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THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD AND HIS MYTH AT TEOTIHUACAN

Zoltán Paulinyi

Ancient Mesoamerica / Volume 25 / Issue 01 / March 2014, pp 29 - 48

DOI: 10.1017/S0956536114000054, Published online: 07 August 2014

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0956536114000054

How to cite this article:

Zoltán Paulinyi (2014). THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD AND HIS MYTH AT TEOTIHUACAN. Ancient Mesoamerica, 25, pp 29-48
doi:10.1017/S0956536114000054

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Ancient Mesoamerica, 25 (2014), 29–48
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2014
doi:10.1017/S0956536114000054
THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD AND HIS MYTH AT
TEOTIHUACAN
Zoltán Paulinyi
Facultad de Artes, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2100, Santiago, Chile
Abstract
We know little about the gods of the Teotihuacan pantheon and practically nothing of their mythology. Starting from the analysis of a
group of murals in Atetelco (Teotihuacan), a partial reconstruction is proposed for a Teotihuacan myth, the principal figure of which has
the character of a sun god linked to vegetation. In this proposal, this god descends to the Underworld and is reborn, thus rising out of the
depths of the earth. The myth appears to include, moreover, a ballgame in the Underworld and probably a supernatural macaw, linked in
some way to the god in question. In my opinion, this is probably a creation myth, with a basic structure bearing a resemblance to that of the
Popol Vuh.
The starting point for this study is a group of murals discovered in
the Atetelco apartment compound, Teotihuacan, during the 1990s
(Cabrera Castro et al. 2007). The search for their meaning will
take us far from Atetelco and Teotihuacan in an iconographic inves-
tigation that has developed into the reconstruction of several epi-
sodes of an important Teotihuacan myth. The murals, which were
found in a small patio close to Patio 7, in the south eastern
section of Atetelco, are painted in shades of red and belong to the
local Xolalpan phase (a.d. 350–550) (Figure 1). They have been
commented on in various studies (Cabrera Castro 1995:247;
Cabrera Castro et al. 2007; Giral Sancho 2003, 2004), but so far
no detailed study has been made, such as their exceptional iconogra-
phy deserves. I have made an initial study of the murals which
serves as the basis for the research presented in this article
(Paulinyi 2011). The four murals on the eastern half of the patio
present a group of three motifs: a figure with the attributes of a
bird and a butterfly, a mountain, and a bird whose body is
covered with birds’ heads. The triad, consisting of the motifs men-
tioned above, is unique in Teotihuacan mural painting. The western
half of the patio, in contrast, is characterized by murals with
complex scenes composed of small human figures painted in a
different style.
The central figure of this triad is the character with attributes of
both the bird and butterfly (Figure 2). Cabrera Castro et al. (2007:
132, 136–137) correctly identified this character on the basis of
several of his attributes, including butterfly wings, bird headdress,
and “Reptile’s Eye” glyph, with the Teotihuacan god originally inter-
preted by Séjourné as representing the Aztec god Xochipilli
(Séjourné 1959:116–128, 1962). This has since been reinterpreted
in various ways by different authors, including myself (Berlo 1983,
1992; Berrin and Pasztory 1993; Caso 1966:259–263; Paulinyi
1995, 2006; Taube 2005a, 2006:164; von Winning 1987:1:
111–124). In the course of my investigations I have concluded that
E-mail correspondence to: zpaulinyi@gmail.com
29
this is a sun god and god of plant fertility, I believe most appropriately
named the Butterfly Bird God, due to the intermingling of the butter-
fly and bird attributes that dominate his iconography (Paulinyi 1995).
With respect to the solar character of this deity, Karl Taube (2005a,
2006) has subsequently arrived at a similar conclusion.
The iconographic complex of this god is one of the most important
in Teotihuacan art, being identified by Kubler (1967:5) as the “butterfly
complex” and by von Winning (1987:1:111–124) as the “fire-butterfly
