Tlaloc
Also known as: He Who Makes Things Sprout, Tlaloque
Mythological Narrative
Tlaloc is among the oldest gods of the Valley of Mexico, worshipped at Teotihuacan and Tula long before the Aztecs inherited his mask: rings of coiled serpents around the eyes, jaguar fangs at the mouth, face painted blue-black beneath a heron-feather crest. He commands rain, lightning, and hail through the Tlaloque, his dwarfish helpers who dwell on the mountaintops of the four directions and pour rain from clay jars — thunder is the crack of a breaking jar. The rains of the four quarters differ: the eastern rain feeds the crops, while the others carry frost, blight, and drought. Tlaloc ruled the Third Sun, the age that ended in a rain of fire.
The drowned, the lightning-struck, and those dead of dropsy and other watery diseases bypassed Mictlan for Tlalocan, his evergreen paradise of endless maize, squash, and amaranth; such dead were buried rather than cremated. At the Templo Mayor his northern shrine stood beside Huitzilopochtli's southern one — rain and war, the empire's two pillars, sharing a single pyramid.
In the dry-season festival of Atlcahualo, priests offered small children at mountain sanctuaries, and their tears were read as an omen of abundant rain; the Florentine Codex records the rite without euphemism. On the summit of Mount Tlaloc, about 4,120 meters above sea level east of Mexico City, a stone causeway still leads into his walled open-air precinct, one of the highest archaeological shrines in the Americas. Since 1964 a colossal unfinished statue of the rain god from Coatlinchan, weighing some 168 tons, has stood before the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## The Rain Bringer
Tlaloc is one of the most ancient and important deities in Mesoamerican religion. His name derives from the Nahuatl word *tlalli* (earth) and may mean "He Who Makes Things Sprout." He controlled the **rain** essential for maize agriculture.
### Unmistakable Appearance
Tlaloc is recognizable by his large **goggle eyes**, prominent upper lip with **jaguar fangs**, and often a **headdress of heron feathers**. He is typically painted **blue** or **blue-green**.
### The Tlaloque
Tlaloc was served by lesser deities called the **Tlaloque**, small rain spirits dwelling on mountaintops who held **water jars**. When they broke their jars, rain fell.
### Tlalocan: The Earthly Paradise
Tlaloc ruled **Tlalocan**, a verdant paradise where those who died by drowning or lightning went after death.
### The Templo Mayor
Tlaloc's shrine occupied the **northern** half of the Templo Mayor's summit, painted in blue and white. Huitzilopochtli occupied the southern half.
Cross-Pantheon Parallels & Archetypes
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Tlaloc.
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