Mixcoatl- Aztec GodDeity"Cloud Serpent"

The Celestial Hunter

Mixcoatl, "Cloud Serpent," was the god of the hunt and warfare whose body was the Milky Way, the white serpentine band stretching across the night sky. He was the first hunter and in Aztec historical tradition the great chief who led the Chichimec peoples, the nomadic hunting tribes from the north, on their migration into central Mexico.

Warriors who fell in battle or on the sacrificial stone joined Mixcoatl's celestial hunting party. For four years after death, they accompanied the sun from dawn to noon. Then they joined the Milky Way itself, transformed into stars that hunted across the heavens in the Cloud Serpent's wake. His festival, Quecholli, staged a great ceremonial hunt. Game animals were killed and offered to the god who had taught humanity the art.

The Pursuit of Chimalman

Mixcoatl encountered a woman named Chimalman, "Shield Hand," and shot arrows at her. She stood unflinching, catching or deflecting every one. Her fearlessness drew the hunter-god to her, and she conceived his child. But Chimalman died in childbirth, and the son she bore, Ce Acatl Topiltzin, was left to grow into his inheritance alone.

In the Anales de Cuauhtitlán, the child discovered that his father Mixcoatl had been murdered by rivals. He avenged the killing before claiming his throne at Tula. Ce Acatl Topiltzin became the priest-king identified with Quetzalcoatl, and every Toltec and Aztec king who claimed descent from the Feathered Serpent traced their lineage back to the hunter among the stars.