100 UNIT 1 PREHISPANIC MESOAMERICA
Figure 2.15 Central element of the Aztec calendar stone, denoting the Sun deity,
the cyclic creations of the world, and the ascension to power of the Aztecs in A.D.- After Richard F. Townsend, State and Cosmos in the Art of Tenochtitlan.
Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1979, p. 64.
The Mexican historian Miguel León-Portilla (1963) has argued that myths of
this kind were synthesized out of preexisting myths by certain Aztec priestly wisemen
(tlamatinime), who claimed to be adding to the original ideas of the Toltec priest-
ruler, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl. The Aztec wisemen were able to determine the origin
of the world, its stabilization through dualistic balancing, and its cyclic transforma-
tions with the passage of time. They further conceptualized the world as being com-
posed of four basic elements, namely earth, wind, fire, and water, spatially divided into
four quarters (each associated with one of the cardinal points). As they conceived the
world, it was not a tranquil place but an arena in which diverse and powerful sacred
forces were in perpetual struggle for supremacy.
As already indicated, the “metaphysical” elements in Aztec religion were not
solely the philosophical speculations of sages, but were also elements of a practical
ideology being promoted by hardened military rulers. Thus, for example, the uni-Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan.Tenochtitlan. Tenochtitlan. Sun