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EHECATL TONATIUH means "Wind Sun" in the nahuatl language.

This is an illustration which I've worked on to serve as the cover of the fourth chapter of my latest comic book/graphic novel, "The Legend of the Five Suns ", which is a not so loose adaptation of the eponymous pre-hispanic Mexica (or Nahua) myth, telling the origin of the world, the creation and destruction or metamorphoses of four different suns/sun-gods, their worlds and its' inhabitants, as well the creation of the fifth world, ours, and the rise of a new sun and a new creation. This also includes other traditional nahua (Central Mexican) folk tales, such as the creation of Octli (a.k.a Pulque, an alcoholic beverage made with the Maguey or Agave plant), the legend of the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, the discovery of maize, and also explores some elements from the nahua, especially Mexica cosmology: the three vital energies (Tonalli, Teyolia and Ihíyotl), the four corners of the world (Tlahuiztlampa - East, Mictlampa - North, Cihuatlampa - West and Huitztlampa - South), the underworld (Mictlán) and its regions, as well the birth of Huitzilopochtli and other concepts related to daily pre-hispanic nahua life.
This comic book/graphic novel is 140 pages long, and is the main subject of my completion of course/graduation work in Graphic Design by UTFPR in Curitiba, Brazil. Currently, I have printed only one sample, in Brazilian Portuguese language, but I'm still studying the possibility to get it published (I would need some financial support if I were to do that), and translated into spanish and english (what I can do by myself).

This chapter deals with the role of Quetzalcoatl as the Second Sun, the "Wind Sun" (The nahuatl name for wind, Ehecatl, is sometimes the name of a separate entity, or even aspect of Quetzalcoatl. Its' iconography is marked by a beak-like feature which Quetzalcoatl often shares), following the end of the first era. As stated previously, for this story I chose to associate different eras of the Nahua cosmology with actual/historical "eras" in Mesoamerican chronology (for example, the civilizations from the First Sun Era featured pre-classic period Olmec aesthetics, despite displaying some nahua customs, because the story is told from a post-classic nahua perspective). For this chapter and era, I chose to represent a group which the nahua call the Toltecs, and that refer to more than one ethnical, sociopolitical and historical group, as it's a generic term to define the ancestors of a diversity of communities/groups which left traces of their civilizations in abandoned sites which were eventually found by the late post-classic nahua peoples, including the Mexica, and other groups which revindicated the ancestry of the Toltecs.

In this sense, Tolteca (which is often translated as "artisan, craftsman") is used to refer to sedentary, agriculture-based civilizations in contrast to Chichimeca that was used as a generic, sometimes derogatory (at least later, in the colonial era) term to refer to a large diversity of semi-nomadic hunters, especially in an area of the Bajío (nowadays states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato and Querétaro) north from the Nahua area. Some peoples contemporary to the Excan Tlahtoloyan ("Triple Alliance", between the altepeme / cities of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco and Tlacopan, the political corpus of what we often are led to mistakenly call "Aztec Civilization/Empire") were also called Chichimeca. The Hñahñú (Otomis) for example have been associated with this group, and have been mentioned as descendants of the Centzonmimixcoa ("Four Hundred alike the Cloud Serpent", also called "Four Hundred Northerners") in some accounts.

