One of the oldest figures of Mesoamerica is the old god of fire, which started being represented around 500 BC. There are images of this god, very similar in its general features, in some of the major cities of the Valley of Mexico, and Cuicuilco, Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan. In the Mesoamerican worldview it was thought that the world was basically flat, and above and below the world of men there were a number of levels where the gods lived. In the last and deepest of the nine levels of the underworld lived the god of fire; in fact, the stories speak of a couple, a man and a woman, but the representations the we know of are of the god.
He is characterized as an old man, his mission and occupation was to keep the embers of a hearth alive. In Nahuatl he was called Huehueteotl, the old god. The upper part of the cosmos, the heavens, were associated with the warm, sun, and dry forces, while the underworld was associated with the cold, lunar and water forces. Huehueteotl was at the end of this dual cosmos, in its darkest and coldest part; and yet he was in charge of the care and feeding of nothing less than fire, the warm force par excellence.
This apparent contradiction can be explained by a principle of the Mesoamerican worldview: movement and life on earth are the result of a dynamic process in which the cold and warm forces fight or are opposed, and each can achieve its dominance in a given time, without completely suppressing the other. In the depths of the night some points in the sky shine, the stars; just as in full sun there are shadows of things, which are small portions of darkness. Likewise, during the drought, some rivers flow and some lakes remain.
In our sculpture we can see the old god of fire in his usual position, sitting cross-legged. He is an old man, as shown by the wrinkles on his face; he is also a stooping figure. On his head is a brazier, alluding to his role. But the figure also has traits of elements opposing fire: water and the darkness of the earth. The band decorating the brazier shows parallel lines alternating with what appear to be eyes: it is, judging from later representations, a representation of the earth. In addition, the god has two attributes of Tlaloc, a type of pronounced fangs and separate circles around the eyes, as if they were goggles.
Alfredo Lopez Austin has referred to a similar representation from the Mexica era in which the fire god also wears a mask that would correspond to Tlaloc. This small sculpture of the god of fire may have worked as a brazier to burn an offering of copal. It is also possible he had something in his hands, one of them is extended, as if welcoming, the other with a closed fist, as if holding something.
One of the oldest figures of Mesoamerica is the old god of fire, which started being represented around 500 BC. There are images of this god, very similar in its general features, in some of the major cities of the Valley of Mexico, and Cuicuilco, Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan. In the Mesoamerican worldview it was thought that the world was basically flat, and above and below the world of men there were a number of levels where the gods lived. In the last and deepest of the nine levels of the underworld lived the god of fire; in fact, the stories speak of a couple, a man and a woman, but the representations the we know of are of the god.