complex,” in which he also included the old Fire God. Apart from
the Atetelco murals, two images of this divinity may be observed in
the murals of the Palace of the Sun, located in the precinct of the
Pyramid of the Sun (Langley 1993:Figure 8; Miller 1973:Figures
107–108; Paulinyi 1995, 2006). At the same time, the butterfly
imagery that characterizes our deity is also the most frequent theme
of stuccoed vessels (Conides 2001), and its presence in other media
is equally notable with the iconography of the Butterfly Bird God
being predominant on censers. Outside Teotihuacan, the iconographic
complex of the Butterfly Bird God also appears in the zones influenced
by this metropolis, especially in ceramics and censers from Escuintla,
Guatemala. The principal figure on censers from the Valley of
Mexico and Escuintla has been interpreted in radically different
ways. Accordingly it has been variably interpreted as the image of
the deity himself (Caso 1966; Séjourné 1959, 1962), of the deity and
of warriors (Berlo 1983), of the Butterfly Bird God and perhaps his
mortal representatives (Paulinyi 1995), or more recently, as images of
living or dead warriors (Headrick 2003; Langley 1998; Sugiyama
1998; Taube 2002; von Winning 1987). To date, the interpretation
has not been convincingly explained.
THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD IN ATETELCO
The image of the god, who appears together with a mountain, is
relatively well preserved in Mural 3 (following the numbering estab-
lished for the murals by Cabrera Castro et al. [2007]) (see Figure 2).
The god appears with an anthropomorphic body, while cascades of
symbols flow from his hands. His clothing combines butterfly and
30
Figure 1. The location of the murals analyzed in Atetelco, Teotihuacan, with their numbering (after Cabrera Castro et al.
[2007:Figure 1]).
bird features, and he exhibits several diagnostic attributes. To date,
this form of representation of the deity has only been witnessed on
vessels (Figures 3a and 3b). Unfortunately, the upper border of this
mural at Atetelco has suffered severe damage. The god’s face is
unrecognizable, and his characteristic headdress, which combines
elements of bird and butterfly, has only partially survived (see
Figures 3b and 7a, where the headdress appears complete). In the
mural, the upper part of the bird’s beak may be observed and,
higher up, a part of the butterfly’s curved, feathered tongue, from
which drops of water fall. Butterfly forewings attach to the god’s
arms, and a hind wing to his back. The wings on the arms have a
particular shape that has no parallel with other representations of
this god and also display certain spurs that generally appear in the
hind wings of butterfly images.
As can be seen in Figure 2, the god wears a loincloth and sandals.
On his chest he wears a large emblem of the Reptile’s Eye glyph,
which is extremely important in his iconography; in the border of
Paulinyi
this emblem we can see fire symbols, called “comb-and-bar” by
Hasso von Winning, which are very frequent in representations of
the deity, alternating with circles (see similar emblems in von
Winning [1987:II:Chapter 2:Figures d, e, h, i, and l]). In different rep-
resentations of the god, the Reptile’s Eye glyph may appear, among
other places, on his torso and his headdress and may even replace
the torso (Deletaille and Deletaille 1992:Figure 123) (Figure 4).
The god in Mural 3 has his usual bead bracelets on his wrists. As
seen on other occasions, he is scattering abroad a cluster of character-
istic symbols, called a “core cluster” by Langley (1986:103–107).
This cluster consists of 11 symbols (Séjourné 1966a:Figure 130)
(see Figure 3a) and is closely linked to representations of the god.
The band containing the symbols scattered by the right hand is
bordered with flowers, leaves, and drops of water. We find in
Teotihuacan art that the act of scattering with both hands is an exclu-
sive privilege of deities. Apart from our god, the goddess of the murals
of Tepantitla and Tetitla also appears scattering with both hands
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan
Figure 2. The Butterfly Bird God and the fertile mountain. Mural 3, Atetelco. Courtesy of Rubén Cabrera Castro. Drawing by Víctor
Álvarez.
(Miller 1973:Figures 301–314), as do the Rain God (Séjourné 1966b:
Plate XCII) and other symbolic supernatural characters (Miller 1973:
Figures 124 and 231).
THE FERTILE MOUNTAIN OF ATETELCO
The god appears in an aquatic environment (see Figure 2). Behind
him we observe a sequence of broad waves or diagonal bands of
water, with a saw-tooth motif inside them. Similar waves also
appear in other murals in the city, sometimes filled with aquatic
animals (see Miller 1973:Figures 125–128, 296, 317; Paredes
Cetino 2002:448–456). From the water rises a great mountain that
is only partially preserved, consisting of various horizontal rows
of superimposed hills. A plant grows on one of these hills, the
fruit of which cannot be clearly seen. With the aid of Mural 4,
however, which will be discussed in greater detail below, it can
be identified as a squash (Figure 5). Inside each hill there is an
oval, patch-like motif, parallel with the right border of the hill.
The border of this motif has a double line—like the borders of
the hills—and the inner line has notches. These extended, slightly
curved hills look like plant leaves; similar hills are sometimes
observed in Teotihuacan art (Berlo 1984:Plate 47; Eggebrecht
1986:Number 115) (see Figure 6b). The representation that is
most similar to our mountain, however, is a fragment of ceramic
mould (Múnera and Sugiyama 2005:Photos 137a and 137b)
(Figure 6), which includes motifs practically identical to these
hills, with the edged ovals in a similar configuration, overlapping
and arranged in rows, forming a curved group bordered by waves
of water. We will return to their meaning below.
As has already been mentioned, in the neighboring Mural 4, we
see another image of the mountain rising out of the water (see
Figure 5). Two squash plants grow out of it, with two round fruits
ending in appendices. The extended, almost pointed, hills of this
mountain—as with the patch-like motifs mentioned above—are
even more like plant leaves than the hills of the mountain in
Mural 3. There is little doubt that these two murals represent a
31
fertile mountain. In the border of Mural 4 we can observe butterflies
descending between two vertical rows of four-petalled flowers (see
Figure 5). The butterfly and the bird are the most important motifs of
the iconography of the god under discussion, constituting his repre-
sentatives or manifestations. The four-petalled flower very fre-
quently accompanies the god, as well as being one of the symbols
of the “core cluster” mentioned above. These butterflies, curiously,
present human teeth, and drops of water drip from their proboscis;
in this respect we find certain analogies. For example, in a
Teotihuacan censer, a human skull with teeth replaces the butterfly’s
head (Merrin Gallery 1971:Number 3), and in pieces from
Kaminaljuyu and Escuintla, Guatemala, butterflies are also found
with the jaw of a human skull (Kidder et al. 1946:Figure 207h) or
with human teeth (Hellmuth 1993). Thus, it is reasonable to suppose
that the teeth of the butterflies in Mural 4 are a reference to death.
How can we interpret the context in which our god is placed?
The broad strips of water, the mountain that rises out of the waves
with its phytomorphic hills and squash plants, the drops of water
scattered by the image of the god and his butterflies, and the
skull’s teeth of the latter, together indicate that the place in which
the god is contextualized is probably the Underworld—a place of
water, plant fertility, and death. The mountain is probably a more
elaborate version of the well-known Teotihuacan motif of the
“Triple Hill;” this motif frequently appears with the Butterfly Bird
God (Figure 6a and 6b). The complexity of the fertile mountain
in Atetelco is remarkable; we could cite few similar specimens
(López Luján et al. 2002:Figure 8.8; Seler 1915:Figure 178). As
with our mountain, the Triple Hill is aquatic and characterized by
plant fertility (Paulinyi 1995:85–87; von Winning 1987:pp. 11–13).
There are strong arguments to support the idea that the Triple
Hill is located in the Underworld. On the one hand, we see the
Butterfly Bird God coming out of the gates of the Underworld,
which bears Triple Hill motifs (Taube 2006:Figure 4b) (see
Figure 7a). On the other, the Triple Hill appears together with the
wide vessel filled with water, symbol of the aquatic underworld,
from which our god rises (Paulinyi 1995:83–84) (see Figure 6b).
32 Paulinyi

