TLALOC - The Aztec rain god, his name means He Who Makes Things Sprout. He is represented wearing a mask and with large round eyes and long fangs and dates to the Teotihuacan
culture of the highlands (3rd to 8th centuries AD). His characteristic features were strikingly similar to those of the Maya rain god Chac of the same period.
During Aztec times (14th to 16th centuries), Tlaloc's cult was considered extremely important and had spread
throughout Mexico. In the divinatory calendars, Tlaloc was the eighth ruler of the days and the ninth lord of the nights.
Five months of the 18-month ritual year were dedicated to Tlaloc and to his fellow deities, the Tlaloque, who were
believed to dwell on th mountaintops. Children were sacrificed to Tlaloc on the first month, Atlcaualo, and on the third,
Tozoztontli.
Tlaloc had been one of the main deities of the agricultural tribes of central Mexico for many centuries, until the warlike
northern tribes invaded that part of the country, bringing with them the astral cults of the sun (Huitzilopochtli) and the starry
night (Tezcatlipoca). Aztec syncretism placed both Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc at the head of the pantheon. The Teocalli (Great
Temple) at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, supported on it's lofty pyramid two sanctuaries of equal size: one, dedicated to
Huitzilopochtli, was painted in white and red, and the other, dedicated to Tlaloc, was painted in white and blue. The rain god's
high priest, the Quetzalcoatl Tlaloc Tlamacazqui (Feathered Serpent, Priest of Tlaloc) ruled with a title and rank equal to that
of the sun god's high priest.
Tlaloc was greatly feared. He could send out the rain or provoke drought and
hunger. He hurled lightning upon the earth and unleashed the devastating hurricanes. Certain illnesses, such as dropsy, leprosy, and
rheumatism, were said to be caused by Tlaloc and his fellow deities. Although the dead were generally cremated, those who
had died from one of the special illnesses or who had drowned or who had been struck by lightning were buried. Tlaloc
bestowed on them an eternal and blissful life in his paradise, Tlalocan.