Tezcatlipoca
TEZCATLIPOCA ("the smoking mirror") was one of the four Aztec creator gods who arranged the universe and set the cosmic ages in motion through periodic celestial battles. Tezcatlipoca was sometimes cast as the supernatural antagonist of Quetzalcoatl, the deity associated with cultural creativity, urban order, and priestly wisdom. Yet Tezcatlipoca has the most overwhelming power and protean personality of any Aztec deity. Among his aspects were Itztli, a calendar god; Tepeyolotl, an ancient jaguar-earth god; Ixquimilli-Itztla-coaliuhqui, a god of punishment; and Omacatl, the spirit of revelry. His many forms reflect the omnipotent character of numinous forces in Aztec religion. The range of Tezcatlipoca's power is perhaps best represented in his designation as "the enemy on both sides."
As in all pictorial representations of Mesoamerican deities, Tezcatlipoca's costume contains elements crucial to his identification. His primary emblem, a smoking mirror made of obsidian, is often depicted as a circular disk with a shaft through it and two curling forms representing smoke attached to the edges. The mirror emblem is located either in the deity's headdress or in place of one foot. According to one source, his foot was bitten off by an earth monster during the struggle for the creation of the world. On the social level, this emblem of the smoking mirror was intimately associated with the divine power of the Aztec tlatoani (king).
Tezcatlipoca's specific ritual significance was expressed in the great annual festival of Toxcatl. In book 2 of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún's Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España (compiled 1569–1582; also known as the Florentine Codex), we learn that for a full year prior to Toxcatl, Tezcatlipoca's ixiptla (deity impersonator) lived in the Aztec capital in complete splendor and honor, treated as a great lord. Usually a captive warrior, the ixiptla had to be physically perfect in size, proportion, skin color, and beauty. By women he was called "tall one, head nodder, handful of stars." He moved regally about the capital dressed in flower headdresses and luxurious ornaments, carrying his smoking pipe and flute and speaking graciously to all who greeted him. Twenty days prior to his sacrifice at the height of Toxcatl, the ixiptla was given four beautiful maidens in marriage. Following his heart sacrifice to the Sun, his head was strung on the public skull rack in the main ceremonial center of Tenochtitlán. Of the dramatic turnabout in the life of Tezcatlipoca's impersonator, the Florentine Codex states: "And this betokeneth our life on earth. For he who rejoiceth, who possesseth riches, who seeketh and coveteth our lord's sweetness, his gentleness—riches and property—thus endeth in great misery. For it is said, 'None come to an end here upon earth with happiness, riches and wealth'" (trans. Anderson and Dibble, vol. 2, p. 69).
According to the sacred historical traditions of the Aztec, which trace back to the paradigmatic kingdom of Tollan (900–1100 CE), Tezcatlipoca, a great sorcerer, drew uncanny powers from his obsidian mirror in a struggle against the Toltec priest-king Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl ("our young prince the feathered serpent"). Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl was tricked into drunkenness and sexual incontinence, which led to the utter collapse of his well-ordered city-state. Several primary sources suggest that the conflict between the great king and his magical antagonist was centered on Tezcatlipoca's desire to replace animal and insect sacrifice with human sacrifice.
Bibliography
Brundage, Burr C. The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World. Austin, 1979. See especially Brundage's insightful chapter, "The Quality of the Numinous" (pp. 50–79), and his detailed discussion of the deity in "Tezcatlipoca" (pp. 108–126).
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, vol. 2, The Ceremonies. Translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. Santa Fe, N. Mex., 1951. This remarkable translation is one of the richest sources for the study of Aztec religion, in that it contains a detailed description, provided by Aztec elders shortly after the Conquest, of the great ceremony of Toxcatl, which was dedicated to Tezcatlipoca. It provides the reader with a vivid example of the complex and contradictory forces symbolized by Tezcatlipoca.
New Sources
Barjau, Luis. Tezcatlipoca: Elementos de una teología nahua (Tezcatlipoca: Elements of a Nahua Theology). Mexico City, 1991.
Miller, Mary and Karl Taube. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London, 1993.
Olivier, Guilhem. Moqueries et metamorphoses du'an dieu aztèque: Tezcatlipoca, le "Seigneur au miroir fumant" (Mockeries and Metamorphasis of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, the 'man of the smoking mirror'). Paris, 1997.
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