Figure 3. Images analogous with the Butterfly Bird God from Mural 3 at Atetelco: (a) from Séjourné (1966a:Figure 38, detail); (b) from
Conides (2001). Reproduced with permission.
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan
Figure 4. The Butterfly Bird God wearing the Reptile’s Eye glyph (from Langley 1993:Figure 8, detail). Courtesy of James C. Langley.
On other occasions, aquatic deities such as the Rain God and the
Goddess of Tepantitla appear emerging from this same type of
vessel and, indeed, the inverted vessel takes the role of the upper
lip (the bigotera) of the emblem of the Rain God in the mural of
the Goddess of Tepantitla (Paulinyi 2007:254). On a vessel from
Escuintla, Guatemala, the Rain God appears in the same scene
together with the Triple Hill—the simple version of the fertile
mountain of Atetelco (Figure 8). This may indicate that the scene
of the events of this myth corresponds to the subterranean land
ruled by the Rain God, similar or identical to the Tlalocan of the
Postclassic period. Although it is surprising to find a mythical hill
situated in the Underworld, we can cite at least two cases of cosmo-
logical importance. For the Aztecs, the third level of the Underworld
was a place of hills, and in the fourth level was a hill of obsidian,
according to the Codex Vaticanus 3738 (López Austin 1980:
62–63); Sahagún (2000:328) also refers to the first place mentioned.
At the same time, Taube (2006:158–165) has a different interpret-
ation of the Triple Hill, inspired in the works of Jane Hill (1992)
and Louise Burkhart (1992). These authors address the system of
metaphors which concentrate on the flower symbol, in the case of
the Uto-aztec linguistic family. In Taube’s opinion, the Triple Hill
represents a celestial, solar Flower Mountain, similar to that
which, according to the same author, existed in the Maya cosmovi-
sion and was contemporary with Teotihuacan.
The two Atetelco murals analyzed testify explicitly that our god,
the fertile mountain, and the squash plant form an indivisible group,
as I had previously suspected (Paulinyi 1995). In this earlier
research, I was able to observe that in some representations of
Teotihuacan art, the Butterfly Bird God appears together with the
mountain—in general the Triple Hill—that displays attributes of
plant fertility (Deletaille and Deletaille 1992:Figure 123) (see
Figure 6a and 6b). Likewise, evidence exists of a link between the
god and the squash. For example, in one case the god is represented
rising from half a squash (Figure 7b). In another example, the
Reptile’s Eye glyph can be seen in the lower border of the vessel
(Figure 7a), appearing between two halves of a broken squash,
33
surrounded by water, while above them the Butterfly Bird God
emerges from the portal (see Conides 2001), wherein the mouth
of a cave or cavern probably represents the entrance to the
Underworld (Paulinyi 2007:255–256). In another example, we see
a small figure between two halves of a broken squash, perhaps a
child, with the god’s facial painting and what looks to be a
sceptre (Figure 7c; see also the sceptre in Figure 11). These
images tell of the birth of the god from inside a squash. The emer-
gence of the god from the squash is similar to the emergence of a
butterfly from the chrysalis. Here we should also make mention
of the representation of a Triple Hill from which a squash plant is
born (Berlo 1984:Plate 47).
According to all the evidence assembled, on the one hand, the
god is closely linked to a mountain, and on the other he is born
from a squash, which apparently belongs to the mountain
(Paulinyi 1995:85–87). The Atetelco murals, where for the first
time the three motifs appear simultaneously, enable us to close
the circle: we see the Butterfly Bird God together with the fertile
mountain in the Underworld, on which grows the squash plant
whereby the god comes into the world.
THE SUPERNATURAL BIRD OF ATETELCO
Two other murals in Atetelco—Murals 1 and 2—offer a represen-
tation of a supernatural bird. Mural 1 presents the complete
animal figure (Figure 9). As the upper edge of the mural has been
destroyed, all that survives of the head is the lower part of the
beak. The peculiar thing about this bird is that there are other,
smaller birds’ heads growing in various parts of its body: three on
each wing, one on each leg, and three near the tail. These heads
have previously been thought to be chicks (Cabrera Castro 1995:
247). It holds an arm with a bracelet, dripping blood, in its
beak—probably an arm that has been cut or torn off. In Mural 2
we again find the border with toothed butterflies, this time ascend-
ing between two rows of flowers. The position of the wings is also
interesting; the right wing is facing down while the other is spread
34
Figure 5. The fertile mountain. Mural 4, Atetelco. Courtesy of Rubén Cabrera Castro. Drawing by Víctor Álvarez.
forward. The wings of the birds in the lower part of a mural at
Totometla, Teotihuacan (Juárez Osnaya and Ávila Rivera 2006:
Plate 10), present the same position, and their heads are also
similar to those of the Atetelco birds. Furthermore, the composition
of the upper part of the same mural is cantered on Reptile’s Eye
glyphs. As the Totometla bird has been identified as a green
macaw (Ara militaris) (Navarijo Ornelas 2006:338–339), the
hypothesis arises that the Atetelco bird may also be a macaw.
The bird’s torso in Mural 1 is covered by a large Reptile’s
Eye glyph emblem (compare with Paulinyi 1995:Figures 1 and 2).
This emblem is identical to that worn by the god in the image in
Mural 3 (see Figure 2 and Figure 9). For this reason, and from the
juxtaposition of their respective murals, it is plausible to suppose
that a close link must exist between the god and the bird. But
what is the bird? Recently, Nielsen and Helmke (2011) have con-
cluded that it must be a mythical being similar to Vucub Caquix
(Seven Macaw)—the Principal Bird Deity of the Classic period
and the supernatural bird of the Popol Vuh—which acts as a false
sun. During its fight against the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and
Xbalanque, it tears off the arm of the former before being finally
defeated. I will return to this point below.
Paulinyi
So far we can say that examination of the Atetelco murals has
borne fruit, but it has also raised some unanswered questions.
What myth underlies the birth of the god on the fertile mountain?
What is the meaning of the plant-leaf shape of the hills of the moun-
tain? What is the connection between the supernatural bird and the
deity? To find the answers, we must go beyond the Atetelco murals
to look at those from the Palace of the Sun, located in the precinct of
the Pyramid of the Sun, as well as broader contexts within and
without Teotihuacan art.
THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD IN THE PALACE OF
THE SUN
A series of murals in the Palace of the Sun—some painted in shades
of red and others polychromatic—represent a personage with bird’s
clothing flying downward, scattering drops of water with both
hands, which immediately indicates a deity (de la Fuente 2006:
Plates 3–7; Miller 1973:Figures 107–109) (see Figure 10). It is
the Butterfly Bird God, and bears several of his diagnostic attributes
including stepped facial painting, rectangular eyes, pendant earr-
ings, the red color of the body, and the ornithomorphic appearance
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan 35

