TYPE: Sun god
ORIGIN: Aztec (Classical Mesoamerican) [Mexico]
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: Circa 750 CE to 1500 CE but probably much earlier
SYNONYMS: Moyocoya
ART REFERENCES: stone sculptures; murals; codex illustrations.
LITERARY SOURCES: pre-Columbian codices.
INFORMATION: According to creation mythology, the great mother in the thirteenth heaven became pregnant and the 400 star gods who were jealous of her child plotted to destroy it at birth. They were restrained in a cavern, however, until the moment when Tezcatlipoca emerged, fully armed, from his mother and destroyed his enemies. His only ally was his sister Coyolxauhqui, who was lost in the battle and whose head the god hurled into the heavens to live there as the moon. Alternative traditions describes Tezcatlipoca as the product of the self-created primordial beings Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl.
He presides over the first of the five world ages personified by the sun 4 Ocelotl. He is also the ruler of the tench of the thirteen heavens known as the time ofo the Spanish conquest, Teotl Iztacan (the place of the white god).
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl are, in some contexts, antagonists, but alternatively they work together to restore the shattered universe and initiate the fifth (present) sun. Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into an avatara Mixcoatl Camaxtli, the "red Tezcatlipoca" (also said to be his son), to create fire. He is also the great magician who dragged the earth mother from the primordial waters in the form of a huge alligator, Cipactli. In the struggle she bit off his left foot, but to prevent her from sinking back into the waters of creation, he tore out her lower jaw.
Tezcatlipoca is the patron deity of young warriors and is capable of excesses of cruelty. A sacrificial victim was chosen annually and killed by having his heart torn out.
The god is perceived in various aspects and colors, according to the position of the sun. In the east he is yellow or white, in the south blue (see also Huitzilpochtli), in the west red and in the north black.