The birth of Huitzilopochtli.

I can’t help comparing the playfulness of the North American Indian tales with the severity of the Mexican Indian myths. While the American Indian trickster is a mix of a god, a cheater and a fool, the characters of the Mexican tales are solemn, violent and terribly powerful gods. Sometimes they seem to have in them a small part of the trickster attitude as well, but no one would ever dare to mock them.

One of my favorite Mexican Indian myths is the one that recounts the birth of Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli was the god of war - like Ares was for the Greeks - and he was the principal deity of the Aztec people. Because I wanted to share this myth with you, I have attempted to translate it from Miguel Leon-Portilla’s spanish version. I tried to keep the rhythm that characterizes the original tale, which shows particularly well the Indian oral tradition. In a way, the verse and the repetition is very much like the Navajo Night Chant; only the theme and tone of this myth is… well, slightly different.

Anyway, I hope you will be as fascinated and throughly horrified as I was when I first encountered this story.

In Coatepec, close to Tula,

There a woman had been living

There a woman lived

Called Coatlicue.

She was the mother of the 400 Southerners

And of a sister of theirs,

Called Coyolxauhqui.

And this Coatlicue was doing penitence there

She swept, she was in charge of the sweeping,

That’s how she did her penitence,

In Coatepec, the Mountain of the Snake.

And once,

When Coatlicue was sweeping,

Out of the sky came a plumage

Like a fine ball of feathers.

Right away, Coatlicue picked it up,

And put it in between her breasts.

When she was done with the sweeping,

She searched for the feathers between her breasts

But there was nothing there.

That’s how Coatlicue became pregnant.

When the 400 Southerners learned that their mother was pregnant,

They were very angry and said:

“Who has done this to her?

Who got her pregnant?

He is insulting us, he is dishonoring us.”

And their sister, Coyolxauhqui told them:

“Brothers, she is the one dishonoring us,

We shall kill our mother,

The perverse one, already with child.”

When Coatlicue found out about this,

She was very frightened,

She was very sad.

But her son, Huitzilopochtli, already in her womb,

Confronted her, told her:

“Fear not

I already know what I should do.”

Having heard her son’s words,

Coatlicue was comforted,

Her heart calmed down,

She felt at ease.

In the meanwhile, the 400 Southerners

Got together to reach an agreement

And unanimously determined

To kill their mother,

For she had dishonored them all.

They were very angry

They were very upset,

It was as if their hearts would jump right out of their chests.

Coyolxauhqui urged them all the time,

She invigorated the fury of her brothers

So that they would kill their mother.

And the 400 Southerners

Prepared themselves

And put on war clothes.

And these 400 Southerners

Were like captains

They twisted and tangled their hair,

Like warriors they fixed their hair.

But one of them called Cuahuitlicac

Was untrue in his words

What the other Southerners said

He immediately went to tell,

To communicate to Huitzilopochtli.

And Huitzilopochtli’s answer was:

“Be careful, stay vigilant, 

My uncle, I know quite well what I must do.”

So when the 400 Southerners were finally decided,

When they had reached an agreement

To kill, to finish off their mother,

They started to move forward,

Guided by Coyolxauhqui.

They were well strengthened, well dressed,

Well prepared for the war,

They distributed their paper-clothes,

Their anecúyotl, their bracelets,

Their flaps of painted paper;

They tied little bells around their ankles,

Those bells called oyohualli.

Their arrows had barbed tips.

Then they started to move,

They walked in order, in a line,

In a neat arrangement,

And Coyolxauhqui guided them.

But Cuahuitlicac went up into the mountain

To talk to Huitzilopochtli

And he told him:

“They are coming.”

Huitzilopochtli answered:

“Pay close attention and tell me from where they’re coming.”

Then Cuahuitlicac said:

“They are coming from Tzompantitlan.”

And once again Huitzilopochtli asked him:

“From where are they coming now?”

Cuahuitlicac answered:

“They are coming from Coaxalpan.”

And again Huitzilopochtli asked Cuahuitlicac:

“Look well and tell me where are they.”

Right away Cuahuitlicac replied:

“They are now in the mountain slope.”

And yet another time Huitzilopochtil said:

“Pay attention, tell me where are they.”

And so Cuahuitlícac said:

“They are already in the mountain top, they are coming,

Coyolxauhqui is guiding them.”

In that precise moment Huitzilopochtli was born;

He wore his war clothing,

He took his shield made from eagle feathers,

His darts, his blue dart thrower,

The so-called turquoise dart thrower.

He painted his face

With diagonal strips,

With the color called “child paint”.

On his head he wore fine feathers,

He also put on his earmuffs.

And one foot, the left one, was dried up,

But it was wearing a sandal covered with feathers,

And Huitzilopochtli’s legs and arms

Where painted in blue.

Then the so-called Tochancalqui

Set fire to the snake made of torches – called Xiuhcoatl,

And this snake obeyed Huitzilopochtli.

Huitzilopochtli used the snake to wound Coyolxauhqui,

And he cut off her head,

Which fell to laid abandoned

In the slope of Coatepec,

The Mountain of the Snake.

Coyolxauhqui’s body

Rolled down the slope,

It fell down to pieces,

On different places laid her hands,

Her legs, her body.

Then Huitzilopochtli straightened up,

And persecuted the 400 Southerners,

He harassed them, he made them scatter

From the mountaintop of Coatepec,

The Mountain of the Snake.

And when he had followed them

To the foot of the mountain,

He persecuted them,

He chased them as if they were rabbits.

In vain they tried doing something against him,

In vain they moved at the beat of the bells,

In vain they shook their shields.

There was nothing they could do,

There was nothing they could achieve,

They had nothing to defend themselves with.

Huitzilopochtli chased them, frightened them,

Destroyed them, annihilated them.

And even then,

He continued to pursue them.

They begged quite a lot, and said:

“Stop already!”

But Huitzilopochtli was not satisfied,

With more strength he fought against them.

Just a few managed to escape,

And were able to run free from Huitzilopochtli’s hands.

They went south,

Those few who were able to escape from Huitzilopochtli’s hands,

And their name is 400 Southerners.

And when Huitzilopochtli had killed many,

When his rage diminished,

He took their clothes, their finery, their anecuyotl,

And wore it all, took all for himself,

Made all those things his badges.

And this Huitzilopochtli, it was said,

Was like a portent,

Because with just one fine feather

Felled from the sky into his mothers womb

He was conceived.

He never had a father.

He was worshiped by the mexica people,

For him they offered sacrifices,

He was honored and served by them.

And Huitzilopochtli rewarded

He who worshipped him like that.

And his cult came from that place,

From Coatepec, the Mountain of the Snake,

As it had happened in ancient times.

This huge stone depicts Coyolxauhqui, ripped apart by her brother Huitzilopochtli.