The goggle-eyed Aztec rain-bringer whose paradise welcomed the drowned, fed by the tears of sacrificed children — until the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521 ended his cult.
Born
100 BCE
Died
1521 CE
Lived
1,621 years
Dead for
505 yrs
Cause of death
Conquest · Forgotten
Replaced by
Catholicism
The Obituary
Tlaloc was the Aztec god of rain, water, lightning, and agricultural fertility, ruler of the rain and mountain deities called the Tlaloque, his worship descending from Teotihuacan. Depicted with goggle eyes and jaguar fangs, he ruled Tlalocan, a verdant paradise for those who died by water, drowning, or lightning. One of the two shrines atop the Templo Mayor was his. His cult demanded the sacrifice of children, whose tears were thought to summon rain. Aztec worship of Tlaloc ended with the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521.
Worth remembering
He is shown with goggle eyes and jaguar fangs; the drowned and the lightning-struck went to his green paradise, Tlalocan.
Children were sacrificed to him in spring, their tears believed to ensure the coming rains.
Gallery
Colossal stone monolith of Tlaloc outside the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico CityJaontiveros · CC BY-SA 4.0Aztec blue ceramic effigy jar depicting the rain god TlalocArjuno3 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources
Tlaloc was the Aztec god of rain, water, and fertility Wikipedia
Tlaloc was one of the two principal gods worshipped at the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan; his shrine marked the summer solstice (the wet season) while Huitzilopochtli's shrine marked the winter solstice, and he ruled a group of rain and mountain deities called the Tlaloque. World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
