Chanapata

The metaphor of the day in ancient Mexican myth and ritual
The myths of the ancient Mexicans and of Mesoamerica in general, have been very little studied. Scholars have generally made no attempt to establish connections between various fragmentary accounts, to formulate a system based on their observations. What is more, much firsthand information has been ignored in the belief that it is theproduct of Christian influence. I would like to present a number of elements which reveal the fundamental unity underlying the great Mesoamerican origin myths. We shall see that these myths all have the day as their model. I shall go on to establish certain links between these myths and the rites of the 18 20-day “months” which, along with 5 additional “inauspicious” days, constitute the solar yearin Mesoamerica.
THE MYTHS
The Day
The day, the daily course of the sun, provides the basic metaphor. The sun rises in the east, begins to decline from midday on, and disappears in the evening. Thus the day can be divided into three parts: night, morning, and afternoon. Above all, however, there is the obvious oppositions between light and darkness and all the corresponding oppositions of thedualist Mesoamerican system: heaven (sun)-earth, fire-water, masculine-feminine, life-death. There is also mediation; afternoon comes between morning and night, between sun and earth.
For the ancient Mexicans and for some Mayan groups even today, the sun rises in the sky until midday and then returns to the east; what we see in the afternoon sky is only its reflection in a (black) mirror, and it isthis reflection that sets in the west.
The afternoon sun is thus a false one. It is typical amongst the Indians for anything false to be associated with the moon. Consequently, the heavenly body which we see in the afternoon sky could be called a lunar sun; it is halfway between the real sun and the night, between fire and matter; it is the sun of the union of opposites.
The Day and Sojournsin the Other World
Space and time are closely related. The three parts of the day have their parallel in the three places of the dead in the Other World mentioned in Aztec texts: Mictlan, or the Place of the Dead; the house of the Sun; and Tlalocan; the paradise of Tlaloc, god of the earth and of rain. Night, of course, is Mictlan, the dark domain of Venus-Mictlantecuhtli. Morning is the House ofthe Sun, where warriors who have died heroically go to accompany the sun until midday. In the afternoon, the period of the lunar sun, these warriors are transformed into birds of rich plumage that frolic amongst the flowers in a kind of paradise; they go to Tlalocan, the flowery place, the “place of Tlaloc on the moon”. Afternoon is also the part of the day when “heroic” women (those who have diedin childbirth) take over from the warriors and guide the sun from its zenith until it sinks in the west. It is striking that no modern specialist has been surprised to see these women apparently associated with the sun, for in the dualist system of Mesoamerica the place of women, even goddesses, is usually with the earth, the moon, Tlalocan. We now know, however, that in reality they areaccompanying a false, lunar sun. They are also in the “place of Tlaloc on the moon” ; they are the companions of a heavenly body which in many mythologies is considered the lover of all women.
The Other World of the ancient Mexicans is cyclic. Each person, when he dies, descends into the underworld (Mictlan), the Place of the Fleshless Ones. The deserving, the brave, go from Mictlan to the house of theSun and from there to Tlalocan before returning to the night in the form of starts in order to rejoin the sun the following day. The elect of Tlaloc and the heroic women go through a short cycle from Mictlan to Tlalocan.
The Day and Origin Myths
The day provides the model for the year and for history. We know that for the ancient Mesoamericans there were a number of successive eras, each ending...