Thus in this story the first generation of the Tolteca people draws aesthetic (in architecture, clothing, artifacts and material culture) influence from the historical Teotihuacan, Olmeca-Xicalanca (for example, Cacaxtleca , which in turn draws influence from the Maya) and in a lesser extent to the Toltecas of Tollan-Xicocotitlán (despite not as much as those from the next chapter). The Legend of the Five Sun comes from two major written sources, one included in the Codex Chimalpopoca and another in the document known as History of the Mexicans by their paintings, and while both versions share some similarities, they also have their differences, sometimes contradicting each other . Both of them, however, deal with the reign of a Toltec tuler named Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl ("Our Prince 1 Reed Feathered Serpent"), said to have been a wise ruler from Tollan. Tollan can mean a fortification, not any city in particular, but is also recalled in accounts about the Tolteca-Chichimeca migrations which preceded the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlán as either a point of origin or a point from where the ancestors of the Mexica have crossed through, and a city that in some versions shared some similarities with Tenochtitlán, like being surrounded by a lake. In this case it's also compared to Coatepec. Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, however, isn't necessarily the same Teotl "god" (although it also mean "mysterious" and refer to a variety of entities, sometimes even ancestors) as the "White Tezcatlipoca" (white because it's the color associated with the western region, Cihuatlampa, where Quetzalcoatl was said to dwell) involved with the creation of the world. Despite that, the History of the Mexicans by their paintings attest his god-like attributes as a god of culture, a trait which is undoubtedly derived from the Quetzalcoatl deity. Whether or not these figures are the same (and here lies the challenge to adapt this story to an audience alienated to the nahua concepts of the world), Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl's story is always mentioned after the Fifth Sun in both sources, therefore it logically takes place some time during the Fifth Sun (what makes sense, since, as a Toltec ruler, he ruled over a group of ancestors to the Mexica and other nahua peoples from Central Mexico). Both versions also mention about his father, Mixcoatl ("Cloud Serpent" a.k.a Camaxtli, in History of the Mexicans by their paintings), but only the Legend of the Five Suns names his mother, Chimalman. Mixcoatl is one of the Centzonmimixcoa (lit. "Four Hundred alike the Cloud Serpent", refers to the "Four Hundred Northerners", that personify the stars from the northern hemisphere, and are said to have been the ancestors of groups such as the Hñahñu, a.k.a Otomi. As the god of the hunt, he's also considered a major god to the Chichimeca), who were feared deities, but also associated with excesses, and even laziness and drunkeness (in an account from History of the Mexicans by their paintings, Mixcoatl and other brothers turn against their fellows by orders of the Fifth Sun, who demands from them to bring more proper blood sacrifices). This trait is shared with the 400 young men who help the Hero Twins but are ultimately killed by Zipacna in the k'iché Maya Popol Vuh written source. Some of the Centzonmimixcoa (at least two, Xiuhnel and Mimich) were also slain by Tzitzimime (night demons) such as the goddess Itzpapalotl, disguised as a deer (Mazatl, her nahual animal), in a reading from the Legend of the Five Suns - in the same account, Itzpapalotl dies alongside Mimich.

In this story, the Centzonmimixcoa appear more than once, although their role is increased during the first era where they're depicted as aethereal Teteoh who use the plains of Mictlampa (either the northern horizon, or the nine plains of the underworld, in the story I left it ambiguous that both places are the same, or the first one is a possible, but not the only path which leads to the second) as their hunting grounds. Even after their deaths by the Tzitzimimeh (or, at least, the deaths of some of them, such as Xiuhnel), they remain alive, or at least their Teyolia do. The Centzonmimixcoa share traits with Mixcoatl, such as his facial painting, and the fact that they're feared by the Macehualtin (the people) and Quinametzin (giants, from the first sun era) alike. This story doesn't address, however, the relation between Mixcoatl as a father to Ce Acatl Topiltzin, nor mentions about his mother, Chimalman. Instead, I chose to depict the reign of Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzacoatl in the Second Sun Era - and because of that I say it again, this is not an accurate translation of the Legend of the Five Suns, but a somewhat loose adaptation, as it rather relates the mythical nahua account with the historical mesoamerican chronology, though not necessarily using the same amounts of years mentioned in the written accounts for each era. This way, I expanded the length of each era, without precisely naming how many years they lasted, and reduced part of the narrative about the Tolteca-Chichimeca migrations, in a way that each catastrophe which leads to a new era hasn't eliminated completely the traces of previous races and civilizations. The very Toltecs, for example, have made a lasting legacy which would last for more than one age. But in the narrative, while these people are called as Toltecs by the narrator, who is a Mexica Nahua, we never know their actual names. Not in the first two eras, at least. And if they name themselves as Toltecs in the Third Era (what happens, as you'll see in the next chapter), it's implied that it's more a romanticized narrative from a nahua perspective than the actual history there.