Figure 6. The Butterfly Bird God with the fertile mountain: (a) Séjourné 1966a:Figure 94; (b) Conides 2001; (c) Múnera and Sugiyama
2005:photo 137. Reproduced with permission.
36 Paulinyi

Figure 7. The Butterfly Bird God and the squash. (a) The god emerges from the portal of the Underworld. In the lower border the
Reptile’s Eye glyph emerging from the broken squash (Evans 2010:Figure 8). (b) The god emerging from the squash. Drawing by the
Author (after Sotheby Parke Bernet 1981:Photo 191). (c) A small anthropomorphic figure emerging from the broken squash (Séjourné
1966a:Figure 194). Reproduced with permission.
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan 37

Figure 8. Rain God with the Triple Hill, Escuintla, Guatemala (from Hellmuth 1978:Figure 14). Reproduced with permission.

itself (Paulinyi 1995:83, 87; see also Taube 2005a, 2006). Inside the similar to those of the bird in Murals 1 and 2 at Atetelco and are dis-
bird’s open beak can be seen the god’s face, and the wings also bear tributed about the god’s body in a similar way (see Figure 9). On
small bird heads similar to the principal head. These heads are each of the wings we see four bird heads in profile and one on

Figure 9. The many-headed bird. Mural 1, Atetelco. Courtesy of Rubén Cabrera Castro. Drawing by Víctor Álvarez.

