Tlaloc (Left) and Quetzalcoatl
(frieze on the ciudadela at Teotihuacan)
Content created: 2025-09-29
Tlaloc, the god associated with rain and moisture, was worshiped under various names throughout Mexico, possibly as early as the first century BC. In the Maya areas, he was readily identified with the benevolent rain god Chac, represented in stone carvings in most Maya archaeological sites. He had many titles among the Nahua speakers, including Tlamacazqui, “the giver,” reflecting his importance in agriculture in a generally dry land.
The picture above shows part of the façade of the “Citadel” of Teotihuacan, dating between 150 and 250, long before the Aztecs came on the scene. Tlaloc is on the left with characteristic “googly” eyes; Quetzalcoatl —literally “feather-snake”— is on the right, easily identified by his snake head and feathers. (Snakes, associated with moisture and fertility, were positive symbols in Mesoamerican art.)
Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl were ancient and widespread objects of worship and of theological speculation in ancient Mexico, associated respectively with life-giving moisture and rain and with harmonious living and cultural continuity. (Quetzalcoatl was often represented, under the name Ehecatl, as gentle breeze. His contrasting figure was Tezcatlipoca, associated with disruption and change.) Like other gods, they can become plural in some myths.
These gods were firmly locked into the Mexican pantheon long before the consolidation of the small northern groups that came to think of themselves as the Aztecs, with their legendary journey southward, their establishment in the Valley of Mexico, and their conquest of surrounding mini-states. They probably believed in Tlaloc and Quezalcoatl, as well as a host of other gods.
Aztec accounts tell us, however, that it was their original local god, Huitzilopochtli, who was by far the most important to them. As they came to impose their will and their customs on other groups, there was no way that they could be rid of the traditional gods in favor of exclusive adoration of Huitzilopochtli, but it was important to elevate him above the status of local patron of an obscure northern group.
Aztec official tradition accordingly held that when they arrived in the Valley of Mexico from the north, their patron god Huitzilopochtli was welcomed by none other than Tlaloc, the patron of rain and moisture, who thus endorsed their arrival, presence, and eventual governance of all of Mexico, or at least as much as they could conquer. (“If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em,” as the North American proverb advises.)
Representations of Tlaloc abound in Mesoamerican art, including incense burners like the Aztec ones above.
The two chapels at the top of the main, “double” pyramid in the Templo Mayor compound in Tenochtitlan were dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. The northern shrine, painted with blue stripes (representing flowing water?) was dedicated to Tlaloc. The southern shrine, painted red, honored Huitzilopochtli.
It was Huitzilopochtli who was considered the particular patron of the régime. It was to Huitzilopochtli that human sacrifices were performed, and it was Huitzilopochtli who was described as having travelled with the Aztecs on their journey from the north, who was believed (officially) to require a constant supply of human blood and hearts.
Huitzilopochtli rarely if ever appears in Aztec statuary, although he is common in post-conquest codices. Perhaps some level of mystification involved in his cult prohibited concrete representations of him. (Click here for more on mystification.) If there was a place that would seem (to us) appropriate for a statue, it would his shrine at the top of the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. To my knowledge, we do not have such a statue, if there ever was one.
Remains of the Tlaloc statue survived, however. Here is the statue itself and a modern “reproduction,” both at the Templo Mayor museum in Mexico City. It takes the form of a chac-mool or “heart altar” of the kind found across the Maya area. Its garish painting and ugly features strike a modern viewer as inspired more by mockery than by piety, but presumably Aztec viewers felt differently.
The dismal cult of Huitzilopochtli is long gone, but representations of Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc continue to be created as appealing decorative motifs. Quetzalcoatl is nearly always based on the Teotihuacan wall pictured at the top of this page. Tlaloc variesmuch more, but is easily identified by his fangs and especially by his “googly” eyes.
The candle holder at left was made near Zimapán, in the state of Hidalgo in eastern Mexico in the 1950s. The wooden figure on the right, patterned after a Maya glyph of Chak (the Maya version of Tlaloc) in the Dresden Codex, was carved in Yucatan in the late 1990s for sale to tourists. The central figure, about the height of a standing person, was photographed presiding over the baseball diamond at Joaquin Murrieta Park in Tucson, Arizona, in 2025.
Tlaloc at Tucson Baseball Diamond
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