hey dr mct oh hey dr z
i was just wondering which culture do
you think has the coolest looking gods
oh that's a tough question i mean a lot
of cultures imagine that their gods look
pretty similar to us but with more limbs
and maybe a few animal parts thrown in i
mean who wouldn't want an extra animal
part thrown in i would love to have
wings that'd be tight oh the tightest uh
but anyway i think it comes down to how
those gods accessorize and for me the
gods and goddesses of nagawa mythology
have always stood out i know right the
bold colors the expressive features all
those feathers the nava definitely had
some cool looking gods but i think
aesthetics were far from the only
interesting thing about them oh for sure
the nawa also have a complicated history
and an even more fascinating creation
mythology
you know what i think we should do an
episode about this word
if the word nawa sounds unfamiliar to
you it's probably because you're more
used to hearing them referred to as the
aztec the history is complicated but the
name aztec was popularized by a german
explorer in the 1800s to describe the
powerful mesoamerican empire
it was derived from the word aztlan
which was the name of the legendary
homeland that the people migrated from
centuries earlier but it's probably not
what they would have called themselves
neither aztec nor nawa describe a single
group of people but nawa does describe
the larger community of independent
city-states who traded with each other
held overlapping beliefs and spoke the
nuadl language
by the time the spanish invaded in 1521
the most powerful of these groups were
the inhabitants of the empire's capital
city tenochtitlan in modern day mexico
city they called themselves the mashika
which is where the word mexico comes
from
as their influence spread not always
through peaceful means the mashika
adopted more than a hundred local
deities into their pantheon while also
inserting their own beliefs and stories
some legends say the mexicans began a
pilgrimage from atlan or northern
location until they were urged to leave
by witsa lapachli the god of war and
sacrifice he bid them to leave their
homeland and travel until they came to a
place where an eagle devoured a snake
resting on a cactus for more than 200
years they migrated south through land
much harsher than the home they left
behind
weeds scratched them as they walked and
rocks bit them as they slept but we
wheatsulapochley's guidance eventually
led them to a small island in the middle
of lake tex cocoa in the onawak valley
around 1325
this and most of the other stories we
know from nawa mythology come from
pictographic records that describe their
history sacred rituals and religious
beliefs the talatoani or chief speaker
of the empire was set to own a whole
library of these codices before most
were destroyed during the conquest
luckily a few were kept safe and the
surviving nawa continued to record their
history in more codices for generations
afterwards
these codices also tell us that the
universe in nagua mythology is cyclical
so that the end of the world is really
just another beginning in the true
beginning there was nothing but an
endless void from which the dual-natured
god omateodl formed you may remember
from our gender fluidity episode that
omatiotl was both male and female made
of the god oma takutly and the goddess
omasi waddle there are several examples
of similar male female pairs in nawa
mythology in this binary form omateodle
produced four sons witsila pashtly
quetzaquadol tezcatlipoca and shipe
totec each of them was associated with a
specific color bird and cardinal
direction
as omatiotl retreated to the highest
plane of heaven these four gods created
many others including the rain god
tlalak
he and witsalapashli were the most
venerated among the mashika and the
templo mayor in tenochtitlan was
dedicated to them
together the gods created and ruled the
universe which was split into three
vertical regions
in the middle was the earth made from
the body of the crocodile sea monster c
pactly
thirteen levels of heaven stretched
above sea pactly's head and nine levels
of the underworld stretched below
the earth was dark so the gods created a
sun to keep it warm and bright but
making something as powerful as the sun
is no easy feat even for a god it
requires sacrifice which is a central
theme in november mythology
tetzkatvi poka a god of night who was
adopted by the nawat from the indigenous
toltec people became the son of the
first creation but was a weak nocturnal
sun and was overthrown by his brother
quetzalcoatl a god of wind life and
light
thus started the next cycle of the nawat
universe the one where the first humans
were made but the humans became corrupt
and quetzalcoatl destroyed them with
terrifying hurricanes the few humans who
survive escaped to the tops of trees and
became monkeys
the next sun or cycle of the universe
was ruled by tlalak the god of rain and
thunder it was a prosperous time until
it ended in a barrage of fiery rain in
some legends tolok sent the fire himself
after tezcatlipoca stole his wife away
in others it was the ongoing feud
between quetzalcoatl and tezcatlipoca
that ended the third sun
the fourth god to sacrifice themself was
chao chiyu tlikue twalak's sister and
the goddess of running water the feuding
brothers struck her down and the world
ended in a great flood that collapsed
the sky and all the people were turned
into fish
in some stories tezcatlipoca taunts her
until she cries so many tears that she
floods the world
when it came time to create the fifth
sun most of the gods were understandably
hesitant to sacrifice themselves it was
nana huwatsen the humble pustulous one
who jumped into the fire first in doing
so he created tona tiyu who in some
stories ruled over the fifth son
not to be outdone tetset zakat jumped in
next and became the moon to nana
watson's son
so that they didn't repeat their
previous mistakes the other gods
sacrificed their blood to nonhawatson to
keep him strong
the world under the fifth son needed
people so quetzalcoatl descended to
mikdlon the underworld to retrieve the
bones of the first humans miktlon
takutly the lord of this land of the
dead told quetzalcoatl that he could
have the bones only if he traveled
through all of myktlan four times while
blowing a conch shell but the shell had
no holes in it it goes to show that no
matter the culture you can't expect to
get anything from a god without first
completing some impossible task
clever quetzalcoatl called the worms to
two holes in the shell and filled it
with bees so that their buzzing would
make the horns sing
when quetzalcoatl carried the bones up
to earth he ground them up and mixed his
blood with the powder to make a paste
that was used like play-doh to make
people
the nawa believed that they were some of
these humans crafted for the fifth son
and that this world would one day end in
a devastating earthquake ritual
sacrifice of humans animals and food was
central to nawat culture so important
that priests supposedly sacrificed 20
000 people in one day to honor the
completion of the great temple and
tenochtitlan
some historians say all the sacrifices
were meant to instill fear and obedience
in the nahuwat city-states that the
mexica conquered
but according to mythology from the
codices the sacrifices were meant to
empower and impeach the gods
following the story of nanahuatan's
sacrifice according to mexico state
ideology even the sun required the power
that blood provided to rise each day in
now a culture like in norse the quality
of your afterlife depended not on how
morally you lived but on the manner of
your death those who died of sacrifices
to the gods got the honor of
accompanying the sun as it rose to its
midpoint in the sky along with warriors
who died in battle
the souls of women who died in
childbirth were honored to accompany the
sun as it set to the west where it
descended to mcmahon to make its journey
back to the east
after four years of this service the
souls returned to earth as exotic birds
a nod to the god wheatsel lapachli whose
name means hummingbird of the south
people who died from drowning or
lightning strikes spent their afterlifes
in tallalucan a paradise in the lowest
level of heaven ruled by talaq and his
sister consort child cheat with liku
everyone else spent their afterlife
traveling through the nine levels of
mclean for four years the dead faced
obstacle after obstacle they climbed an
obsidian mountain braved winds so cold
they cut the skin and evaded ferocious
beasts who feasted on human hearts
eventually they reached the ninth level
the home of the lord and lady of death
where they could finally rest but they
didn't have to make the trip alone the
souls of the dead were guided by a white
dog named shalottal who by the way is
very reminiscent of zero the ghostly dog
in the nightmare before christmas
the spanish destroyed so many vestiges
of nawa culture from documents to
buildings to art but they couldn't wipe
out the culture completely when mexico
gained its independence in 1821 after
300 years of spanish rule its leaders
drew inspiration from nawa culture to
establish mexico's national identity you
can see signs of this in murals around
mexico city the flag that sports the
legendary snake chomping eagle
prophesized by witsel apostle and oh
yeah the name of the country that's
derived from the name of the meshica
people the culture isn't just alive in
mexico references to nawa mythology can
be found in graphic novels video games
and other media if you know how to spot
it
nawa culture is richly complex with
stories that reflect and explain the
sometimes confusing duality of nature
beyond mythology the nava had an
interesting political structure an
impressive agricultural system and two
calendars yet most people these days
don't even know them by their real name
dr mct i know neither of us got to learn
much about nawa culture as school kids
but i'm pretty excited we get to now
yeah and i know those little weirdos
would have loved all the bloody parts
oh for sure
[Music]
you