Figure 10. The Butterfly Bird God descending. Mural of the Palace of the Sun, Teotihuacan. From de la Fuente (2006:Figure 6.4)..
Reproduced with permission.
38
each leg. On the tail is another frontal or profile representation of the
head, depending on the mural. Taube (2003:278–230) established
that the bird heads superimposed on the god’s body are macaw
heads, and at the same time he proposed that the green crest and
feathers belong to a quetzal. Thus the supernatural bird of
Atetelco—as already suspected in a mural at Totometla—must
also be a macaw, or perhaps a macaw-quetzal. The difference is
that in the Palace of the Sun we observe the god with feathered
clothing similar to that of the bird, while in Atetelco we find the
bird itself.
Above the figure of the god appears a tree; the shape of its trunk,
leaves, and broken fruits suggest that it is a cocoa tree. The god
appears to be descending from the tree, the mythical character of
which is evident from the fact that people and objects emerge
from its fruits. It should be noted that Nielsen and Helmke (2011:
Figure 7c) have recently identified small human figures with blow-
guns on either side of a representation of the descending god in a
fragmented mural in Room 13. These authors have interpreted the
scene as being analogous with the scenes in Maya art that represent
the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh, as they shoot at the Principal Bird
Deity with their blowguns. They propose that what is represented in
the mural is the fall of the Principal Bird Deity from the tree after
being wounded by the blowgun.
Nevertheless, it is important for interpretation of this scene to
take into account that most of the images of blowgun shooters
hunting birds in Teotihuacan vessels have the attributes of the
Butterfly Bird God, or represent the god himself; these attributes
are rectangular facial painting and rectangular eyes—as may be
seen in the descending god—and the butterfly bird headdress
(Conides 2001:Appendix 2, Numbers 22, 49, 50, 60, 114, 122,
125, 141). In another image linked to this group of representations,
the god appears surrounded by blowgun projectiles, while he scat-
ters symbols with both hands and—although in this representation
he does not have a blowgun—he is in the characteristic half-
kneeling position of blowgun shooters on the vessels mentioned
above (Figure 3b). This suggests that the god is the hunter and
not the hunted, the blowgun shooter and not the shot bird. In this
Figure 11. The Butterfly Bird God descending into the Underworld vessel (from Séjourné 1966c:Figure 130, detail). Reproduced with
permission.
Paulinyi
interpretation the god would be akin to the two blowgun shooters
who appear flanking him in the mural. In short, I consider that
the possibility also exists that the Butterfly Bird God represented
descending, accompanied by blowgun shooters, is not comparable
with the episode of the Popol Vuh that recounts the fight between
the Hero Twins and the Principal Bird Deity.
How then are we to understand the descent of the Butterfly Bird
God? In Figure 11 we see another image from Teotihuacan, in
which the Butterfly Bird God—this time with a butterfly head-
dress—is fused with a bird that is descending toward the interior
of a wide-mouthed vessel, which, as we have already noted, is a
symbol of the aquatic underworld. The fact that the feathers on
his wings are represented pointing upward is evidence that he is des-
cending. Both the mural of the descent of the Butterfly Bird God
and this image probably represent the descent of the god to the
Underworld. In previous works (Paulinyi 1995:87, 2006), I pro-
posed that they probably share the significance of the descending
butterfly on the censers of Teotihuacan and especially of
Escuintla (Berjonneau et al. 1985:Figure 362; Berlo 1984:
Figure 18; Hellmuth 1975:Plate 32); and, indeed, in the Atetelco
murals we have seen this god in the aquatic landscape of the
Underworld, together with the fertile mountain (Figure 2). On the
other hand, in the art of Teotihuacan and Escuintla our god rises
from the vessel of the Underworld, frequently with his butterfly
wings open (Berlo 1984:Plates 80, 106, 107, 108, 111, 115) (see
Figure 6b). In the Palace of the Sun itself, a second image of the
god in the “Los Glifos” mural belongs to this class of represen-
tations (see Figure 4), where we observe the god rising from a
wide symbolic vessel. (The god has the same diagnostic attri-
butes—stepped facial painting, rectangular eyes, and earrings—as
the image represented in the mural analyzed above, in which he is