That said, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, who was said to have been born in Michatlauhco (nowadays associated with Amatlán de Quetzalcoatl, a town near Tepoztlán, in the State of Morelos) is here portrayed as the founder of an era of prosperity for Tollan, and is the precursor of future Toltec leaders. However, in this story it's during his time that the catastrophe which put an end to the Second Sun Era happens. I got to push the limits for poetic liberty with the three distinct vital energies here, dividing Quetzalcoatl's multiple aspects into three vital energies of the same being, all while he reigned as the second sun. His Tonalli is Ehecatl, his Teyolia is Ce Acatl Topiltzin (who later becomes Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli "Lord of the Morning Star"), and both coexist. As a human, he ages, but he's also the sun, that won't normally age in this story (in the second and third chapters, for example, Tezcatlipoca the first Sun-God doesn't age, apparently, and it lasts for hundreds of years). I also added some elements that may have come from colonial era sources, such as his reduction of heart offerings to the sun, and his preference for the development of arts as a mean to appease the Teteoh over the offering of blood; what prompts his returned brother, as well other deities (in this story, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli) to devise a plan to turn against him. I won't spoil the story up to this point, however I managed to include plenty more of nahua gods into this, and in the end, he steps down from his sun position, Tollan (and presumably, the world) is destroyed, some people become the howler monkeys that exist to this day, Tornadoes ravage what's left of civilization, but as things go by, a new sun must take place, and some traditions of these early Toltecs go on to the next generations. In the end, Quetzalcoatl's "social experiment", which was deemed as a failure by Tezcatlipoca, still had its effects and gave him some more answers about the roles of the gods and especially the sun-gods in the creation(s): to always make something better than before.

So, I hope you like it as much as I did producing it!

And don't forget to follow and share my work at:

Behance | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

< THE JAGUAR SUN (prev.)| (next) THE RAIN SUN >

Description

EHECATL TONATIUH means "Wind Sun" in the nahuatl language.

This is an illustration which I've worked on to serve as the cover of the fourth chapter of my latest comic book/graphic novel, "The Legend of the Five Suns ", which is a not so loose adaptation of the eponymous pre-hispanic Mexica (or Nahua) myth, telling the origin of the world, the creation and destruction or metamorphoses of four different suns/sun-gods, their worlds and its' inhabitants, as well the creation of the fifth world, ours, and the rise of a new sun and a new creation. This also includes other traditional nahua (Central Mexican) folk tales, such as the creation of Octli (a.k.a Pulque, an alcoholic beverage made with the Maguey or Agave plant), the legend of the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, the discovery of maize, and also explores some elements from the nahua, especially Mexica cosmology: the three vital energies (Tonalli, Teyolia and Ihíyotl), the four corners of the world (Tlahuiztlampa - East, Mictlampa - North, Cihuatlampa - West and Huitztlampa - South), the underworld (Mictlán) and its regions, as well the birth of Huitzilopochtli and other concepts related to daily pre-hispanic nahua life.
This comic book/graphic novel is 140 pages long, and is the main subject of my completion of course/graduation work in Graphic Design by UTFPR in Curitiba, Brazil. Currently, I have printed only one sample, in Brazilian Portuguese language, but I'm still studying the possibility to get it published (I would need some financial support if I were to do that), and translated into spanish and english (what I can do by myself).

This chapter deals with the role of Quetzalcoatl as the Second Sun, the "Wind Sun" (The nahuatl name for wind, Ehecatl, is sometimes the name of a separate entity, or even aspect of Quetzalcoatl. Its' iconography is marked by a beak-like feature which Quetzalcoatl often shares), following the end of the first era. As stated previously, for this story I chose to associate different eras of the Nahua cosmology with actual/historical "eras" in Mesoamerican chronology (for example, the civilizations from the First Sun Era featured pre-classic period Olmec aesthetics, despite displaying some nahua customs, because the story is told from a post-classic nahua perspective). For this chapter and era, I chose to represent a group which the nahua call the Toltecs, and that refer to more than one ethnical, sociopolitical and historical group, as it's a generic term to define the ancestors of a diversity of communities/groups which left traces of their civilizations in abandoned sites which were eventually found by the late post-classic nahua peoples, including the Mexica, and other groups which revindicated the ancestry of the Toltecs.

