Gerónimo de Mendieta
Historia eclesiástica Indiana 2.1-2
c. 1596
trans. Herbert Howe Bancroft
1886 (adapted)
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NOTE |
(From my commentary in Foundations of Atlantis:) Fray Gerónimo de Mendieta recorded the Aztec creation myth secondhand, from the telling of Fray Andrés de Olmos, who conflated various accounts. The entire text, moreover, is at somewhat of a remove from pre-Conquest myths, recorded by Christian friars through a Christian framework, from the telling by Aztecs who had converted to Catholicism. It is therefore something of a hybrid. Mendieta’s work was suppressed due to its millenarian ideas, but after it was rediscovered and published in 1870, its version of the Aztec creation myth became the standard account, thanks in large measure to Hubert Howe Bancroft’s influential translation, adapted above to restore Mendieta’s in-text commentary, to correct errors, and to re-translate more literally the beginning of chapter 1, which Bancroft adapted far too freely. On Ancient Aliens, Giorgio Tsoukalos declared the flint knife a spaceship and the gods who emerged from it extraterrestrial colonists. Note the coincidental similarity between this account and the Mesopotamian creation myth, down to the desire for servants and the blood rites used to make such human servants.
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The Aztec Creation Myth
1. … But while the people of each province gave their accounts (of the creation) in various ways, for the most part they came to the conclusion that in the sky there was a god called Citlalatonac and a goddess called Citlalicue, and that the goddess gave birth to a large knife or flint (which in their language is called técpatl). On seeing this, her sons were frightened and agreed to cast the large knife from the sky, and so they undertook this action and the knife fell to a certain part of the earth which is called Chicmoztoc, meaning the Seven Caves. They say there emerged from it 1,600 gods (which seems to be an attempt to explain the fall of the evil angels), and they say that these beings, seeing themselves thus fallen and banished and without servants, agreed to send a message to the goddess their mother saying that because they had been cast out and banished it would be good if she were to give them permission, power, and a way to create men who could provide service for them. And their mother responded that if they deserved them, they would always have been in their company; however, they were unworthy of this, and if they wanted to have servants here on earth, then they would have to go beg of Mictlan Tecutli, Lord or Chief of Hades, that he may give them a bone or some ashes of the dead that are with him; over which having received they shall sacrifice themselves, that from this a man and woman might emerge who would then multiply. This seems to be an attempt to understand the Flood, when all men died and none remained. Having heard their mother’s response (which they say was brought by Tlotli, who is a hawk), the gods having consulted together, sent one of their number, called Xolotl, down to Hades for the bone and ash as their mother had advised. He succeeded in obtaining from the chief, Mictlan Tecutli, the bone and the ash his brothers hoped he would; and then, wary of his grisly host, he took an abrupt departure, running at the top of his speed. Wroth at this, the infernal chief gave chase; not causing to Xolotl, however, any more serious inconvenience than a hasty fall in which an arm bone was broken in pieces, great and small, which is why some men are smaller ones than others. The messenger gathered up what he could in all haste, and despite his stumble made his escape. Reaching the earth, he put the fragments of bone into a basin, and all the gods drew blood from their bodies (after which the Indians were later accustomed) and sprinkled it into the vessel. On the fourth day there was a movement among the wetted bones and a boy lay there before all; and in four days more, the blood-letting and sprinkling being still kept up, a girl was lifted from the ghastly dish. The children were given to Xolotl to bring up; and he fed then on the juice of the cardoon.
2. Now man having been created, and having multiplied, each one of the gods took some men to be their devotees and servants. There had been (so they say) no sun in existence for many years; so the gods being assembled in a place called Teotihuacan, six leagues from Mexico, and gathered at the time round a great fire, told their devotees that he of them who should first cast himself into that fire should have the honor of being transformed into a sun. So one of them, out of pure bravery, flung himself into the fire. Then the gods began to peer through the gloom in all directions for the expected sun and to make bets with quails, locusts, butterflies, and snakes as to what part of heaven he should first appear in. And some said Here, and some said There; but when the sun rose they were all proved wrong, for not one of them had fixed upon the east. And in that same hour, though they knew it not, the decree went forth that they should all die by sacrifice, which afterward they [the Natives] had quite the habit of doing before their idols.
