Bones of the Ancestors’s Connections

About Bones of the Ancestors →

Guarded by

• Mictlantecuhtli

  Mictlantecuhtli guarded the Bones of the Ancestors in Mictlan, refusing to relinquish them until Quetzalcoatl outwitted him and fled with the bones.

Associated with

• Cihuacoatl

  Cihuacoatl ground the shattered Bones of the Ancestors in a jade bowl at Tamoanchan, preparing the sacred bone meal onto which Quetzalcoatl shed his blood to give life to the fifth humanity.

• Quetzalcoatl

  Quetzalcoatl descended to Mictlan and stole the Bones of the Ancestors, but quail sent by Mictlantecuhtli startled him and he fell, shattering them across the underworld floor — he gathered the broken fragments and carried them to Tamoanchan, where he bled upon the ground bone to kindle the fifth race of humanity.