Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

TEZCATLIPOCA 311Teuhcatl (he of Teutlan)Local god of war. Aztec (classical Mesoamerican)[Mexico]. Also a hunting god and one of thegroup classed as the Mixcoatl complex.TeutatesLocal tribal deity. Romano-Celtic (Gallic).Known only from limited inscriptions. Teutatesmay be less the name of a deity than an epithetmeaning “great.” According to the Roman writerLucan, he is one of three Celtic gods encounteredby Caesar’s army in Gaul and the object ofsavage rites in which victims were drowned insacrificial lakes. He may equate with a British god,Totatis. He becomes assimilated variously toMercury or MARS. Also Teutatis.Tewi’xilakGod of goat-hunters. Dza’wadeenox Indian[British Columbia, Canada]. The eldest sonof the supreme god QA’WADILIQALA. Said tokill goats with great ease and feed the tribe.Attributes include a head band of red cedarbark.Tezcacoac Ayopechtli (mirror serpenttortoise bench)Birth goddess. Aztec (classical Mesoamerican)[Mexico]. An aspect of XOCHIQUETZAL. One ofthe group classed as the TETEOINNAN complex.TEZCATLIPOCA (smoking mirror)ORIGIN Aztec (classical Mesoamerican) [Mexico].Sun god.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP circa AD 750 toAD 1500, but probably much earlier.SYNONYMS Moyocoya.CENTER(S) OF CULT none.ART REFERENCES stone sculptures; murals; codexillustrations.LITERARY SOURCES pre-Columbian codices.According to creation mythology, the greatmother in the thirteenth heaven became pregnantand the 400 star gods who were jealous ofher child plotted to destroy it at birth. They wererestrained in a cavern, however, until the momentwhen Tezcatlipoca emerged, fully armed, fromhis mother and destroyed his enemies. His onlyally was his sister COYOLXAUHQUI, who was lostin the battle and whose head the god hurled intothe heavens to live there as the moon. Alternativetradition describes Tezcatlipoca as the product ofthe self-created primordial beings TONACATE-CUHTLI and TONACACIHUATL.He presides over the first of the five world agespersonified by the sun 4 OCELOTL. He is also theruler of the tenth of the thirteen heavens knownat the time of the Spanish conquest, Teotl Iztacan(the place of the white god).Tezcatlipoca and QUETZALCOATL are, in somecontexts, antagonists, but alternatively they worktogether to restore the shattered universe andinitiate the fifth (present) sun. Tezcatlipocatransformed himself into an avatara MIXCOATL-CAMAXTLI, the “red Tezcatlipoca” (also said tobe his son), to create fire. He is also the greatmagician who dragged the earth mother fromthe primordial waters in the form of a hugealligator, CIPACTLI. In the struggle she bit offhis left foot, but to prevent her from sinkingback into the waters of creation he tore out herlower jaw.Tezcatlipoca is the patron deity of young warriorsand is capable of excesses of cruelty. A sacrificialvictim was chosen annually and killed byhaving his heart torn out.The god is perceived in various aspects and colors,according to the position of the sun. In theeast he is yellow or white, in the south blue (see