Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:37:02.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD AND HIS MYTH AT TEOTIHUACAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Zoltán Paulinyi
Zoltán Paulinyi*
Affiliation:
Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile
*
E-mail correspondence to: zpaulinyi@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We know little about the gods of the Teotihuacan pantheon and practically nothing of their mythology. Starting from the analysis of a group of murals in Atetelco (Teotihuacan), a partial reconstruction is proposed for a Teotihuacan myth, the principal figure of which has the character of a sun god linked to vegetation. In this proposal, this god descends to the Underworld and is reborn, thus rising out of the depths of the earth. The myth appears to include, moreover, a ballgame in the Underworld and probably a supernatural macaw, linked in some way to the god in question. In my opinion, this is probably a creation myth, with a basic structure bearing a resemblance to that of the Popol Vuh.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , Spring 2014 , pp. 29 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ángulo, Jorge V. 1987 The Chalcatzingo Reliefs—An Iconographic Analysis. In Ancient Chalcatzingo, edited by Grove, David C., pp. 132–158. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda, Luis 1963 La estela teotihuacana de La Ventilla. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Baudez, Claude 1994 Maya Sculpture at Copan: The Iconography. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F., and Anawalt, Patricia R. (editors) 1992 The Codex Mendoza. Vol. 4. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Berjonneau, Gerald, Deletaille, Emile, and Sonnery, Jean-Louis 1985 Rediscovered Masterpieces of Mesoamerica: Mexico–Guatemala–Honduras. Editions Arts, Boulogne.Google Scholar
Berlo, Janet C. 1983 The Warrior and the Butterfly: Central Mexican Ideologies of Sacred Warfare and Teotihuacan Iconography. In Text and Image in Pre-Columbian Art, edited by Berlo, Janet C., pp. 79–117. BAR International Series 180, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Berlo, Janet C. 1984 Teotihuacan Art Abroad: A Study of Metropolitan Style and Provincial Transformation in Incensario Workshop. BAR International Series 199, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Berlo, Janet C. 1992 Icons and Ideologies: The Great Goddess Reconsidered. In Art, Ideology and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by Berlo, Janet C., pp. 129–168. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Berrin, Kathleen, and Pasztory, Esther (editors) 1993 Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods. Thames and Hudson and The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New York and San Francisco.Google Scholar
Burkhart, Louise 1992 Flowery Heaven: The Aesthetic of Paradise in Nahuatl Devotional Literature. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 21:88–109.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén 1995 Atetelco. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. I: Teotihuacán. Tomo I: Catálogo, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 203–258. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Cabrera Castro, Rubén, Gómez, Sergio, and Gazzola, Julie 2007 Nuevos hallazgos de la pintura mural teotihuacana. In Museo de Murales Teotihuacanos, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 127–147. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1966 Dioses y signos teotihuacanos. In Teotihuacan: Onceava Mesa Redonda, pp. 249–279. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Conides, Cynthia Alexandria 2001 The Stuccoed and Painted Ceramics from Teotihuacan, Mexico: A Study of Authorship and Function of Works of Art from an Ancient Mesoamerican City. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
de la Fuente, Beatriz 2006 Zona 5A: Conjunto del Sol. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. I: Teotihuacán. Tomo I: Catálogo, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 58–79. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Deletaille, Emile, and Deletaille, Lin (editors) 1992 Trésors du Nouveau Monde. Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Eggebrecht, Arne (editor) 1986 Glanz und Untergang des Alten Mexico, 2 vols. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein.Google Scholar
Evans, Susan Toby 2010 Teotihuacan: Art from the City Where Time Began. In Ancient Mexican Art at Dumbarton Oaks: Central Highlands, Southwestern Highlands, Gulf Lowlands, edited by Evans, Susan Toby, pp. 11–55. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Fash, William L., and Fash, Barbara W. 1996 Building of World-View: Visual Communication in Classic Maya Architecture. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 29/30:127–147.Google Scholar
Fash, William L., Fash, Barbara W., and Davis-Salazar, Karla 2004 Setting the Stage: Origins of the Hieroglyphic Stairway Plaza on the Great Period Ending. In Understanding Early Classic Copán, edited by Bell, Ellen E., Canuto, Marcello A., and Sharer, Robert, pp. 65–83. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
García-Des Lauriers, Claudia 2005 La iconografía y simbolismo de la escultura de Cerro Bernal, Chiapas. In Iconografía y escritura teotihuacana en costa sur de Guatemala y Chiapas, edited by Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla and Arroyo, Bárbara, pp. 1–16. Utźib Series Reports Vol. 1, No. 5, Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Giral Sancho, Nadia 2003 Algunas consideraciones finales sobre la cotidianeidad de los teotihuacanos de Atetelco a través de su pintura mural. La Pintura Mural Prehispánica: Boletín Informativo 9:21–27.Google Scholar
