255 Tlazolteotl wears the yacametztli (“nose moon”) ornament and also appears

256 alongside a moon symbol in a number of contexts (Fig. 55.2;Borgia 55, left). She is

257 one of the nine Lords of the Night, and a lunar symbol sometimes replaces the

258 goddess in this sequence of nine deities (Codex Cospi). Tlazolteotl may be

259 connected with both the moon and the earth (Sullivan 1982; Thompson 1939).

260 Among the Huastecs today, where the cult to Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina may have origi-

261 nated, the goddess of the earth and water is also a goddess of the moon (Sullivan

262 1982). Ixcuina is a Huastec word, meaning “lady cotton,” which is appropriate to

263 her origin in the Huasteca, the chief center for cotton production. The earth-mother

264 goddesses all seem to display “lunar connections” and that this is particularly true

265 of Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina (Nicholson 1971). As Ixcuina, she is also a goddess of salt in

266 the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (17v), apparently because the moon plays an

267 important role in tides that affect salt harvesting.

268 Whereas Tlazolteotl is a woman of childbearing age (Codex Borbonicus 13) and

269 has a close connection with women who died in childbirth (Cihuapipiltin),

270 Teteoinnan (“mother of the gods”) and her alter ego, Toci (“our grandmother”),

271 both represent aged aspects of the moon (Milbrath 2013). Sahagun (1950–1982)

272 records that Teoteoinnan-Toci was worshipped by fortune-tellers, physicians, mid-

273 wives, and owners of sweat baths. Medicine and childbirth were also the domains of

274 the Maya Moon Goddess in the codices, but youthful aspects of the moon goddess

275 dominate these realms, whereas the aged lunar goddess is associated with water and

276 weaving (Thompson 1960, 1972).

277 Lunar iconography is evident in the decapitation of Teteoinnan-Toci’s imper-

278 sonator during Ochpaniztli, coinciding with the autumn equinox. During the festi-

279 val, a woman representing the goddess was decapitated, and the priest who donned

280 her skin was called tecciszcuacuilli, a name that probably refers to the Moon God,

281 Tecciztecatl (Gonzalez Torres 1975; Sahagun 1950–1982). A transformation from

282 female to male in lunar imagery associated with decapitation may symbolize the

283 changing lunar phases.

284 The rabbit on the moon (Fig. 55.2, left), a pan-Mesoamerican counterpart for our

285 “man on the moon,” is an image closely associated with the Central Mexican

286 pulque cult, for the pulque gods were sometimes referred to collectively as the

287 “400 rabbits.” Pulque gods wearing the yacametztli ornament have all been

288 interpreted as lunar deities (Seler 1990–2000), but their lunar connection derives

289 primarily from observations of the lunar phases, which are important in planting

290 and tapping the maguey cactus used to make pulque (Milbrath 2013). A lunar

291 connection is also seen in the goddess of the maguey plant, Mayahuel, who was

292 a goddess of weaving, like Tlazolteotl, but instead of cotton, she wove maguey fiber

10 S. Milbrath


293 used in the clothing of the poor – making her a “poor man’s Tlazolteotl” (Milbrath

294 2013; Sullivan 1982).

295 The multiple roles the moon plays in art and rituals mirror the complexity of

296 lunar imagery seen in modern ethnographic accounts from Mesoamerica. We are

297 fortunate that ethnographic and ethnohistoric data allow us to recognize a number

298 of important patterns for astronomical deities in ancient Mesoamerica. Future

299 research on calendar rituals holds promise for helping to determine more about

300 the role of astronomy in religion.

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334 America Research and University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City

335 Sahagun FB de (1997) Primeros memoriales: paleography of Nahuatl text and English translation

336 by Thelma D. Sullivan, completed and revised with additions by H. B. Nicholson, Arthur J. O.

337 Anderson, Charles E. Dibble, Eloise Quinones Keber, and Wayne Ruwet. University of

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342 University of Oklahoma Press, Norman

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344 Mexico City

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350 pp 7–35

351 Tedlock D (1985) Popol Vuh. Simon and Schuster, New York

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360 American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia

12 S. Milbrath


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Astronomical Deities in Ancient Mesoamerica