In this sense, Tolteca (which is often translated as "artisan, craftsman") is used to refer to sedentary, agriculture-based civilizations in contrast to Chichimeca that was used as a generic, sometimes derogatory (at least later, in the colonial era) term to refer to a large diversity of semi-nomadic hunters, especially in an area of the Bajío (nowadays states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato and Querétaro) north from the Nahua area. Some peoples contemporary to the Excan Tlahtoloyan ("Triple Alliance", between the altepeme / cities of Tenochtitlán, Texcoco and Tlacopan, the political corpus of what we often are led to mistakenly call "Aztec Civilization/Empire") were also called Chichimeca. The Hñahñú (Otomis) for example have been associated with this group, and have been mentioned as descendants of the Centzonmimixcoa ("Four Hundred alike the Cloud Serpent", also called "Four Hundred Northerners") in some accounts.

Thus in this story the first generation of the Tolteca people draws aesthetic (in architecture, clothing, artifacts and material culture) influence from the historical Teotihuacan, Olmeca-Xicalanca (for example, Cacaxtleca , which in turn draws influence from the Maya) and in a lesser extent to the Toltecas of Tollan-Xicocotitlán (despite not as much as those from the next chapter). The Legend of the Five Sun comes from two major written sources, one included in the Codex Chimalpopoca and another in the document known as History of the Mexicans by their paintings, and while both versions share some similarities, they also have their differences, sometimes contradicting each other . Both of them, however, deal with the reign of a Toltec tuler named Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl ("Our Prince 1 Reed Feathered Serpent"), said to have been a wise ruler from Tollan. Tollan can mean a fortification, not any city in particular, but is also recalled in accounts about the Tolteca-Chichimeca migrations which preceded the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlán as either a point of origin or a point from where the ancestors of the Mexica have crossed through, and a city that in some versions shared some similarities with Tenochtitlán, like being surrounded by a lake. In this case it's also compared to Coatepec. Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, however, isn't necessarily the same Teotl "god" (although it also mean "mysterious" and refer to a variety of entities, sometimes even ancestors) as the "White Tezcatlipoca" (white because it's the color associated with the western region, Cihuatlampa, where Quetzalcoatl was said to dwell) involved with the creation of the world. Despite that, the History of the Mexicans by their paintings attest his god-like attributes as a god of culture, a trait which is undoubtedly derived from the Quetzalcoatl deity. Whether or not these figures are the same (and here lies the challenge to adapt this story to an audience alienated to the nahua concepts of the world), Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl's story is always mentioned after the Fifth Sun in both sources, therefore it logically takes place some time during the Fifth Sun (what makes sense, since, as a Toltec ruler, he ruled over a group of ancestors to the Mexica and other nahua peoples from Central Mexico). Both versions also mention about his father, Mixcoatl ("Cloud Serpent" a.k.a Camaxtli, in History of the Mexicans by their paintings), but only the Legend of the Five Suns names his mother, Chimalman. Mixcoatl is one of the Centzonmimixcoa (lit. "Four Hundred alike the Cloud Serpent", refers to the "Four Hundred Northerners", that personify the stars from the northern hemisphere, and are said to have been the ancestors of groups such as the Hñahñu, a.k.a Otomi. As the god of the hunt, he's also considered a major god to the Chichimeca), who were feared deities, but also associated with excesses, and even laziness and drunkeness (in an account from History of the Mexicans by their paintings, Mixcoatl and other brothers turn against their fellows by orders of the Fifth Sun, who demands from them to bring more proper blood sacrifices). This trait is shared with the 400 young men who help the Hero Twins but are ultimately killed by Zipacna in the k'iché Maya Popol Vuh written source. Some of the Centzonmimixcoa (at least two, Xiuhnel and Mimich) were also slain by Tzitzimime (night demons) such as the goddess Itzpapalotl, disguised as a deer (Mazatl, her nahual animal), in a reading from the Legend of the Five Suns - in the same account, Itzpapalotl dies alongside Mimich.