Giral Sancho, Nadia 2004 Intentos para trazar una analogía entre las pinturas del mural oeste de la Sección Sudeste de Atetelco y las del Tlalocan de Tepantitla. La Pintura Mural Prehispánica: Boletín Informativo 10:51–56.Google Scholar
Headrick, Annabeth 2003 Butterfly War at Teotihuacan. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare, edited by Brown, Kathryn M. and Stanton, Travis W., pp. 149–170. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1975 The Escuintla Hoards: Teotihuacan art in Guatemala. F.L.A.A.R. Progress Reports, Vol. 1, No. 2, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1978 Teotihuacan Art in the Escuintla, Guatemala Region. In Middle Classic Mesoamerica: A. D. 400–700, edited by Pasztory, Esther, pp. 71–85. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1987 Human Sacrifice in Ballgame Scenes on Early Classic Cylindrical Tripods from the Tiquisate Region, Guatemala. Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research, Culver City, CA.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1993 Middle Classic Pottery from the Tiquisate Area, Escuintla, Guatemala. Unpublished manuscript on file, Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 1992 The Flower World of Old Uto-Aztecan. Journal of Anthropological Research 48:117–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juarez Osnaya, Alberto, and Ávila Rivera, Elizabeth Carmen 2006 Totómetla. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México I. Vol. 1: Teotihuacan. Tomo I: Catálogo, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz, pp. 346–360. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Kampen, Michael Edwin 1972 The Sculptures of El Tajín, Veracruz, Mexico. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred V., Jennings, Jesse D., and Shook, Edwin M. 1946 Excavations at Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 561, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Koontz, Rex 2009 Social Identity and Cosmology at El Tajín. In The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery, edited by Fash, William L. and López Luján, Leonardo, pp. 260–289. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Kubler, George 1967 The Iconography of the Art of Teotihuacan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Langley, James C. 1986 Symbolic Notation of Teotihuacan: Elements of Writing in a Mesoamerican Culture of the Classic Period. BAR International Series 313. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Langley, James C. 1993 Symbols, Signs, and Writing Systems. In Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods, edited by Berrin, Kathleen and Pasztory, Esther, pp. 129–139. Thames and Hudson and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New York and San Francisco.Google Scholar
Langley, James C. 1998 Teotihuacan Incensarios: The ‘V’ Manta and its Message. Internet Journal for Teotihuacan Archaeology and Iconography, Notes 1–3. Manuscript on file, Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile.Google Scholar
Lombardo de Ruíz, Sonia 2001 Los estilos en la pintura mural maya. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. II: Área Maya. Tomo III: Estudios, edited by Cicero, Leticia Staines, pp. 85–154. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
López Austin, Alfredo 1980 Cuerpo humano e ideología: Las concepciones de los antiguos nahuas, 2 vols. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
López Luján, Leonardo, Neff, Hector, and Sugiyama, Saburo 2002 The 9-Xi Vase: A Classic Thin Orange Vessel Found at Tenochtitlan. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by Carrasco, David, Jones, Lindsay, and Sessions, Scott, pp. 219–248. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Luna, Albino S. 2006 La flora representada en iconografía pictórica. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. I: Teotihuacán. Tomo I: Estudios, edited by Fuente, Beatriz de la, pp. 369–389. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Gallery, Merrin 1971 Works of Art from the Pre-Columbian Mexico and Guatemala. Edward H. Merrin Gallery, New York.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur G. 1973 The Mural Painting of Teotihuacan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary, and Martin, Simon 2004 Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary, and Taube, Karl 1993 An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Múnera B., Carlos, and Sugiyama, Saburo 2005 El símbolismo de los incensarios y la organización estatal en Teotihuacán. Cerámica ritual de un taller en la ciudadela, Teotihuacan: Catálogo. Report submitted to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/.Google Scholar
Navarijo Ornelas, Ma. de Lourdes 2001 Las aves en el mundo maya prehispánico. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. II: Área Maya. Tomo III: Estudios, edited by Cicero, Leticia Staines, pp. 221–253. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Navarijo Ornelas, Ma. de Lourdes 2006 La presencia de las aves en la pintura mural teotihuacana. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. I: Teotihuacán. Tomo II: Estudios, edited by Fuente, Beatriz de la, pp. 325–341. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Jesper, and Helmke, Christophe 2011 La caída de la gran ave celestial: Un mito cosmogónico del clásico temprano en el México central. Unpublished manuscript on file, Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile.Google Scholar
Paredes Cetino, Nestor 2002 Dos contextos acuáticos en un conjunto de La Ventilla, Teotihuacan. In Ideología y política a través de materiales: Imágenes y símbolos. Memoria de la Primera Mesa Redonda de Teotihuacan, edited by Gallut, María Elena Ruíz, pp. 431–458. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México City.Google Scholar
