El dios enmascarado de fuego

Abstract

On the 26th of August 1981, a monolith identified as the Fire God was found in the excavations of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan. Yet it presents atypical. traits, such as a Tlaloc masque, masks in the joints and aquatic symbols in the vessel over its head. This iconographic study identifies this image with the Fire God in the world of the dead, Mictlan, giving life to beings that periodically should come out in the East with new fire and new life. One of the names of this form of Huehuetéotl is Cuécuex, mentioned as protector of the Tepanec in historical sources. It would be plausible that the monolith in the Great Temple would represent, not only the Fire God in one of its form but the power of the triple alliance (excan tlatoyan), in the form of the protector of one of its components: Tepanecapan.