{"id":2386,"date":"2018-08-18T07:30:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T07:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2386"},"modified":"2026-02-26T08:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T08:59:24","slug":"tezcatlipoca-aztec-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/tezcatlipoca-aztec-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Tezcatlipoca (Aztec God): A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god<\/a> of night, wind and other traits was one of the most powerful god in Aztec mythology<\/a>. Often shown with a black stripe across his face and an obsidian mirror, he was both a creator and a destroyer, constantly challenging Quetzalcoatl<\/a> in cosmic battles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

AZTEC GODS \u2013 OVERVIEW<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The concept of \u2018god\u2019 in\u00a0Aztec\u00a0society is referred to as \u2018Teotl\u2019 in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec<\/a>.\u00a0 The Aztecs, like other Mesoamerican societies, had a wide pantheon of gods.\u00a0 The gods in the\u00a0Aztec religion\u00a0represented different aspects of life and the world for the Aztec people.\u00a0 The aspects that the gods represented included: culture of Aztec society<\/a> and Mesoamerica, nature and the natural world, creation stories, fertility, food, death and the underworld, trade and excess or entertainment.\u00a0 Each god had different attributes and personality traits and were usually represented in distinct ways by the Aztec.\u00a0 Some could take human or animal form and were celebrated in festivals and rituals.\u00a0 There were many\u00a0gods in the Aztec religion\u00a0but some of the most prominent included:\u00a0Huitzilopochtli<\/a>,\u00a0Quetzalcoatl<\/a>,\u00a0Tezcatlipoca, Mictl\u0101nt\u0113cuhtli<\/a>,\u00a0Tlaloc<\/a>, and Chicomec\u014d\u0101tl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aztec
Gods and religious traditions were an important part of Aztec culture. This image from the Codex Borbonicus, shows the Aztec gods: Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

TEZCATLIPOCA – SUMMARY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tezcatlipoca was a significant god in Aztec religion.  His name is translated as \u2018smoking mirror\u2019 in the Nahuatl language of the Aztec and he is often associated with several different concepts, including: the night sky, night winds, hurricanes, the north, jaguars, obsidian, and war.  In Aztec tradition Tezcatlipoca was considered to be an opposite and rival to Quetzalcoatl.  While Quetzalcoatl was considered to be more gentle in nature, Tezcatlipoca was supposedly more war-like.  There were several different myths and stories about Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl in Aztec tradition in relation to their rivalry.  Most notably, both were considered to be two of four Aztec gods (along with Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec) who created the world.  In this myth, each god is represented by a different color, with Tezcatlipoca being black and Quetzalcoatl being white.  This further highlights the idea that they were opposites of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a large temple honoring Tezcatlipoca in the Aztec capital of\u00a0Tenochtitlan<\/a>.\u00a0 Diego Dur\u00e1n, a Dominican friar who authored one of the first books on Aztec history and culture titled \u2018The History of the Indies of New Spain\u2019 wrote the following of the Tezcatlipoca temple in Tenochtitlan:\u00a0 “lofty and magnificently built. Eighty steps led to a landing twelve or fourteen feet wide. Beyond it stood a wide, long chamber the size of a great hall…”\u00a0 There were other temples celebrating him throughout the Aztec Empire<\/a>.\u00a0 The main festival held for Tezcatlipoca was called Toxcatl and occurred in the 5th month of the Aztec calendar<\/a>.\u00a0 In preparation for the festival, a young man was usually chosen to represent Tezcatlipoca.\u00a0 He would dress in the likeness of the god, and carry out functions for the Aztec people on behalf of Tezcatlipoca for an entire year.\u00a0 During that year, he was treated like a god by the people, but at the time of the Toxcatl festival the young man was\u00a0sacrificed<\/a>\u00a0in honor of Tezcatlipoca.\u00a0 It was considered an honor to represent Tezcatlipoca for the Aztec and young men did it willingly and with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aztec
Aztec Mosaic Skull of Tezcatlipoca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tezcatlipoca was one of the most important Aztec gods. His name is translated as \u2018smoking mirror\u2019 in the Nahuatl language of the Aztec and he is often associated with several different concepts, including: the night sky, night winds, hurricanes, the north, jaguars, obsidian, and war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":28,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,80],"tags":[77,15,79],"class_list":["post-2386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aztec-empire","category-mesoamerica","tag-aztec-empire","tag-history","tag-mesoamerica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2386"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5793,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions\/5793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}