Lords of the Night

In Mesoamerican
mythology the Lords of
the Night (Classical
Nahuatl: Yoalteuctin) are
a set of nine gods who
each ruled over every
ninth night forming a
calendrical cycle. Each
lord was associated with
a particular fortune, bad
or good, that was an
omen for the night that
they ruled over.[1]

The lords of the night are

known in both the Aztec
and Maya calendar,
although the specific
names of the Maya Night
Lords are unknown.[2]

The glyphs
corresponding to the
night gods are known
and mayanists identify
them with labels G1 to
G9, the G series.
Generally, these glyphs Lords of the Night in Codex Borgia (1a) Tlaloc, (1b) Tepeyollotl, (1c) Tlazolteotl, (2a)
are frequently used with Centeotl, (2b) Mictlantecuhtli, (2c) Chalchiuhtlicue, (3a) Piltzintecuhtli, (3b)
a fixed glyph coined F. Tezcatlipoca, (3c) Xiuhtecuhtli. The actual reading order of the panels is
The only Mayan light boustrophedon and begins in the bottom right: 3c, 3b, 3a, 2a, 2b, 2c, 1c, 1b, 1a.
lord that has been
identified is the God G9,
Pauahtun the Aged Quadripartite God.[3][4]

The existence of a 9 nights cycle in Mesoamerican calendrics was first discovered in 1904 by Eduard Seler.
The Aztec names of the Deities are known because their names are glossed in the Codex Telleriano-
Remensis and Codex Tudela. Seler argued that the 9 lords each corresponded to one of the nine levels of the
under world and ruled the corresponding hour of the night time, this argument has not generally been
accepted, since the evidence suggests that the lord of a given night ruled over that entire night.[5] Zelia
Nuttall argued that the Nine Lords of the Night represented the nine moons of the Lunar year.[6] The cycle
of the Nine Lords of the Night held special relation to the Mesoamerican ritual calendar of 260-days and
nights or -night which includes exactly 29 groups of 9 nights each, and also, approximately, 9 vague
lunations of 29 days each.

The Nine Lords of the Night in Aztec mythology are:[5]

Xiuhtecuhtli ("Turquoise/Year/Fire Lord")

 Tezcatlipoca ("Smoking Mirror")
Piltzintecuhtli ("Prince Lord")
Centeotl ("Maize God")
Mictlantecuhtli ("Underworld Lord")
Chalchiuhtlicue ("Jade Is Her Skirt")
Tlazolteotl ("Filth God[dess]")
Tepeyollotl ("Mountain Heart")
Tlaloc (Rain God)

Sources
1. Anthony F. Aveni. 2001. Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of
Ancient Mexico. University of Texas Press. pp. 156-57
2. Gabrielle Vail, Christine L. Hernández. 2010. Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual
Interchange Between the Northern Maya Lowlands and Highland Mexico in the Late
Postclassic Period. Harvard University Press p. 291
3. Lynn V. Foster. 2005. Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World. Oxford University Press. p.
259
4. http://www.pauahtun.org/Calendar/gglyph.html Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2006022
2011801/http://www.pauahtun.org/Calendar/gglyph.html) 2006-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
Night Gods discussion in Pauahtun
5. Elizabeth Hill Boone. 2007. Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate.
University of Texas Press pp. 44-45
6. Zelia Nuttall. 1904. The Periodical Adjustments of the Ancient Mexican Calendar. American
Anthropologist , New Series, Vol. 6, No. 4 pp. 486-500

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lords_of_the_Night&oldid=946101996"

This page was last edited on 18 March 2020, at 02:26 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.