Aztec Myth of Creation of Mankind = Hellenic Myth of Origin of Mankind

Aztec myth (A&HS)

Aztec myth (A&MM, p. 39)

Hellenic myth (Z, Appendix "G")

other myths



(p. 1029) "the seed of the god falling into the sea" (Orph. frag. 127 ap. Prok, in Plat. Kratul.). {Thus was the "sea impregnated" (GM 6.6).}

{"The Anaconda shoots out its sperm" ("U", p. 44b) : "He ... let out his sperm Which floated up and stayed on the river." ("U", p. 42a, ll. 62-3)}

("XOLOTL") Because the males were thereby enslaved to their penis, the word for 'slave', ""xolotl" came to mean the penis" in a figurative meaning.


(p. 1029) Snake-god copulated with 2-faced goddess Phersephone (Ov. met. 6.114; Philstr. epist. 30 (58); Nonn. Dion. 5.563 sq).

{"Eat your husband's penis." ("U", p. 42b, l. 121). The husabnd is the Anaconda, whose penis she ate.}



(p. 1030) "The Titanes , having first smeared their faces with gypsum", being 26 in number (Diod 1.21 = Euseb. praep. ev. 2.1.16),

{The Roman Argei (cf. argilla 'white clay') were 23 or 27 in number at Sublicius ('palisade' for beggars -- OCD).}



cut the body of Zagreus into as many pieces.

{cf. Umawali's "being cut up" ("U", p. 43b).}

("MYTHS" 6.) "The mother of the gods ground the bones into a paste.

The human bones were brought "to Tamoanchan, a miraculous place of origin. There the old goddess Cihuacoatl, or Woman Serpent, grinds the bones into a flour-like meal which she places in a special ceramic container.

(p. 1032) "The bodies of those who had been struck ... were reduced to powder, hence called [ti'tanos] (Eustath. in Il. ...; [Z.] i.655 n. 2),

{Many South American tropical-forest tribes grind the bones of their dead in order to eat the powdered bones.}



and from their smoking ashes men were made. (Olympiod. in Plat. Phaed. 61 C ...). ...

{cf. origin of the 7 heavens from smoke (according to the Qur>an)?}

Quetzalcoatl, followed by a number of other gods, slit his penis and let the blood flow into the paste, creating the first humans."

The gods gather around this vessel and shed drops of their blood upon the ground bones and

Others taught that men arose from the blood of the Giants (Ov. met. 1.154 ff, interp. Serv. in Verg. ecl. 6.41)."

{cf. the goddess-strangling gigant- Porphurion, wounded while raping (GM 35.d).}


from the bones of the fish people mixed with the penitential blood of the gods,


{"to trap fish by attracting them with the blood from the wound


the present race of humans are born."

{From the god's thigh, Zagreus became born again as Dionusos (GM 14.c).}

in the boy's leg" ("U", p. 43b.} {cf. the unhealing wound in the Grail's Fisher-King's thigh.}

A&HS = "Animal and Human Stages in the Aztec Continuum of Life" http://www.thing.net/~grist/ld/bot/ky-anm.htm

A&MM = Karl A. Taube : Aztec and Maya Myths. U of TX Pr, 1993. http://books.google.com/books?id=r4zYyu6e7eMC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=tamoanchan+Cihuacoatl+fish&source=bl&ots=fa8S32SyAM&sig=E2KKIpNEAOVwX-opipnvfq8Gkjc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8N0WUOjpL6Xq0gHupoHICQ&sqi=2&ved=0CF8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=tamoanchan%20Cihuacoatl%20fish&f=f

Z = Arthur Bernard Cook : Zeus : a study in ancient religion. Cambridge U Pr, 1925. http://books.google.com/books?id=I9A3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1032&lpg=PA1032&dq=

"U" = Robin M. Wright : "Umawali". SOCIE'TE' SUISSE DES AME'RICANISTES / SCHWEIZERISCHE AMERIKANISTEN-GESELLSCHAFT, BULLETIN 57-58 (1993-94), pp. 37-48. [Hohodene (an Arawak tribe on the river Aiari, a tributary to the river Izana) myth] http://www.robinmwright.com/Umawali%20father%20of%20the%20fish.pdf

Zagreus & his congeners

The name /ZAGReu-/ is cognate with the name of the Pauran.ik god /YAJN~a-/, who was beheaded :

cf. the deity 'White Head' in the Qabbalah, of whom "his head and his hair were white as wool, white as snow".

Zagreus's ever-beating (PALLesthai) heart, for which PALLas Athene is named because she brandisheth it (Orph. frag. 35; Clem. Alex. Protr. 2.18.1 -- Z, p. 1031)

may possibly be compared with the beating heart of the earth (in Aradia and in the Lappish and Sinhalese myths), Aztec god Tepe-yollotl ('mountain-heart').

extending outward from woman's body, horned snake coiled around tree

"the anaconda ascends an enormous cunuri` tree (cunuria spruceana), while keeping his tail within his mother's womb." ("U". p. 45a).

The horn extending out of the ear of the female "Chenoo" "coiled itself round the tree like a snake" (ALNE, p. 241). [As with the case of Zagreus,] that female C^enu's heart underwent special treatment (ALNE, p. 242).

ALNE = Charles G. Leland : The Algonquin Legends o New England. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co, 1884. http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ne/al/al49.htm