Tonight at # LeyendasMexicas I will tell you one of the many legends of creation. I will talk about the Fifth Sun.

*approaches the bonfire*

Are you ready?

Let’s start then with the # LeyendasMexicas night.

Today we speak of our world, the World of the Fifth Sun.

But before that I will tell what happened to the other suns and how the previous worlds had ended one after another.

First of all you have to understand that the Mexica Sun we were referring to is the division of the universe’s history.

According to Mexican mythology we are the original inhabitants of this world of the Fifth Sun. Before this world there were four different worlds, lit by different suns.

The earth and the sky, as we know them, were created in the year 1 Tochtli, but this was not the beginning of all lives.

Each world before ours was illuminated by a different god that took the form of the sun and was the one to create the inhabitants of their worlds. These Gods created their worlds and their inhabitants with a great care.

It had all begun when the Gods gathered to decide who would be the First Sun, entrusted with creating the perfect inhabitants for it. Despite being many and diverse, the Gods felt that something was missing in the world.

There are different orders of the Four Suns of the past, and I will tell you the most faithful to the legends.

First to receive the complicated task was the mighty Tezcatlipoca, The Smocking Mirror. Hence to this day he is called the First Star.

Gathering much mud, Tezcatlipoca created the men to inhabit the land. He worked very hard, carving his creations to be strong and imposing. Alas, it didn’t work well. The people Tezcatlipoca had created were too large, really giants of clay. Being so tall, those people were dull and lazy, hardly bothering to move and hardly able to do so. Each time one of those giants stumbled and fell, his clay would become the land that now forms our mountains. Barely able to run, those men were clumsy and an easy prey to the hungry ocelots. And so they perished, eaten by predators.

Saddened by his failure, Tezcatlipoca called for the rest of the Gods and the world of the First Sun was destroyed.

This order was the First Sun, the Jaguar.

The Gods, reunited after the failure of Tezcatlipoca, decided to give a chance to his rival, Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent.

So the World of the Second Sun was ruled by Quetzalcoatl.

The men who inhabited this second sun were created through sacred food – corn. Quetzalcoatl invested much in his task, creating the perfect humans to walk the earth. They were so perfect, they could not stop to admire each other. They never made a sacrifice to the gods, never appreciated their own creators. Offended and furious, Quetzalcoatl sent a major hurricane to erase those ungrateful people from the face of the earth. Those few who survived were turned into monkeys and escaped to live in the mountains and forests.

Acknowledging his failure, Quetzalcoatl called for the Gods to choose who will be responsible for the next world creation.

The Third Sun was created by the Great Tlaloc, the god of water and rain.

This time Tlaloc also used the sacred food – corn – to create the new men to inhabit the world of the Third Sun. He worked hard to create again the perfect humans, but this time with a single modification. The heart. These men had hearts to acknowledge and venerate their gods.

Yet, there still was a problem. The heart created for these humans was too big, not fitting their bodies and so those people behaved in an unexpected way. Their different personalities and too-strong hearts made them fight each other and not worship the gods.

So the gods were angry at these new men and decided to send a hail of fire to kill them all.
The few who survived became the birds that are populating the earth.

Tlaloc acknowledged his failure and so the World of the Third Sun had ended too.

The creation of the Fourth Sun was given to the Goddess Chalchiuhtlicui, the new star in the sky. This time it was decided to make the humans from bones of those who inhabited the previous suns.

These new humans came out so small, they scattered everywhere and it were impossible to catch.

The exasperated Gods signed, unable to restrained their new creations, who hid and, so never worshiped their gods and never sacrificed in their honor.

Disappointed, Chalchiuhtlicue decided to end this new world, flooding the land.

The survivors of the Fourth Sun took refuge in the water and became fish that inhabit the waters of rivers, lakes and seas.

Finally, the Gods met in Teotihuacan to make a decision.

Hence Teotihuacan is known to these days as The City of the Gods.

The gods then took the decision to create a new sun, but they did not want to attempt to create the humans.

For all the attempts had failed and there was no way of creating a being that could keep them company and worship the gods properly.

In the second part of # LeyendasMexicas class we will see how the gods had attempted to solve this problem.

The original lecture can be viewed here here.