The sun had risen indeed, and with a glory of the cruel fire about him that not even the eyes of the gods could endure; but he moved not. There he lay on the horizon; and when the deities sent Tlotli their messenger to him, with orders that he should go on upon his way, his ominous answer was, that he would never leave that place till he had destroyed and put an end to them all. Then a great fear fell upon some, while others were moved only to anger; and among the latter was one Citli, who immediately strung his bow and advanced against the glittering enemy. By quickly lowering his head the Sun avoided the first arrow shot at him; but the second and third had attained his body in quick succession, when, filled with fury, he seized the last and launched it back upon his assailant. And the brave Citli laid shaft to string nevermore, for the arrow of the sun pierced his forehead.
Then all was dismay in the assembly of the gods, and despair filled their heart, for they saw that they could not prevail against the shining one; and they agreed to die, and to cut themselves open through the breast. Xolotl was appointed minister, and he killed his companions one by one, and last of all he slew himself also. So they died like gods; and each left to the sad and wondering men who were his servants, his garments for a memorial. And these servants made up, each party, a bundle of the raiment that had been left to them, binding it about a stick into which they had bedded a small green stone to serve as a heart. These bundles were called tlaquimilloli, and each bore the name of that god whose memorial it was; and these things were more reverenced than the ordinary gods of stone and wood of the country. Fray Andres de Olmos found one of these relics in Tlalmanalco, wrapped up in many cloths, and half rotten with being kept hid so long.
2. Now man having been created, and having multiplied, each one of the gods took some men to be their devotees and servants. There had been (so they say) no sun in existence for many years; so the gods being assembled in a place called Teotihuacan, six leagues from Mexico, and gathered at the time round a great fire, told their devotees that he of them who should first cast himself into that fire should have the honor of being transformed into a sun. So one of them, out of pure bravery, flung himself into the fire. Then the gods began to peer through the gloom in all directions for the expected sun and to make bets with quails, locusts, butterflies, and snakes as to what part of heaven he should first appear in. And some said Here, and some said There; but when the sun rose they were all proved wrong, for not one of them had fixed upon the east. And in that same hour, though they knew it not, the decree went forth that they should all die by sacrifice, which afterward they [the Natives] had quite the habit of doing before their idols.
The sun had risen indeed, and with a glory of the cruel fire about him that not even the eyes of the gods could endure; but he moved not. There he lay on the horizon; and when the deities sent Tlotli their messenger to him, with orders that he should go on upon his way, his ominous answer was, that he would never leave that place till he had destroyed and put an end to them all. Then a great fear fell upon some, while others were moved only to anger; and among the latter was one Citli, who immediately strung his bow and advanced against the glittering enemy. By quickly lowering his head the Sun avoided the first arrow shot at him; but the second and third had attained his body in quick succession, when, filled with fury, he seized the last and launched it back upon his assailant. And the brave Citli laid shaft to string nevermore, for the arrow of the sun pierced his forehead.
Then all was dismay in the assembly of the gods, and despair filled their heart, for they saw that they could not prevail against the shining one; and they agreed to die, and to cut themselves open through the breast. Xolotl was appointed minister, and he killed his companions one by one, and last of all he slew himself also. So they died like gods; and each left to the sad and wondering men who were his servants, his garments for a memorial. And these servants made up, each party, a bundle of the raiment that had been left to them, binding it about a stick into which they had bedded a small green stone to serve as a heart. These bundles were called tlaquimilloli, and each bore the name of that god whose memorial it was; and these things were more reverenced than the ordinary gods of stone and wood of the country. Fray Andres de Olmos found one of these relics in Tlalmanalco, wrapped up in many cloths, and half rotten with being kept hid so long.
Source: Adapted from the translation by Hubert Howe Bancroft in The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Vol. 3: The Native Races (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886), 58-62 with corrections and original translation by Jason Colavito from Gerónimo de Mednieta, Historia eclesiástica Indiana, ed. Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta (México: Antigua Libreria, 1870), 77-80. The parentheticals belong to Gerónimo de Mednieta; the brackets are mine.
