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nydus/The Gods of MexicoPublic
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Table of Contents

CHAPTER IX

MYTHS

The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A equates them with the gods of Mictlampa, or Hades, but his contemporary who edited the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says of them:

“The proper signification of this name is the fall of the demons, who, they say, were stars; and even still there are stars in heaven called after their names, which are the following: Yzcatecaztli, Tlahvezcal pantecuvtli, Ceyacatl, Achitumetl, Xacupancalqui, Mixauhmatl, Tezcatlipocâ, and Contemoctli. These were their appellations as gods before they fell from heaven, but they are now named Tzitzimitli, which means something monstrous or dangerous.”

Tezozomoc mentions them in his Cronica Mexicana in connection with the building of the great temple at Mexico. He states that their images were at one period still necessary for the completion of the building, and alludes to them as “angels of the air, holding up the sky,” and “the gods of the air who draw down

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