Xolotl- Aztec GodDeity"Lord of the Evening Star"

The Dark Twin

Xolotl, "The Monstrous One," is the dark twin brother of Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl is Venus as the morning star, rising before dawn; Xolotl is Venus as the evening star, sinking below the western horizon into the underworld each night. He is depicted with the head of a dog, with backwards-facing feet and wrinkled skin, the distorted features marking him as a being of the uncanny. In the Codex Borgia and Codex Laud, his glyph shows a stylized head with folded or torn ear and wide eye, something incomplete or misshapen.

The Aztec astronomers tracked Venus's cycle with extraordinary precision, recording in the Codex Borgia the exact intervals of its disappearance and reappearance. When Venus vanished below the western horizon after its evening apparition, Xolotl had descended into the underworld. During the eight days of invisibility, he traversed the nine levels of Mictlan, carrying the light through the land of the dead. When the star reappeared in the east, it was Quetzalcoatl who rose. The periods when Venus was invisible were considered dangerous, when the boundary between the living and the dead thinned.

Guide of the Dead

When a person died an ordinary death, not in battle, not in sacrifice, not in childbirth, their soul began the four-year journey through the nine levels of Mictlan. Xolotl in his dog form accompanied them through the first passage. The first obstacle was the crossing of the wide river Apanohuaia, the boundary between the living world and the dead. The river was dark and fast, and what moved beneath its surface was best left unnamed. No soul could cross alone.

Xolotl waited at the water's edge, recognizing those who had honored him in life and bearing them across on his back. Those who had mistreated dogs or failed to provide a canine companion for burial might wander the riverbank forever, unable to proceed, belonging neither to the living world nor to Mictlan.

The Dogs of the Dead

When a person died, the body was wrapped in cloth and equipped for the journey. Among the essential provisions was a dog, sometimes a living xoloitzcuintli sacrificed for the purpose, sometimes one fashioned from resin. But not any dog would serve. The Florentine Codex records that a white dog would refuse, claiming "I have already washed myself," and a black dog would refuse, saying "I have already stained myself." Only a tawny or red dog would enter the water and bear its burden faithfully.

These specifics shaped actual Aztec behavior: families raised tawny dogs throughout their lives, knowing that the companion who shared their hearth would one day share their crossing through the dark water. The xoloitzcuintli, the hairless dog breed whose name means "dog of Xolotl," was particularly sacred for this purpose.

The Sacrifice of the Gods

After Nanahuatzin threw himself into the divine fire and became the Fifth Sun, the new celestial body hung motionless in the sky, demanding the blood of the gods before he would move. Quetzalcoatl was appointed executioner and went among the assembled deities, cutting out the heart of each to feed the sun's hunger. One by one the gods submitted.

But when Quetzalcoatl came to Xolotl, his own twin fled. First Xolotl transformed into a double maize stalk, hiding among the corn in the fields. He was found and flushed from his hiding place. Then he transformed into a double maguey plant, the mexolotl, crouching among the agave. Again he was discovered. Finally, he plunged into the water and transformed into the axolotl, seeking refuge in the dark waters of the lake. Even there he was caught and sacrificed at last, his heart offered along with all the others to set the sun in motion.

His triple flight and triple transformation made him the last god to die. Even among gods, death is terrifying.

The Axolotl

The axolotl salamander native to the lakes of the Valley of Mexico takes its name from Xolotl's final transformation, the form he took in his last desperate flight from sacrifice. The creature keeps its larval features throughout its adult life, external gills feathering in the water, forever caught between one state and another. It can regenerate lost limbs. The Aztecs understood it as the god's living remnant, still swimming in the lakes as proof that even a god's terror could leave a trace in the physical world.