WORLD
Mesoamerica
Explore myths, traditions and legendary beings grouped under Mesoamerica.
Last articles
Itztlacoliuhqui
Itztlacoliuhqui is a complex figure in Aztec and wider Nahua religious thought, associated with frost, cold, rigidity, punishment and the dangerous power of the obsidian blade. His name is also connected with a covered o…
Ixtlilton
Ixtlilton was a deity of the Nahua peoples of central Mexico, especially associated with health, healing, childhood, music, dancing and joyful recreation. He is commonly described as an Aztec god because he appears in so…
Malinalxochi
Malinalxochi, also written Malinalxochitl or Malinalxoch, is a female figure associated with Mexica, commonly called Aztec, migration traditions. She is usually presented as the sister of Huitzilopochtli, the Mexica patr…
Mayahuel
Mayahuel is a goddess associated with the maguey or agave plant, its nourishing sap, and pulque, the fermented drink made from that sap in central Mexico. She belongs to the religious traditions of the Nahua peoples, inc…
Metzli
Metzli is a name associated with the Moon in Aztec, or Mexica, religious tradition. The name is more securely documented as the Classical Nahuatl word for “moon” than as the title of a single, clearly defined deity. For …
Mexitl
Mexitl is a name associated in colonial-era Nahuatl traditions with Huitzilopochtli, the patron deity of the Mexica and one of the most important gods of the Aztec Empire. The name also appears in accounts of the Mexica …
Mictecacihuatl
Mictecacihuatl is a female deity associated with the dead in Mexica, commonly called Aztec, religious tradition. Her name is usually translated as “Lady of the Dead” or “Lady of the Place of the Dead.” She is closely con…
Mictlan
Mictlan is the realm of the dead in the religious traditions of the Mexica, often called the Aztecs, and in related Nahua traditions of central Mexico. It was generally understood as a distant underworld ruled by Mictlan…
Mictlantecuhtli
Mictlantecuhtli is the principal lord of Mictlan, the realm of the dead in Nahua and especially Mexica (Aztec) religious tradition. His name is commonly translated as “Lord of Mictlan,” although English renderings and sp…
Mixcoatl
Mixcoatl is a deity of Nahua, especially central Mexican, religious tradition whose name is commonly translated as “Cloud Serpent.” In Aztec mythology he is associated with hunting, warfare, ancestral peoples, the night …
Montezuma
Montezuma is the name commonly used in English for Moctezuma II, the Mexica ruler who governed the Aztec Empire when Hernán Cortés and the Spanish entered central Mexico in 1519. He was a historical sovereign rather than…