Patecatl- Aztec GodDeity"Lord of Pulque"

The Art of Fermentation

Mayahuel gave the maguey plant, with the sweet sap, aguamiel, that flowed from its heart. But raw aguamiel was not pulque. Patecatl was the god who transformed it, who discovered the medicinal roots and herbs that, added to the sap, turned it into the fermented sacred drink. He was Mayahuel's husband, and between them they held the complete mystery of pulque: she the raw material, he the art that gave it power.

Pulque in ancient Mexico was as much medicine as drink. Healers steeped herbs in it to create therapeutic preparations, and Patecatl stood as their patron, the god who had first shown how roots and plants could be combined with maguey sap to ease pain and fight illness.

Father of the Four Hundred Rabbits

From Patecatl and Mayahuel came the Centzon Totochtin, the Four Hundred Rabbits, the innumerable gods of drunkenness. Every shade of intoxication was their child: the cheerful warmth of moderation and the violence of excess. Patecatl, who had discovered the art that made pulque possible, was the ancestor of every consequence it brought.

Pulque was sacred, brewed under divine patronage, essential to festivals, offered to the gods. But outside its ritual context, drunkenness could be a capital offense. The Four Hundred Rabbits who sprang from Patecatl's union with Mayahuel embodied every possibility that the first cup set in motion.