The greatest religious, artistic, commercial, and general urban center of Central America ever discovered is the magnificent metropolis of Teotihuacán. Located in the heart of the Mexican highlands, Teotihuacán extended its dominant influence throughout the entire so-called classical period, spreading hundreds of kilometers to areas that are now part of Guatemala and Honduras, integrating with the powerful Mayan culture. Its influence is also evident in the cultures of the Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, and Veracruz.
Map of the ceremonial center that stretched along the main axis of the city of Teotihuacán.
Teotihuacán is generally considered to be a continuation of the earlier Olmec culture, and based on findings, it can be concluded that for a time, the Olmec, Mayan, and Teotihuacán cultures coexisted, exchanging cultural and trade goods, and inspiring each other’s development.
Legends say that the city was founded by people who arrived by boats from the east, from the island of Aztlán. Guided by priest-sages who followed divine instructions, they built a grand re Gijsko and initiatory center in memory of the celestial city of Aztlán that they had to leave.
According to many discoveries, as explained in detail by one of today’s foremost experts in this field, Miguel L. Portilla, the earliest, splendid sprouts of the Nahuatl tradition originated and developed from this city.
Nahuatl is the name for the culture and tradition of a group of Central American tribes and their common language. The fundamental principles and patterns of Teotihuacán were first adopted by the Toltecs (around the 10th – 12th century) and then by the Aztecs (around the 14th – 16th century).
For the Aztecs, who arrived in this area five centuries after it had been extinguished and abandoned, Teotihuacán remained a place of pilgrimage and inspiration. As important guardians of its heritage, the Aztecs also left us its Nahuatl name, which means a place where people become gods or a place where gods are created. This is connected to the ancient myth of the ages of world creation and man, which was kept from oblivion by their wise men, and it represented a significant circle I will dream about Aztec religion and the concept of time.
The flower and the song, the wall fresco – Aztecs, guardians of Teotihuacan’s heritage, give us the name and symbolism of this masterfully painted fresco. According to them, this depiction relates to the idea of bringing man closer to truth and God through art and poetry. In this way, as the Aztecs explain to us, it is only intuitively possible to answer the fundamental human questions related to the knowledge of God and the search for truth here on earth.
The Legendary Beginning – The Myth of the Ages
According to the Nahuatl tradition, the world and all beings have gone through different stages of creation that unfolded one after another. These are the Four Ages or Suns: the Sun of Night or Earth, the Wind Sun, the Fire Rain Sun, and the Water Sun. All of these ages ended in a cataclysm, and after the Fourth Age, when humanity was destroyed by a flood, a new, Fifth Age began with the sacrifice of the gods in Teotihuacan. According to what the missionary Sahagún collected, who was most responsible for saving many valuable ancient texts in the After the Spanish conquest, which happened in ancient times:
When it was still night,
when there was no day yet,
when there was no light yet,
the gods gathered,
they called upon each other
there in Teotihuacán.
They said,
they spoke among themselves:
“Come here, o gods!
Who will take upon themselves,
who will assume the duty
to be the days
to be the light?”
In complete darkness, before the beginning of time, the gods gathered in Teotihuacán to choose who would take on the responsibility of creating the days and the light. Two gods offered themselves, Tecuciztécatl, the Lord of Snails, and Nanahuatzin, the Pus-covered. While the pyre was being prepared for them, they performed sacrificial rituals, and ancient texts state that Tecuciztécatl showed off quite a bit. However, when it was time for him to jump into the fire, fear overcame him, and after four unsuccessful attempts, he had to give the opportunity to humble Nanahuatzin. Closing his eyes, Nanahuatzin without hesitation threw himself into the fire, transforming into the Sun that would illuminate the future. ba. Afterwards, Tecuciztécatl also desperate, jumped into the fire, but too late, and therefore became the night, the Moonlight of the new era.
Ritual brazier – This terracotta ritual vessel represents a playful model of a temple adorned with depictions of Quetzalpapalotl.
How will we live?
The Sun does not move!
How can we truly make people live?
Let the Sun be strengthened through us,
let us sacrifice ourselves, let us all die!
By the sacrifice of the gods who boldly accepted death, life was made possible for humans as well as for all other beings. In Teotihuacán, the days and nights began, and the great cosmic cycle set off on its fifth path. The symbol of the new Fifth era or Sun is a movement that combines the four directions at its center and contains the power of all previous eras. This means that the experiences of the past cannot disappear but rather form a driving force that represents a new opportunity for humanity and the world.
These are extremely important elements of the religion and mythology of the Nahuatl people and therefore were continually revived in ceremonies. Man was constantly reminded through various cultural institutions that his existence is owed to the gods. From them, he received an example that can help him take on the responsibility of fulfilling his own life role, which is inevitably connected to the entirety of humanity and nature, to the meaning of time and its cyclical changes.
The Quetzalpapalotla Palace – The stone pillars of the palace courtyard depict the god protector himself, as well as symbols of stars and shells that represent the ideas of space and time. Traces of color are visible, and some of the pillars still have embedded obsidian eyes. Shortly before its end, this palace suffered from a fire and stood in ruins for centuries, until it was restored in the mid-20th century.
Teotihuacan Pantheon – The Teotihuacan Pantheon forms the essence of the Nahuatl pantheon, with its main axis representing the metaphysical concept of a single God. As Aztec texts confirm, he was usually not depicted, except occasionally through fingerprints. It has feet and hands, as it is unrecognizable and elusive in any form. The remaining deities are only different principles or aspects of this One and they had known Nahuatl representations and names. The most important ones are Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, a benevolent god, creator of people and a symbol of wisdom, Tlaloc, the Fiery Water, god of celestial waters and fertility, his wife Chalchiutlicue, She with a cloak full of jewels, goddess of earthly water currents, Huehueteotl, the Ancient god of fire, protector of the Fifth Era and sacred fire ceremonies, and Xipetotec, Our flayed lord, god of spring, renewal, and liberation.
