Who is Mictlantecuhtli?
Mictlantecuhtli (pronounced Mict-lan-te-cuht-li, which means “Lord of Mictlan”) is a god of the dead and ruler of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan) in Aztec mythology.
He is one of the major gods in the Aztec pantheon and the foremost among the many gods and goddesses of death and the underworld. Worship of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism of human flesh inside and around the temple.
Other names for Mictlantecuhtli include Ixpuztec (“Broken Face”), Nextepehua (“Spreader of Ashes”), and Tzontemoc (“He Who Lowers His Head”).
Two full-size clay sculptures of Mictlantecuhtli were discovered at the entrance of the Eagles House which was located on the north side of the Great Tenochtitlan Temple.
Characteristics
Mictlantecuhtli is traditionally depicted as a towering figure over 1.8 meters tall, adorned with a skull or toothy skull mask. Although typically represented with a skull, he had eye pupils in his eye sockets. He is shown as a decorated figure wearing a necklace of human eyes and ears made of human bones.
This depiction of an Aztec god as a skeleton was not unique, as many other gods were also depicted with skulls in place of heads or wearing clothes or decorations made of bones and skulls, which symbolized fertility, health, and abundance, and implied close symbolic ties between life and death in the Aztec world.
As a lord of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli was often depicted wearing sandals as a symbol of his high rank. His arms were often shown raised in an aggressive gesture, indicating that he was ready to tear apart the dead who entered his presence. In Aztec codices, Mictlantecuhtli is depicted with his jawbone open to receive the stars that descend into him during the day.
His wife was Mictecacihuatl and they lived in a windowless house deep in Mictlan. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with spiders