In this story, the Centzonmimixcoa appear more than once, although their role is increased during the first era where they're depicted as aethereal Teteoh who use the plains of Mictlampa (either the northern horizon, or the nine plains of the underworld, in the story I left it ambiguous that both places are the same, or the first one is a possible, but not the only path which leads to the second) as their hunting grounds. Even after their deaths by the Tzitzimimeh (or, at least, the deaths of some of them, such as Xiuhnel), they remain alive, or at least their Teyolia do. The Centzonmimixcoa share traits with Mixcoatl, such as his facial painting, and the fact that they're feared by the Macehualtin (the people) and Quinametzin (giants, from the first sun era) alike. This story doesn't address, however, the relation between Mixcoatl as a father to Ce Acatl Topiltzin, nor mentions about his mother, Chimalman. Instead, I chose to depict the reign of Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzacoatl in the Second Sun Era - and because of that I say it again, this is not an accurate translation of the Legend of the Five Suns, but a somewhat loose adaptation, as it rather relates the mythical nahua account with the historical mesoamerican chronology, though not necessarily using the same amounts of years mentioned in the written accounts for each era. This way, I expanded the length of each era, without precisely naming how many years they lasted, and reduced part of the narrative about the Tolteca-Chichimeca migrations, in a way that each catastrophe which leads to a new era hasn't eliminated completely the traces of previous races and civilizations. The very Toltecs, for example, have made a lasting legacy which would last for more than one age. But in the narrative, while these people are called as Toltecs by the narrator, who is a Mexica Nahua, we never know their actual names. Not in the first two eras, at least. And if they name themselves as Toltecs in the Third Era (what happens, as you'll see in the next chapter), it's implied that it's more a romanticized narrative from a nahua perspective than the actual history there.

That said, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, who was said to have been born in Michatlauhco (nowadays associated with Amatlán de Quetzalcoatl, a town near Tepoztlán, in the State of Morelos) is here portrayed as the founder of an era of prosperity for Tollan, and is the precursor of future Toltec leaders. However, in this story it's during his time that the catastrophe which put an end to the Second Sun Era happens. I got to push the limits for poetic liberty with the three distinct vital energies here, dividing Quetzalcoatl's multiple aspects into three vital energies of the same being, all while he reigned as the second sun. His Tonalli is Ehecatl, his Teyolia is Ce Acatl Topiltzin (who later becomes Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli "Lord of the Morning Star"), and both coexist. As a human, he ages, but he's also the sun, that won't normally age in this story (in the second and third chapters, for example, Tezcatlipoca the first Sun-God doesn't age, apparently, and it lasts for hundreds of years). I also added some elements that may have come from colonial era sources, such as his reduction of heart offerings to the sun, and his preference for the development of arts as a mean to appease the Teteoh over the offering of blood; what prompts his returned brother, as well other deities (in this story, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli) to devise a plan to turn against him. I won't spoil the story up to this point, however I managed to include plenty more of nahua gods into this, and in the end, he steps down from his sun position, Tollan (and presumably, the world) is destroyed, some people become the howler monkeys that exist to this day, Tornadoes ravage what's left of civilization, but as things go by, a new sun must take place, and some traditions of these early Toltecs go on to the next generations. In the end, Quetzalcoatl's "social experiment", which was deemed as a failure by Tezcatlipoca, still had its effects and gave him some more answers about the roles of the gods and especially the sun-gods in the creation(s): to always make something better than before.

So, I hope you like it as much as I did producing it!

And don't forget to follow and share my work at:

Behance | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

< THE JAGUAR SUN (prev.)| (next) THE RAIN SUN >