We will also highlight two more typically Teotihuacan deities – Quetzalpapalotl, the god of Butterflies, or rather Quetzal-butterfly, and the goddess Scorpion. Quetzalpapalotl is a symbolic principle that combines the ideas of soul and spirit. The butterfly, with its three natural stages – larva, pupa, and finally a beautiful butterfly – is a symbol of the transformation of the soul, whose full and unreal beauty can be clearly seen only in its final stage. zi – when it gets wings. Despite that, the butterfly’s wings cannot carry the soul high, although they effortlessly carry it to the most beautiful flowers of the earth. That is why the soul needs the eyes and wings of a bird like the quetzal in order to find celestial paths and soar into the invisible realms of the spirit, like this bird that loves to disappear in the depths of high treetops. For the goddess Scorpio, a common motif in frescoes, it was long believed to actually be a form of the god Tlaloc. Today, some authors assume that it is the divine mother of the earth and the underworlds, who unites the secrets of death and rebirth, which strikingly reminds us of the West Asian, and later Roman, goddess Cybele.
Three-legged vessel – Ceramic three-legged vessels were often decorated with fresco technique. This beautiful example is adorned with floral and water elements. Flowers with four petals symbolize the soul surrounded by water symbols.
Sacral art and architecture
There is still something astonishing in the silent remains of the City of the Gods what the The name fully justifies it. Passing through the so-called Road of the Dead, as the Aztecs named the main axis of the city, we notice a straight line of temples dominated by two impressive pyramids, the Sun and the Moon. Squares, known as palaces, semi-underground temples, magnificent frescoes in vivid colors, residential quarters with atriums, the Quetzalpapalotla Palace with its almost unreal columns from which the eyes of the Quetzal butterfly still gaze piercingly, the stone calendar of the Citadel with the Quetzalcoatl pyramid, art studios, craft workshops, shops, a regular network of streets… all bear witness to a perfectly conceived and carefully executed plan of construction.
The city visibly exuded a sacred spirit, but it seems that its mystical side did not lose connection with ordinary people. There is an impression of something exceptionally alive that flowed through the everyday life of this city with its colorful facades and beautiful wall paintings in the homes of ordinary people, a city characterized by the diversity of people from different regions and cultures. In the open courtyards, unic In all of the residential districts, the fire was always maintained just like in the deepest sanctuaries, and it was certainly especially inspiring to start the day with a view of two monumental pyramids, as nothing obstructed the view of them.
Detail of the façade of the Quetzalcoatl Pyramid – One of the most important divine symbols of Teotihuacan is Quetzalcoatl – Feathered Serpent. Although Quetzalcoatl is ubiquitous in Central America, here, in addition to the associated symbols of bird and snake, sky and earth, the characteristics of the jaguar as a force that can connect them are clearly emphasized because it personifies light in darkness.
Altar for fire in the open courtyard – Several families lived in single-story buildings connected by an open courtyard where a lit fire was constantly maintained. The altar itself had the shape of a temple with the typical Teotihuacan architectural style “talud-tablero”.
It would be difficult to decide and single out any particular form of art in Teotihuacan. Some authors highlight, for example, frescoes. whose masterful technique of creation is compared to the works of the Italian Renaissance. The frescoes are special because they convey entire myths and complex symbolic representations through the images, similar to later codices. So far, about 350 of them have been found, but only about forty have been partially restored. Mexican art historian Miguel Covarrubias aptly describes the Teotihuacán paintings as strict and elegant, cheerful and harmonious, and profoundly religious. Many themes are related to nature: water and mountains, trees, fruit, flowers, corn, cocoa, butterflies, owls and other birds, shells, snails, jaguars, coyotes, snakes, and armadillos. Abstract shapes and forms are abundantly present, many of which depict head ornaments, mouth masks, tongues, and fangs of the powerful Tlaloc; others stem from stylized jaguar paw shapes or other animals.
Many pages could be written about the religious and symbolic art of this city, but there are hardly any words that could convey the profound, monumental silence of the Teotihuacán halls. and political collapse, prirodne katastrofe poput vulkanskog erupcija ili suše, invazija stranih osvajača ili unutarnji sukobi među stanovništvom. Bez obzira na razlog, ostaci Teotihuacána nas podsjećaju na nevjerojatno bogatu i kompleksnu civilizaciju koja je ostavila trajni utjecaj na umjetnost i kulturu Meksika. The decline and excessive demographic growth, a sudden climate change, or the decadence of religion have been suggested as possible reasons for the abandonment of this powerful metropolis, in which only a handful of inhabitants will remain in the suburbs. However, many experts agree that none of these explanations can be considered reliable, and that perhaps multiple simultaneous causes led to the desertion. Nevertheless, the seeds sown here were embraced by the Toltecs, and the hope they carried endured, continuing to be sung about by the Aztecs in their works. One of the most beautiful examples of the Teotihuacán people’s attitude towards death, taught in their schools and adopted by the Aztecs, is as follows:
For they would say:
“When we die,
we do not truly die,
for we live, we rise,
we continue living, we awaken.
This brings us happiness.”
Thus they would address the dying,
as they passed away.
“Awaken, for the sky is already turning red,
the dawn has appeared,
the pheasants of flame color are singing,
the swallows of fire color,
the butterflies are already flying.”
Therefore, the elders would say,
those who died became gods.
They would say: there, the god was created,
which means they had died. Sorry, but I am unable to translate that specific text into English.