Parsons, Lee Allen 1986 The Origins of Maya Art: Monumental Stone Sculpture of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, and the Southern Pacific Coast. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltán 1995 El pájaro del Dios Mariposa de Teotihuacan: Análisis iconográfico a partir de una vasija de Tiquisate, Guatemala. Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino 6:71–110.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltán 1997 El Rayo del Dios de la Lluvia: Imágenes de serpientes ígneas en el arte teotihuacano. Mexicon 19(2):27–33.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltán 2006 El Dios Mariposa-Pájaro y sus acompañantes zoomorfos en los murales del Patio 1 del Palacio del Sol, Teotihuacan. La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México: Boletín Informativo XII:47–54.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltán 2007 La diosa de Tepantitla en Teotihuacan: Una nueva interpretación. Cuicuilco 41:243–277.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltán 2011 El universo del Dios Mariposa Pájaro en la pintura mural de Atetelco. In Investigaciones recientes en el conjunto arquitectónico Atetelco, Teotihuacan, edited by Castro, Rubén Cabrera and Cabrera, Verónica Ortega, pp. 18–33. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Rivas Castro, Francisco 2001 El maguey y el pulque en Teotihuacan: Representación y simbolismo. Arqueología 25:47–62.Google Scholar
Robicsek, Francis, and Hales, Donald M. 1981 The Maya Book of the Dead: The Ceramic Codex. The Corpus of the Codex Style Ceramics at the Late Classic Period. University of the Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA.Google Scholar
Ruíz Gallut, María Elena 2001 Entre formas, astros y colores: Aspectos de la astronomía y la pintura mural en sitios del Área Maya. In La Pintura Mural Prehispánica en México. Vol. II: Área Maya. Tomo III: Estudios, edited by de la Fuente, Beatriz and Cicero, Leticia Staines, pp. 283–293. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Fray Bernardino de 2000 Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España. Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Saturno, William A. 2009 Centering the Kingdom, Centering the King. In The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture and Imagery, edited by Fash, William L. and Luján, Leonardo López, pp. 111–134. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1959 Un palacio en la ciudad de los dioses (Teotihuacan). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1962 Interpretación de un jeroglífico teotihuacano. Cuadernos Americanos 124:137–158.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1966a Arqueología de Teotihuacan: La cerámica. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1966b Arquitectura y pintura en Teotihuacan. Siglo XXI Editores, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Séjourné, Laurette 1966c El lenguaje de las formas en Teotihuacan. Gabriel Mancera, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Seler, Eduard 1915 Die Teotihuacan-kultur des Hochlands von Mexico. In Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprach- und Altertumskunde, Vol. 5, pp. 405–485. Beehrend and Co., Berlin.Google Scholar
Bernet, Sotheby Parke 1981 Important Pre-Columbian Art: Property of Various Owners. Sale Number 4749Y, Saturday, December 5. Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 1998 Archaeology and Iconography of Teotihuacan Censers: Official Military Emblems Originated from the Ciudadela. Teotihuacan Notes: Internet Journal for Teotihuacan Archaeology and Iconography, Notes 1–2. Manuscript on file, Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1989 The Maize Tamale in Classic Maya Diet, Epigraphy, and Art. American Antiquity 54:31–51Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1992a The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1992b The Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Cult of Sacred War at Teotihuacan. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 21:53–87.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2002 The Turquoise Hearth: Fire, Self Sacrifice, and the Central Mexican Cult of War. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by Carrasco, David, Jones, Lindsay, and Sessions, Scott, pp. 269–340. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2003 Tetitla and the Maya Presence at Teotihuacan. In The Maya and Teotihuacan. Reinterpreting Early Classic Maya Interaction, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey E., pp. 273–314. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2005a Representaciones del paraíso en el arte cerámico del clásico temprano de Escuintla, Guatemala. In Iconografía y escritura teotihuacana en Costa Sur de Guatemala y Chiapas, edited by Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla and Arroyo, Bárbara, pp. 35–56. Utźib Series Reports, Vol. 1, No. 5, Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2005b The Symbolism of Jade in Classic Maya Religion. Ancient Mesoamerica 16:23–50.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2006 Climbing Flower Mountain: Concepts of Resurrection and the Afterlife at Teotihuacan. In Arqueología e historia del centro de México: Homenaje a Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, edited by López Luján, Leonardo, Carrasco, David, and Cué, Lourdes, pp. 153–170. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Wilkerson, S. Jeffrey K. 1984 In Search of the Mountain Foam: Human Sacrifice in Eastern Mesoamerica. In Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, edited by Boone, Elizabeth H., pp. 101–132. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
von Euw, Eric 1977 Itzimte, Pixoy, Tzum. Corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions, Vol. 4, Part I. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
von Winning, Hasso 1987 La iconografía de Teotihuacan: Los dioses y los signos. 2 vols. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar