In Smoke, Flames, and the Human Body in Mesoamerican
Ritual Practice, edited by Andrew Scherer and Vera Tiesler,
pp. 29-53. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., 2018
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals
A ccording to Bernardino de Sahagún’s
informants, one of the seventy-eight buildings
of the Templo Mayor precinct of Mexico was called
Netlatiloyan. They explained: “There were burned
the ixiptla of those who were named Nanahuatl
and Xochicuaye” (modified from López Austin
1965:89).1 The terse description leaves many ques-
tions open. When did this event happen in the
yearly ritual cycle? Did it involve human sacrifice?
Should the word ixiptla be understood in this con-
text as referring to images of gods, made from
wood or other materials, or to human imperson-
ators who were burned at that building, either dead
or alive? In a comprehensive study of Aztec feasts,
Michel Graulich (1999:209–210) suggested that
the text referred to impersonators of the solar and
lunar heroes, who, according to myths recorded
by Sahagún and other writers, died by throwing
themselves in a blazing pyre or oven. Nanahuatl
was the name of the solar hero and Graulich sug-
gested that Xochicuaye was an alternative name
for the lunar hero, known as Tecciztecatl or 4 Flint
oswaldo chinchilla mazariegos
in other accounts of the origin of the sun and the
moon. (For colonial Nahua versions of the myth,
see Bierhorst 1992:147–149; Mendieta 1973:50; Ruiz
de Alarcón 1984:70–72; Sahagún 1950–1982:bk. 7:3–
8; Tena 2002:153–155, 181–185.)
This ritual was not described in more detail
elsewhere, so Sahagún’s description of Netlatiloyan
provides the only extant testimony of what may
have been an impressive reenactment of a key cos-
mic juncture. While important, the question of
whether the ixiptla burned at Netlatiloyan were
human impersonators is irrelevant to the broader
problem that I will address in this essay: the inter-
play between myth and ritual in Mesoamerican
religion, art, and archaeology. The broader ques-
tion is whether mythical passages found expression
in rituals, and whether there is evidence of those
rituals, either in the archaeological record or in
pictorial and textual sources. To address this prob-
lem, I will explore mythical passages that recount
the fiery death and transformation of gods, and
search the available sources for evidence of ritual
29
 performances that reenacted or alluded in various
ways to the immolation of gods.
A survey of Mesoamerican myths reveals two
major episodes that involved fiery death: (a)  the
sacrifice of the solar and lunar heroes—sometimes
only one—who jumped into a blazing pyre or oven
and emerged as luminaries; and (b)  the death of
an old goddess who was burned in a sweat bath, a
house, or a burning field. The immolation of the
solar and lunar heroes is a celebrated mythical
passage, repeatedly described in colonial sources
that include the Popol Vuh and Spanish and Nahua
texts from Central Mexico. This act is also attested
in widespread modern versions collected across
Mesoamerica, which will be cited and described
in the following pages. Equally widespread, but
much less known, is the episode that describes the
fiery death of an old goddess. While not recorded
in writing before the twentieth century, it seems
quite widespread across Mesoamerica, as attested
in numerous narratives recorded in modern com-
munities (cited below). The myths of the old god-
dess shed light on aspects of Mesoamerican rituals
associated with childbirth and the sweat bath.
Myth and Ritual in
Mesoamerican Archaeology
Lars Fogelin (2007:56) distinguished two ap­­
proaches to the archaeology of religious ritual.
The first delves into the structural and symbolic
aspects of ritual, informed by ethnohistoric and
ethnographic information. The second empha-
sizes practice, and relies on material remains to
reconstruct the actions and experiences of the
participants in ancient ritual events. Rather than
exclusive categories, these approaches are best
understood as complementary to each other. The
distinction relates to the availability of written
sources and to the relative resilience of religious
beliefs and practices, from ancient to historic
and modern communities. While the untested
assumption of continuity is unwarranted, the
careful examination of links between ethnohis-
toric, ethnographic, and archaeological data is
30 c h inc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
desirable, as it often yields productive and stimu-
lating results.
Religious rituals have multiple correspon-
dences with mythical beliefs and narratives (see
Segal 2005:366–369 for a summary review of the-
ories of myth and ritual). The study of myths has
proved relevant for the interpretation of histori-
cally attested rituals and archaeological contexts
related to religious ritual in the New World (Bauer
1996; Brown 1997, 2003; Fogelin 2007:63–64; López
Luján et al. 2010). But the correspondences are
not straightforward, partly because rituals do not
simply replicate the incidences of mythical narra-
tives. In a detailed study of Mesoamerican myths,
Alfredo López Austin (1993:86) envisioned the rela-
tionship between myth, ritual, and narrative as a
triangle, in which beliefs occupy the dominant
vertex. They are the source of mythical knowledge
that may find expression in multiple ways. Both
narrative and ritual provide expressive outlets for
mythical beliefs. They relate to each other, while
maintaining their distinctive structures, media,
functions, and histories. Mythical beliefs can also
become manifest in other ways, such as magical
spells, plastic representations, and written texts (as
distinct from oral narratives).
A correspondence between myth and ritual
is generally acknowledged in Mesoamerica, and
is especially evident in the case of the sixteenth-
century Mexica and other Nahua peoples of Cen­
tral Mexico, thanks to the availability of both
textual and archaeological records. As Graulich
(1999:195) noted, sixteenth-century Spanish writers
were aware that the Mexica monthly feasts com-
memorated major mythical passages—not unlike
Christian feasts. Thus, Motolinía (1970:26) affirmed
that Panquetzaliztli was “the feast of the birth of
Huitzilopochtli from the virgin,” alluding to the
god’s mythical birth, which resulted from his
mother’s magical pregnancy. Sahagún’s informants
concluded their narrative of Huitzilopochtli’s birth
at the mountain of Coatepec by asserting its cor-
respondence with the rituals that were dedicated
to the god: “Hence they made offerings to him;
hence they honored him, they exerted themselves
for him . . . And this veneration was taken from
there, Coatepec, as was done in the days of yore”
(Sahagún 1950–1982:bk. 1:5). Archaeological exca-
vations have shown that the Great Temple itself
replicated the fabled mountain, and that specific
parts of the temple were named after locations that
were mentioned in the myths (López Austin and
López Luján 2009:246–252; Seler 1996:96). Johanna
Broda concluded: “The festivals dedicated to the
Aztec patron deity during the annual ritual cycle
were precisely those related to mythical drama of
the solar deity as well as of the historical destiny
of the Aztec ethnic group” (Broda, Carrasco, and
Matos Moctezuma 1988:73). This does not imply
that the Mexica rituals were simple reenactments
of the contents of mythical narratives. Numerous
components of the ritual feasts find no parallel in
the extant mythical narratives, while others relate
more or less closely with mythical episodes, or
allude to them in metaphorical ways.
The relative wealth of colonial written sources
on Nahua myths and rituals has no parallel else-
where in Mesoamerica. In the Maya area, the Popol
Vuh and other highland Guatemalan texts con-
tain records of myths, but they provide no detailed
descriptions of the related rituals. Another source
of information are Classic Maya hieroglyphic texts,
which are often explicit about the links between
myth and ritual. Some texts begin by recounting the
mythical actions of gods in ancient times. These pre-
ambles offer paradigms for the ritual actions of the
historical kings (described later in the texts), which
frequently reiterate the actions of the gods and
ancestors (Kubler 1974; Stuart 2011:216–228). While
extremely important, those passages are short, and
they contain only excerpts from what were probably
long mythical narratives. Moreover, they concern
only a special subset of ancient Maya myths: those
that were most relevant to explain kingship, dynas-
tic origins, and the performance of royal rituals.
They offer valuable but limited clues about ancient
Maya myths and rituals in a broad sense.
In this essay, I employ colonial texts in com-
bination with narratives recorded since the early
twentieth century in search of demonstrable corre-
spondences with representations in Pre-Columbian
art (Chinchilla Mazariegos 2010, 2011, 2017; Coe
1989). Neither the colonial accounts nor the mod-
ern narratives replicate more ancient versions in
every detail, but there are continuities, especially
at the level of the nodal subjects. The term derives
from López Austin, who proposed a basic distinc-
tion between the “heroic” and “nodal” subjects
of myths. Heroic subjects form the outer layer of
myths. They consist of the adventures of gods and
heroes that form the storyline of mythical narra-
tives. The names of characters, locations, and spe-
cific incidents belong to this level of analysis. They
are especially labile, and they may easily change
when myths are transmitted among storytellers,
adapted to new situations, or translated to differ-
ent languages and cultural settings. A deeper layer
of analysis involves the nodal subjects, which form
the underlying structures of myths and tend to
remain stable through time, resisting changes that
may affect the heroic subjects. The nodal subjects
of myths can be identified through comparisons
of parallel versions, in search of parallel episodes
that reveal the deeper and more resilient compo-
nents of myths (López Austin 1993:247–259, 2001).
The distinction is relevant for comparing narratives
with other forms of mythical expression, includ-
ing rituals. Ritual performances do not necessar-
ily replicate the heroic subjects of myths in every
detail. More likely, they allude to the nodal subjects
of myths, which form deeper levels of meaning,
shared by narrative and ritual performance.
Joyce Marcus (1996:286, 1999:70–71) distin-
guished three components of ritual: (a) its content,
(b) its loci of performance, and (c) its performers.
Each of these components may have mythical and
archaeological correspondences:
(a) The content of the rituals may relate, more
or less closely, to the events described in
mythical narratives, although the corre-
spondences may be expressed through met-
aphors and allusions, rather than through
obvious replications.
(b) The loci of ritual performances are often
conceived as related to the locations and
landscapes described in myths, irrespec-
tive of whether their physical shape actually
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 31
 approximates the places described in myths.
The loci of performance may include per-
manent architectural volumes and spaces,
or temporary settings built especially for
ritual occasions.
(c) Ritual performers often impersonate mythi-
cal characters, evoking their physical aspects
and accoutrements. While the imperson-
ation of gods and other mythical characters
is especially associated with Mexica rituals,
it is also attested among the Maya and other
Mesoamerican peoples (Houston 2006;
Houston and Stuart 1996; Pereira 2010:260).
From an archaeological perspective, the chal-
lenge is not only to identify material traces of ritual
behavior but also to trace plausible mythical cor-
relates. This is not possible in every situation, but
it can be attempted in particular contexts, through
the identification of mythical correlates for the per-
formers, the loci, or the contents of ritual perfor-
mance. The archaeological correlates of ritual range
from the architectural spaces that provided settings
for ritual drama to the special deposits that were
produced as a result of ritual events. These include
caches and burials, as well as refuse deposits con-
taining materials that were employed and discarded
in the course of rituals. The objects employed in
ritual—their shape, function, quantity, and loca-
tion in archaeological deposits—may have mythi-
cal correlates, while their location and layout may
correspond to locations in mythical landscapes. In
some cases, the physical remains of ritual perform-
ers are present in the archaeological record—for
example, in the case of individuals who were bur-
ied with the accoutrements of deities, or sacrificial
victims who personified mythical characters or
whose mortuary treatment corresponded to mythi-
cal models. Artistic representations may also reveal
details about the contents of ritual and its perform-
ers, including their physical aspect and parapher-
nalia, which may suggest mythical associations.
The process of linking the archaeological
traces of ritual with mythical beliefs involves sev-
eral steps, beginning with the identification and
recording of the material remains. Analyzing the
32 c h inc h i ll a m a z a ri e g o s
materials provides a basis to propose reconstruc-
tions of ritual behavior, its participants, and the loci
of performance. A further step involves comparing
inferred ritual behavior with passages contained in
mythical beliefs and narratives, in search of corre-
spondences. Simple, one-to-one correlations—such
as neat identifications of individuals in archaeolog-
ical deposits with mythical characters mentioned
in specific narratives—are generally unreliable,
because they depend on the assumption of unbro-
ken continuity between ancient ritual practices
and historic or modern narratives. Credible corre-
spondences should only be sought at the level of the
nodal subjects of myths, which are, by definition,
more resilient, bridging temporal geographic, lin-
guistic, and cultural rifts.
The Birth of the Sun at Tikal
In recent collaborative publications (Chinchilla and
Gómez 2010; Chinchilla et al. 2015; Tiesler et al. 2013),
we applied these propositions to an Early Classic
burial deposit from Tikal. Found at the Plaza of
the Seven Temples of Tikal, Burial PP7TT-01 was a
rare, primary burial that contained the remains of
two partly cremated males, placed one on top of the
other inside a pit (Figure 2.1). The burial’s careful
field documentation by Oswaldo Gómez provided
a point of departure for osteologic and taphonomic
analysis by Vera Tiesler, and isotopic analyses by
T. D. Price, which allowed us to propose a partial
reconstruction of the ritual that resulted in the
deposit. Briefly, we proposed that the individu-
als were thrown, one after the other, in a specially
prepared pit provided with sweltering fuel, either
wood or charcoal. There was no conclusive indica-
tion about whether they were dead or alive when
thrown to the pit, but, in any case, the cremation
took place perimortem and did not involve the full
consumption of the bodies. It stopped for unknown
reasons that may have included fuel exhaustion,
rain, or intentional extinction of the fire. The bod-
ies were left undisturbed and buried promptly. They
had no associated offerings, although four spear
points were found, three of which were made of

green obsidian from the Pachuca source in high-
land Mexico. Isotopic analysis showed that one of
the individuals was foreign to Tikal and originated
from a highland region, although there is insuffi-
cient evidence to pinpoint his origin.
The burial’s location, along the normative axis
of the E-Group architectural compound known
as Mundo Perdido, suggested ritual significance
and solar connotations (Figure 2.2). The shape and
function of lowland Maya E-Groups has been the
figure 2.1.
Two views of Burial PP7TT-01
at Tikal: (a) a cremation pit with
Individuals 1A and 1B in situ; and
(b) Individual 1B. Photographs
by Oswaldo Gómez.
subject of intense debate, which falls beyond the
scope of the present essay (Aimers and Rice 2006;
Aveni and Hartung 1989; Cohodas 1980; Doyle
2012; Estrada Belli 2011:67–83; Fialko 1988; Ruppert
1940). But it is relevant to note that this special-
ized architectural compound has been repeatedly
associated with the daily and yearly course of the
sun. The burial’s location on the compound’s east-
ern side suggested an association with the rising
sun. We proposed that the burial resulted from a
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 33
 Mundo Perdido (E-Group) Plaza of the
Seven Temples

plaza
Burial
normative axis PP7TT-01

figure 2.2.
Location of Burial PP7TT-01 on the normative axis of the E-Group architectural compound (Mundo Perdido) at
Tikal. Drawing by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos.

ritual that evoked the mythical death of two heroes
who immolated themselves in a pyre or oven and
emerged as the sun and the moon. In our view,
the architectural setting of the E-Group evoked
a mythical landscape related to the origin of the
sun and the moon, providing a suitable location
for the myth’s ritual reenactment. In other words,
the ritual that was carried out at this location at
Tikal was like-in-kind with the one that took place
at Netlatiloyan in the Templo Mayor precinct of
Mexico, where, according to Sahagún’s infor-
mants, the ixiptla of the solar and lunar heroes
were burned.
This may appear as an undue “upstreaming” of
sixteenth-century Nahua religious beliefs. Yet there
are significant reasons to uphold our proposition
that the Early Classic Maya of Tikal knew versions
of the immolation of the solar and lunar heroes. The

3 4 c h inc hi ll a m a z a ri e g o s
mythical episode is often and erroneously consid-
ered to be a Nahua myth, perhaps because it was
recorded with some detail in sixteenth-century
texts from Central Mexico. The assumed attribu-
tion of the myth to the Nahua disregards the ver-
sion contained in the Popol Vuh of the highland
K’iche’ Maya, which is roughly contemporary with,
but not reliant on, the earliest Nahua versions. In
fact, a comparison of these versions shows major
departures, suggesting that they did not derive
from one another.
According to the Nahua versions, the gods
prepared a fire with the purpose of determining
who would shine as the sun and then selected two
candidates to fulfill the role. In the Popol Vuh, the
lords of Xibalba—the realm of death—prepared a
pit oven with the purpose of killing the Hero Twins,
and did not anticipate that they would come back
to life and become the sun and the moon. Perhaps
more importantly, the K’iche’ version omitted the
contrasting qualities of the solar and lunar heroes,
a key feature that appears in all other colonial and
modern versions. The heroes of the Popol Vuh
acted in unison, and threw themselves in the oven
together (Christenson 2003:178–179). By contrast,
Nahua versions emphasize the fact that the candi-
dates were different from each other. One was poor
and sickly; the other, wealthy and proud. One did
not hesitate; he threw himself at once into the blaz-
ing fire. The other recanted, and was only able to
throw himself into the tepid embers after the first
had taken most of the heat. The former became the
sun; the other, the moon.
The Popol Vuh proves that the fire sacrifice of
the sun and moon heroes was indeed known to the
highland Maya in the sixteenth century. Rather
than assuming a derivation from Nahua sources,
the parallels between the Nahua and K’iche’ myths
show that they shared nodal subjects. The histori-
cal processes that produced both versions cannot
be reconstructed with certainty, but the versions
are varied enough to discard the possibility that the
myth migrated directly from one region to the other.
The shared nodal subjects suggest that they derived
from ancient, common sources, which were gradu-
ally transmitted and transformed as Mesoamerican
peoples interacted with one another through mil-
lennia. These processes resulted in a range of myth-
ical beliefs and narratives that reappear in closely
related, but regionally distinct forms throughout
Mesoamerica (Chinchilla Mazariegos 2010; López
Austin 1993, 2001; Olivier and Martínez 2015).
In modern times, the origin of the sun and
the moon as resulting from the immolation of
two gods or heroes in a pyre or oven has still been
documented in Q’eqchi’, K’iche’, Tzotzil, Otomí,
Totonac, Nahua, Cora, and Huichol communities,
extending from Guatemala to West Mexico (Barlow
and Ramírez 1962; Cruz Torres 1978:63–64; Díaz de
Salas 1963:260; Galinier 1990:693–699; Guzmán
2002:143; Ichon 1973:66; Lupo 1991; Münch Galindo
1992; Oropeza Escobar 2007:183–185, 202–208, 214–
223; Petrich and Ochoa García 2001:32). Like the
version of the Popol Vuh, these accounts depart in
many ways from sixteenth-century Nahua coun-
terparts, which should not be regarded as para-
digmatic. Modern narratives share with colonial
Nahua versions their attention to the contrast
between the solar and lunar heroes.
In some cases, the distinction corresponds to
gender. The sun and the moon were, respectively,
man and wife in modern Q’eqchi’ myths from Gua­
temala and Belize (Braakhuis 2010), a boy and his
mother in versions from highland Chiapas (Cruz
Coutiño 2008), or two children (a boy and a girl) in
Mixe, Chinantec, and Zapo­tec versions from Oaxaca
(Bartolomé 1984:13–16; Miller 1956:79–97; Stubble­
field and Stubble­field 1969). Else­­where, modern
versions describe them as two young men or boys
with distinctive attributes (Cicco and Hor­casitas
1962; Galinier 1990:693–699; Hol­­ lenbach 1977;
Ichon 1973:65; Loo 1987:138–143; Lupo 1991; Münch
Galindo 1992). In general, the lunar hero was wealthy
and arrogant, favored by women, and inclined to
water. In contrast, the solar hero was humble, poor,
and sickly, usually afflicted with buboes, grains, or
sores. He was the less likely candidate to become the
sun. But when summoned to throw himself into a
pyre or oven, the lunar hero recanted, came late, or
went in the wrong way. The solar hero did not hesi-
tate, took all the heat, and emerged in glory as the
sun in the east. His companion finally followed him
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 35
 figure 2.3.
The maize god and God S. Photograph © Justin Kerr (K1183).
into the tepid embers, and emerged as the moon
in the west (Chinchilla Mazariegos 2011:129–139;
Graulich 1987).
Is there proof that the myth prevailed among
the Classic Maya? There are no extant narratives
from the Classic period that would provide details
about the versions that may have circulated among
the lowland Maya. But iconographic evidence offers
important hints. In previous work, I identified
God S and the maize god as ancient Maya coun-
terparts of the sun and moon heroes (Chinchilla
Mazariegos 2011, 2017; see Taube 1992:41–49,
36 c h inc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
115–119, for iconographic details on both gods). Full
discussion of the mythical and iconographic argu-
ments falls outside the scope of this essay, but it is
relevant to note that the spotted skin of God S—
a young god marked with black spots in the face
and body—corresponds well with the blemished
nature of Mesoamerican solar heroes, who are
often described as covered with sores, grains, or
buboes (Figure 2.3). God S was also associated with
blood-letting, a characteristic that brings him close
to Nanahuatl, the solar hero of colonial Nahua
myths (which recounted how he performed painful
 a b
figure 2.4.
The lunar maize god: (a) detail from a conch shell trumpet; and (b) detail from a hieroglyphic bench found at Copan
Structure 9M-146. Drawings by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos.

sacrifice using maguey spines and how he offered
the pus from his sores).
The blemished skin of God S stands in marked
contrast to the immaculate appearance of the
maize god, who was portrayed as a young man of
delicate beauty and who was associated with items
of wealth and abundance, such as quetzal feathers,
jade, and cacao. He was often portrayed in watery
settings, attended by young women. These attri-
butes correspond well with those of Mesoamerican
lunar heroes, who are generally described as rich
and handsome, good dancers and musicians who
enjoyed water and the company of women. Unlike
God S, the maize god is not associated with blood-
letting. He is closer to the Nahua lunar hero, who
according to Sahagún’s informants, used costly,
red-colored coral for sacrifice instead of actual
maguey spines, seemingly suggesting that he faked
penitence rather than actually shedding his own
blood (Sahagún 1950–1982:bk. 7:4).
In Maya art, the maize god is sometimes
marked with a moon sign, and he sometimes holds
a rabbit in his arms (Figure 2.4). Both are unambig-
uous indicators of his lunar character, which bring
him close to the moon goddess. The shared features
of the maize god and moon goddess have some-
times led to the misidentification of the maize god
in his lunar aspect as female. But the gods can gen-
erally be distinguished by their physical aspects and
other attributes (Chinchilla Mazariegos 2011:199–
203). The lunar maize god was one of three lunar
gods who alternated in Glyph C of the lunar series
in Maya inscriptions (Zender and Skidmore 2012:9).
The contrast between God S and the maize god
appeared as early as the Late Preclassic period in the
mural paintings of Las Pinturas Sub-1 at San Bartolo
(Saturno, Taube, and Stuart 2005; Taube et al. 2010).
The west wall shows God S performing painful blood
sacrifice, whereas the north wall shows the maize
god dancing and singing—as denoted by his twisted
pose and the scroll that emerges from his mouth—
while being attended by young women. These are
the contrasting qualities that distinguish the solar
and lunar heroes of Mesoamerican myths. The early

Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 37

 date of these paintings lends strength to the propo-
sition that the solar and lunar heroes were present
in ancient Maya art, and we may surmise that their
actions were not dissimilar from those of the solar
and lunar heroes of colonial and modern myths.
Versions of the myth were known to the Maya since
ancient times, and may have provided a paradigm
for the Early Classic sacrificial ritual that resulted in
the formation of Burial PP7TT-01 at Tikal.
The Death of the Old Goddess
The immolation of the solar and lunar heroes is
perhaps the most dramatic episode involving fire
sacrifice in Mesoamerican mythology. But there is
another, equally important episode that involved
the fiery death of an old goddess. A key charac-
ter in Mesoamerican mythology, this fearsome
female—often described as a cannibal, a tzitzimitl,
or a ciguanaba—was one of the major opponents
that the heroes had to confront and subdue in
their quest to create the conditions for human life
on earth. The old woman is a paradoxical being
who combined nefarious and beneficent aspects.
According to many narratives, she raised the chil-
dren who would eventually become the sun and the
moon, even though she later contrived to kill them.
She was the patroness of midwifery and childbirth,
and her death explains aspects of Mesoamerican
childbearing practices and associated rituals. In
parallel, old goddesses are commonly associated
with the earth, a role that implies a tension between
the beneficent aspects of agricultural bounty and
the fearsome connotations of a devouring mother
(Matos Moctezuma 1997; Nicholson 1971:420).
The death of the old goddess is intimately tied
to the origins and functions of the sweat bath. In
ancient and modern Mesoamerican communi-
ties, the sweat bath fulfills a variety of hygienic

figure 2.5.
Woman and children in
front of a modern sweat
bath, finca El Porvenir,
San Marcos, Guatemala,
ca. 1946. Gift of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington;
photograph courtesy of
the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University,
PM# 58-34-20/40330
(Digital file# CI633401).

3 8 c h inc h i ll a m a z a ri e g o s
 figure 2.6.
Sweat bath in a house compound in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. Photograph by John Early, 1966, Fototeca
Guatemala, CIRMA.
and therapeutic functions—chief among them is
the attention of parturient women and newborn
children (Figures 2.5 and 2.6). As noted by Groark
(1997:17): “Today, as in the past, the most important
therapeutic use of the steambath is during child-
birth and in the treatment of various obstetric and
gynecological disorders.” Traditionally, women
take baths at several points pre- and postpartum
to propitiate successful delivery and to ensure their
well-being. The sweat bath is a functional facility,
but it is also a ritual space associated with the cult
of various gods and goddesses.
According to the text of the sixteenth-century
Nahua Codex Magliabecchiano, sick people burned
incense in the sweat bath in honor of Tezcatlipoca
(Nuttall 1903:fol. 76v). While plausible, this state-
ment does not coincide with the associated illus-
tration of a sweat bath with a large portrait of
Tlazolteotl above the door (Figure 2.7). A major
goddess in Nahua religion, Tlazolteotl was related
to sexuality, childbirth, and the feminine arts of
spinning and weaving (Nicholson 1971; Sullivan
1982). In his detailed studies, José Alcina Franch
(2000:215–312) traced the association of the sweat
bath with the Nahua goddesses related to the
earth, moon, sexuality, and childbirth, includ-
ing Teteoinan, Toci, Cihuacoatl, Itzpapalotl, and
Tlazolteotl. In addition, he also suggested asso-
ciations with the gods of fire, Xiuhtecuhtli and
Huehueteotl.
Modern ethnographic reports link the sweat
bath mainly with female goddesses, although they
occasionally associate it with the male gods of fire.
Groark (2005:792) mentioned prayers addressed to
the firebox in the sweat bath during Chamula heal-
ing rituals. Gabriel Moedano (1977:14) noted beliefs
in male gods of the sweat bath among the modern
Totonac and Tlapanec. According to Alain Ichon’s
insightful discussion (1973:120–122, 151, 297–298),
the modern Totonac venerate the Natsi’itni, a
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 39
 figure 2.7.
Sixteenth-century sweat bath from highland Mexico, from the Codex Magliabecchiano. Drawing reproduced from
Nuttall 1903:fol. 77r.
group of “mothers” or “grandmothers” (nanitas)
who preside over conception and childbirth and
who are assimilated with the Virgin of Guadalupe.
He reported the story of a child-devouring witch
who was killed inside a sweat bath but did not link
her with those goddesses. Elsewhere, he noted that
Natsi’itni presides over the entrance of the sweat
bath, while the fire god, Taqsjoyut, in one of his
many aspects, is associated with the fireplace of the
sweat bath. Both receive offerings and prayers that
propitiate the well-being of newborn infants. Ichon
also noted that the sweat bath is not unambiguously
beneficent, as it relates both to birth and death. Its
divine “owner” is dangerous and demands propi-
tiatory offerings (Ichon 1973:333).
The dichotomy between a male and female
patron of the sweat bath is explained in a myth
40 c h inc h i ll a m a z a ri e g o s
from the Nahua town of San Miguel Acuexcomac in
Puebla. Ethnographer Antonella Fagetti noted that
women taking postpartum baths asked the grand-
mother for abundant milk while dripping water
in the heated stones; she, thus, raised the ques-
tion: “Why is the sweat bath called grandmother?”
In response, she heard a story that condensed key
episodes of the myths of the old goddess. Namely,
there was a girl whose parents didn’t want her to
marry. While she was bathing, a falling star made
her pregnant. Her parents detested her child and
tried to kill him, first in an anthill, then in a sweat
bath. They threw him to the swine, but he did not
die. Finally, they tossed him into a river. A bar-
ren couple found him there and took charge of
him. After eight years, he asked for a horse and a
machete and rose to the sky as Santiaguito. Before
ascending, he transformed his grandmother into
a sweat bath and his grandfather into a fireplace
(Fagetti 2003; cf. Moedano 1977).
In numerous narratives, the child hero (or
heroes) actually burned the old woman inside a
sweat bath. Judging from its distribution in modern
communities, this is the most widespread mythical
passage involving the fiery death and transforma-
tion of a deity in modern Mesoamerica. Rather than
signaling the nonexistence or unimportance of the
myth, the omission of this passage from colonial
texts highlights the limitations of those sources.
For all their importance, colonial texts preserved
highly selective samples of Mesoamerican beliefs
and narratives. The Popol Vuh, for example, con-
tains a particularly odd version of the myth, in
which the Hero Twins’ grandmother hated them
and tried to kill them as babies but later became
affectionate, even crying when she thought them
dead. This is contrary to every other version from
the Maya area or elsewhere, in which the grand-
mother was evil to the heroes and finally met death
at their hands, frequently by fire.
The circumstances of her death are, neverthe-
less, remarkably consistent. In Mixtec and Chatino
stories, the sun and moon heroes angered the old
woman who raised them by killing her lover, a
deer, and feeding her the animal’s meat (Bartolomé
1984:11; Cicco and Horcasitas 1962; Dyk 1959:14–15).
They also filled the skin with wasps that bit the old
woman when she went looking for her lover in the
mountain. The mischievous children then prepared
a sweat bath to heal her from the bites, but they
sealed the entrance and added heat until she burned.
In Nahua and Otomí variants, the old woman first
tried to suffocate the maize god in a sweat bath, but
he survived. Then she entered the sweat bath her-
self and was burned. From her ashes originated the
wasps, flies, and other insects that have remained
in the world. The incident appears to link the ori-
gin of the sweat bath and its healing properties with
the origin of disease bearers, embodied by the bit-
ing insects (Barón Larios 1994:155; Hooft and Cerda
Zepeda 2003:53; Olguín 1993:124; Oropeza Escobar
2007:220; Programa de Desarrollo Cultural de la
Huasteca 2000:163; Segre 1990:174).
The old woman’s death in the sweat bath
re­appears in Maya myths from the highlands of
Guatemala, especially in Kaqchikel and Tz’utujil
narratives from the Lake Atitlan region, where
the sweat bath is still widely used by midwives in
postpartum and perinatal care (Prechtel 1990;
Redfield 1945:253–254; Shaw 1971:239). Elsewhere,
Maya stories generally omit this important detail,
while insisting on the old woman’s final punish-
ment. In Q’eqchi’ sun and moon myths, the heroes
killed their grandmother or their old adoptive
mother, using arrows, stones, or a knife or by mak-
ing her crash down and break her head (Braakhuis
2010:371; Cruz Torres 1978:28; Grandia 2004:5;
Thompson 1930:120). In widely scattered versions
from the Ch’orti’ of eastern Guatemala, the Pipil
of El Salvador, the Chinantec of Oaxaca, and the
Teenek of San Luis Potosí, the hero burns the old
woman inside her house—perhaps a more indi-
rect reference to the sweat bath (Campbell 1985:910;
Carrasco and Weitlaner 1952:171; Hooft and Cerda
Zepeda 2003:38; Hull 2009:134).
According to an important variant, reported
among the Ch’orti’, Totonac, and Popoluca, the
old woman was burned in the middle of a field that
the hero had prepared for planting (Blanco Rosas
2006:72; Elson 1947:202; Foster 1945:192; Fought
1989:464; Hull 2009:134; Münch Galindo 1992:289;
Pérez Martínez 1996:46). This version seems to
highlight the old woman’s role as an earth goddess,
who reluctantly provides a basis for human suste-
nance. Her fiery death appears to be necessary to
allow maize cultivation and to ensure the fertility
of the earth. In Popoluca stories, the field where the
old woman burned was set on fire by an opossum,
the animal that brought fire to the world. In a Triqui
version from Oaxaca, the opossum stole fire from
the old woman herself, although the story does not
describe her final burning (Hollenbach 1977:164;
López Austin 1993:7). As noted, the Acuexcomac
myth linked her death with the origin of the fire-
place, personified by the hero’s grandfather—likely
a manifestation of the old fire god.
Mexicanero myths from San Pedro Jicora,
Durango, reiterate the old woman’s fiery death. She
was Tepusilam, an old woman who seduced men,
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 4 1
 only to kill them and eat them after they slept with
her. She also ate the children who were left alone
while their parents were away. People finally made
her drunk at a party, lit a fire, and burned her while
she was asleep (Olivier 2005; Preuss 1982:91–103).
Active sexuality is a prevalent feature of Meso­
american old goddesses, in contradiction with
their age. In numerous myths, they were punished
in sexually explicit ways. The heroes made them
eat their lovers’ genitals, and in some cases, they
raped the old women. The sun and moon heroes
of a Kaqchikel narrative from San Antonio Palopo
(both were male) threw their grandparents in the
sweat bath, put a cane in their grandmother’s anus,
and cut off her vulva, from which they created the
güisquil (Sechium edule; Redfield 1945:253–254).
Such punishments relate to the origin of human
menstruation and reproduction, and perhaps to the
renovation of the earth’s exhausted fertility.
In the more widespread versions, the old woman
stayed in the sweat bath and became the patron-
ess of midwives. In the words of Antonia Soben, a
K’iche’ midwife from Santa Clara la Laguna, she
is the sweat bath herself: “The sweat bath is called
tuj, but it is our grandmother” (Petrich and Ochoa
García 2001:140). While seemingly beneficent in
her role as patroness of midwives, the old woman
remained true to her character, and requires pro-
pitiation and appeasement to allow successful
childbirth. In a study of modern opposition to tra-
ditional midwives in the Lake Atitlan region, Elena
Hurtado and Eugenia Sáenz de Tejada (2001:228)
reported that some people feared that women and
newborn babies were sometimes burned in the
sweat bath, even though no such accidents actually
occurred. The belief probably echoed the myths of
the grandmother, which are repeatedly reported in
communities around Lake Atitlan (Prechtel 1990;
Shaw 1971:239).
In a similar vein, Jacques Galinier (1990:152–
53, 2004:61–62) described modern Otomí postpar-
tum rituals that serve to purify both the child and
the mother from the filth that may bring illness.
Purification keeps the newborns safe from female
witches (brujas)—likely counterparts of the old
goddesses described in mythical narratives—who
4 2 c h inc h i ll a m a z a ri e g o s
may steal their souls, suck their blood, and take
their lives. The parturient’s clothes must be care-
fully cleansed in a delicate process that may be
harmful for casual passersby, who run the risk of
being burned themselves. The mothers undergo a
cycle of four sweat baths during the following days,
which are combined with offerings of cornbread
intended to “feed” the sweat bath and to appease its
anger, which is provoked by the presence of blood.
Modern Chatino myths are explicit about the
meaning of the grandmother’s death. After burn-
ing her, the sun and moon heroes declared that
she would stay in the sweat bath and would receive
good food whenever children were born. In a ver-
sion from Tepenixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, they declared:
“You will remain here, holy mother, and you will
eat from what the children who will be born in the
future give you. If they don’t feed you, the chil-
dren will die; everyone will come to you to have
strength” (Bartolomé 1984:11; cf. Cicco and Horcasi­
tas 1962:76). They instituted the practice of bathing
newborns and bringing food and offerings to the
sweat bath, in order to propitiate childbirth and to
appease the old woman, who might otherwise harm
the newborns. Considering the high rates of peri-
natal and infant mortality that prevailed in ancient
Mesoamerica, the grandmother was likely believed
to keep children in abundance for herself (Storey
1986, 1992; cf. Moedano 1977).
The Old Goddess
in Aztec and Maya Rituals
The old goddess’s fiery death was symbolically reen-
acted during the Mexica feast of Tititl, dedicated
to the old goddess Cihuacoatl or Ilamatecuhtli.
Graulich (1999:248) linked these goddesses with
the evil grandmother of modern myths. Indeed,
according to the Legend of the Suns, Cihuacoatl
raised the orphan Ce Acatl (Bierhorst 1992:153).
While the text provides no further details of what
must have been a long and detailed myth, the role
of Cihuacoatl in this version casts the goddess as
a counterpart of the mythical grandmother. We
can presume that, like her counterparts in parallel
narratives, Cihuacoatl turned against the child and
was, thus, punished in one way or another, per-
haps meeting a fiery end. Such ending may or may
not have been present in more elaborate versions
of Cihuacoatl’s myths, but significantly, she was
known, among other names, as Toci “our grand-
mother,” and Temazcalteci, “grandmother of the
sweat bath” (Nicholson 1971:420–422; Nuttall
1903:fol. 44v; Sahagún 1950–1982:bk. 1:15).
Fire rituals were prominent in the Tititl cele-
brations. According to the Codex Magliabecchiano,
torch bundles dressed as old men and women were
burned. Sahagún’s informants described the ritu-
als that were carried out at the Great Temple, where
a torch and paper bundle was burned. Graulich
(1999:238­–249) and Patrick Johansson (2002:81–82)
agreed that this contraption represented the old god-
dess herself, although it was referred to as “her gra-
nary” (ycuezcon). Young priests undertook “flower
races” (xochipaina), bringing flowers from the top of
the temple and placing them in the burning granary.
The ritual had strong sexual connotations. Graulich
(1986, 1999:241) interpreted the burning flowers as
related to the old goddess’s sterile sexuality, while
Johansson (2002:83) suggested that the flowers were
inseminating agents that fertilized the burning god-
dess. This aspect of the ritual may have evoked the
mythical raping of the old goddess that recurs in
modern narratives.
Fire rituals were also associated with childbirth
in seventeenth-century Mexico. In Oaxaca, Gonzalo
de Balsalobre reported that midwives burned copal
sprinkled with chicken blood during complicated
deliveries to propitiate Nohuichana, the goddess
that reared children (Berlin, Balsalobre, and Hevia
y Valdés 1988:44). Jacinto de la Serna described ritu-
als performed in Nahua towns of the Toluca valley,
before and after childbirth, during which fire was
offered food and drink:
The midwives also have their ceremonies with
fire: as before the child is born, they make a straw
bed by the fire, and the pregnant woman delivers
there, and they don’t move her from there until
the fourth day, when the midwife comes back
and passes the newborn over the fire, which is the
ceremony of Tlecuixtliliztli, which means “they
pass it over fire,” which is a baptism, and then they
wash its head, and they do this four times, and
while this is done, the woman moves from there,
and they take out the mats and straw on which she
delivered, and put it somewhere else, and on that
place they put food, and drink, and with it they
give the fire food and drink, throwing the food
and sprinkling pulque in it, and if the child is a
girl, they bring her spindles and weaving instru-
ments, so that she becomes a great threadmaker
and weaver, and other things that I will say later
(Serna 2003:25).
Ancient Maya sources provide few details about
the old goddess. She is best known in her Late Post­
classic manifestation as Goddess O in the codices.
Her hieroglyphic name, Chak Chel, is close to the
name of the early colonial Ixchel, identified by Landa
(1982:58, 93) as “the goddess of making children.”
She has a threatening, deathly appearance, denoted
by her jaguar attributes and crossed-bones skirt. In
the Dresden and Madrid codices, she appears to be
involved in cataclysmic flood events (Taube 1992:99–
105; Vail and Hernández 2013:155, 172).
Chak Chel is not explicitly associated with fire
in the codices, but Taube (1994) suggested that the
Classic Maya performed fire rituals and fiery sac-
rifices related to the propitiation of childbirth. He
found clues in the Birth Vase, which shows unique
depictions of a mythical passage involving a group
of old goddesses with jaguar attributes, essentially
identical to the Postclassic Chak Chel. They play the
role of midwives, attending a young woman in labor
(Figure 2.8). Taube took special note of the scene
on Side 4 of the Birth Vase, which shows a group of
male and female gods sitting around a fiery censer
(Figure 2.9). After comparing the scene with related
examples, he interpreted the black object burning
on the censer as a human heart, likening it to other
representations of sacrificed babies lying on similar
burners. Such offerings are frequent in codex-style
vases that portray the mythical birth of gods. One
in particular (K1645; Figure 5.17a) shows a baby on a
plate, with a burning censer behind. The sacrificed
baby lies before two newborn gods, shown on the
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 4 3
 figure 2.8.
Details of the Birth Vase, sides 1–3, showing a mythical childbirth attended by old goddesses with jaguar attributes.
Drawings by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos.
vase as bundled babies. Taube interpreted the sacri-
ficed baby as a k’ex offering, presented as a “substi-
tute” in exchange for the well-being of the newborns.
K’ex offerings are attested in colonial and mod-
ern Maya communities. In the Popol Vuh, a fake
heart made from the sap of a tree served as k’exel
(substitute) for the heart of Lady Xquic. The lords of
death placed the heart over the fire and savored the
fragrance “for truly delicious was the smell of blood
to them” (Christenson 2003:134). The passage sug-
gests a substitution between human hearts and tree
resins that were burned in censers, which may apply
to the round black objects that burn on censers in
the Birth Vase and other Classic Maya representa-
tions (Taube 1994:668–675).
The modern Maya present k’ex offerings as sub-
stitutes in various contexts. Bruce Love (2012:40–
57) described a Yucatec curing ceremony, in which
parts of a sacrificed chicken, together with eggs,
4 4 c h inc h i ll a m a z a ri e g o s
coins, and candles, were presented to the earth
and the forest in “exchange” for a sick child; the
presenters asked the earth to take the offering and
to allow the child to heal. The modern Zinacantec
sacrifice a chicken as k’exolil for every member of
the family who occupies a new house. The chicken
serves to appease the house itself, which may oth-
erwise turn against its occupants and cause them
harm. Among today’s Chamula Indians, a similar
ritual is conducted during the “first warming” ritual
for a newly built sweat bath, to “purchase” the sweat
bath and to protect its users from illness (Groark
1997:37–40; Vogt 1976, cited in Taube 1994:670). The
same principles may explain the practice of bury-
ing the afterbirth under the floor of the sweat bath,
as noted by Wagley among the Mam of Santiago
Chimaltenango, an aspect that also ties the new-
born to the symbolic uterus from where he or she
emerged (Wagley 1949:23; cited in Groark 1997:22).

figure 2.9.
The Birth Vase, side 4. Photograph © Justin Kerr
(K5113).
Reviewing the evidence on k’ex rituals, Taube
concluded that “just as the new child is brought into
the world, something must be given in return to the
gods of death and the underworld” (Taube 1994:671).
The previous discussion of Mesoamerican myths
and rituals related to childbirth and the sweat bath
leads me to qualify this important insight. While
the sacrificial offerings portrayed in ancient Maya
art may have been destined for the death gods, it
is even more likely that they served to propitiate
and to appease the gods and goddesses that pre-
sided over labor and childbirth, chief among them,
the old goddess of midwifery and the sweat bath.
Conceivably, the mythical delivery and the fire
ceremonies portrayed on the Birth Vase provided
paradigms for childbirth rituals that were actually
performed in ancient Maya communities.
The archaeological traces of those rituals are
not easily identified. The remains of children who
were likely sacrificed have been reported in vari-
ous contexts, including burials, caches, and cave
contexts (Domenici 2014; Geller 2011; Scherer 2015;
Scherer and Houston, this volume). The published
analyses show no apparent connection with child-
birth rituals or other obvious associations with
the cult of the old goddess, which nevertheless
should not be overlooked. Considering her roles
as the model midwife and as a personification of
the sweat bath itself, the old goddess was a likely
recipient of the fire offerings of real or symbolic
human hearts, and perhaps sacrificed children,
associated with childbirth in Classic Maya vase
paintings. They may have been presented as “sub-
stitutes,” to propitiate the survival of other, hope-
fully luckier children.
Until the present, the myths about the death of
the old goddess serve as models for comportment
toward the sweat bath. So much is suggested by a
modern Tz’utujil account: “Therefore, today, when
the women go in for their steam bath they say, ‘Our
grandmother went in’; today they remember this
because a poor woman died there” (Shaw 1971:239).
Final Comments
The mythical correspondences of religious ritual
pose a challenge for archaeological studies. While
the relationship is often acknowledged, there are
few attempts to trace the links between mythical
beliefs and narratives, ritual performances, and
archaeological or iconographic data. In the absence
of written texts containing mythical accounts and
describing related ritual performances, students
Fire and Sacrifice in Mesoamerican Myths and Rituals 45
 and scholars generally opt for the study of rit-
ual practice, as inferred from the archaeological
remains (Fogelin 2007:56). Interpretations based
on ethnographic or ethnohistoric analogies are
often regarded with suspicion, and they frequently
prove misleading, especially when applied without
an extensive, comparative examination of the tex-
tual sources and an awareness of the methodologi-
cal and theoretical issues that are involved.
Mesoamerican archaeologists enjoy a rela-
tive wealth of textual sources, ranging from Maya
hieroglyphic inscriptions to colonial and modern
texts. But identifying links between myths and
rituals is far from straightforward. In this essay,
I suggest that, rather than literal, one-to-one cor-
respondences between the characters or incidents
of mythical narratives and those present in ritual
performances, the links should be sought at the
level of the myths’ nodal subjects. The nodal sub-
jects are inherently resilient, and were likely present
in ancient versions of myths and rituals. By impli-
cation, they may be discernible in archaeological
deposits that preserve evidence of ritual behavior,
such as caches and burials.
I examined two mythical episodes that involve
the fiery transformation of gods and goddesses in
Mesoamerican myths. These cases exemplify the
queries confronted in the archaeological study
of myth and ritual. Both episodes are crucial in
Mesoamerican cosmogony, and their importance
is revealed by their frequent attestations and mul-
tiple versions in narratives compiled across the
region. One of them—the grandmother’s death—
is not known from colonial texts, and perhaps for
that reason, is not generally accorded the impor-
tance that it merits. The other—the immolation of
the sun and moon heroes—is widely known but
inaccurately regarded as a primarily Nahua myth,
despite its broad attestation in multiple versions
throughout Mesoamerica. The nodal subjects of
these passages were likely ancient, although the
episodes found in colonial and modern versions
diverge from earlier versions. Terse passages from
sixteenth-century Nahua sources show that both
episodes were reenacted in Aztec rituals, with or
without human sacrificial victims.
4 6 c h inc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
Because of its location in a significant archi-
tectural context, and its partly preserved human
remains, a burial context from Tikal provided an
opportunity to reconstruct aspects of the ritual
behavior that formed the deposit and to propose an
interpretation that linked the ritual with a key epi-
sode in Mesoamerican solar myths. The interpre-
tation was furthered by iconographic comments,
which suggest that the solar and lunar heroes of
Mesoamerican myths were, indeed, represented in
Maya art since the Late Preclassic period.
Evidence for rituals related to the fiery death
of the old goddess have not been identified in
archaeological contexts, although ethnographic
testimonies inform about ritual behavior related
to childbirth and the sweat bath, much of which
relates with the myths of the old goddess. The ico-
nography of ancient Maya vases—particularly the
Birth Vase—links fire rituals with scenes of mythi-
cal childbirth while conceding a prominent role to
old midwife goddesses. On that basis, I suggest that
the myths of the old goddess may help to explain
some aspects of ancient Maya child sacrifice. In
addition, Mexica accounts show that the fiery death
of the old goddess was reenacted through the burn-
ing of her “granary” during the feast of Tititl—a
reminder that ritual reenactments did not neces-
sarily involve human victims.
The integration of diverse lines of evidence,
including archaeological and iconographic meth-
ods, coupled with the analysis of written texts,
is crucial for the analysis of ritual. Attention to
mythical narratives may significantly enhance
archaeological interpretations of ritual deposits
by integrating the reconstruction of ritual practice
with a deeper understanding of the contents of rit-
ual and its mythical correspondences.
Acknowledgments
I thank Vera Tiesler and Andrew Scherer for
allowing me to contribute to this volume, and
for their editorial input. An anonymous reviewer
provided useful comments. My special thanks
to Oswaldo Gómez and Justin Kerr, who allowed
me to reproduce their valuable photographs, and
to Anaís García, of Fototeca Guatemala, CIRMA,
who kindly provided the photograph in Figure 2.6.
notes
1 Nahuatl: In netlatiloyan: vncan motlatiaia, in jtoca
catca nanaoatl y ixiptla, ioan xochquaie. López
Austin’s Spanish translation: “Netlatitloyan: Ahi
se quemaban las imágenes de los que tenían por
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