descending.) On other occasions we see the god united, once
again, with a bird with wings spread or with a butterfly body, emer-
ging from the portal of the Underworld (Berrin and Pasztory 1993:
Number 158; Taube 2006:Figure 7b) (see Figure 7a).
Initially, I interpreted the images representing the deity emerging
from the vessel as an expression of his sojourn in the Underworld
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan
(Paulinyi 1995:87). I subsequently came to the conclusion,
however, that if the images of descent mean the immersion of the
god in the Underworld, this ascendency must signify the opposite,
his exit from the Underworld—the two types of images are opposed
and complementary (Paulinyi 2006). (Taube [2006:164] has also
concluded independently that the emergent images represent the
sun rising from the Underworld.) The god descends into
the Underworld and then reemerges. Furthermore, in the Palace of
the Sun the attributes of the two images mentioned are also
opposed and complementary—the descending figure has aquatic
attributes, while in the other fire symbols predominate. A plausible
interpretation is that the god emerges from the Underworld changed,
renewed, or with new properties. In other words, the god is reborn
from the depths of the earth.
Accompanying the god descending to the Underworld
(Figure 11) we see a butterfly-bird, which is his zoomorphic mani-
festation (Séjourné 1966c:Figure 130). This hybrid being appears
with open wings spread open on the ground, probably meaning
that it is dead. We have already identified the moment of the
god’s birth from inside a squash on the fertile mountain. The
three moments of the myth complement one another and it is there-
fore probable that the Butterfly Bird God, after descending to the
Underworld, is reborn from the plant in the same way as a butterfly
emerges from a chrysalis. Not only do the three motifs complement
one another, but there are also images—although Teotihuacan art is
not basic narrative—that interweave the three moments of the
sequence. One the one hand, we observe that in the lower part of
the descending god in the Palace of the Sun (Figure 10), there is a
horizontal element consisting of motifs identical or very similar to
the hills—depending on which mural we observe—that make up
the mountains of the Atetelco murals (see Figures 3 and 5); this
horizontal element displays “patches” similar to those of the hills
in the Atetelco mountains (compare Figures 2 and 10). These
motifs probably allude to the fertile mountain where the god’s
rebirth occurs. On the other hand, we have already seen two
motifs appearing in parallel on a vessel: the birth of the god in
the form of his Reptile’s Eye glyph rising from a broken squash,
in a lower frieze of waves of water; and above, his exit from the
Underworld through its portal (see Figure 7a). Thus, if this recon-
struction of the myth is correct, the fertile mountain must be in
the Underworld, as we have stated above on the basis of other
evidence.
The rebirth of the Butterfly Bird God recalls the rebirth of the
Maya Maize God in the Underworld, in the Popol Vuh story.
Indeed, the representations of the Butterfly Bird God’s exit from
the Underworld with wings extended are similar to scenes of the res-
urrection of the Maize God with open arms in Maya vessels
(Robicsek and Hales 1981:Figures 57–58). Already present in
Preclassic representation of the Maya myth at San Bartolo, we see
the Maize God descending head-first into the waters of the
Underworld (Saturno 2009:Figure 129), and in the Postclassic
period he is frequently represented in descent (Taube 1992a:
Figure 18).
THE FERTILE MOUNTAIN AND THE MAGUEY PLANT
Turning to the horizontal element located beneath the descending
deity, it is also of interest to note that a net jaguar, painted in
various murals close to those showing the descending god, is also
represented in the midst of an aquatic environment, clasping a
plant that, from its overlapping leaves, appears to be a maguey
39
(Miller 1973:Figure 112; Luna 2006:379) (Figure 12). The net
jaguar is an animal or manifestation of the Rain God, and as such
linked with the aquatic underworld, which is where the god lives.
The leaves of the maguey are similar to the horizontal element men-
tioned above, and it is therefore plausible to propose that this
element may also refer to the maguey. The body of the jaguar
itself displays “patches” like those on the horizontal elements,
although with spots inside them. The presence or absence of spots
may not signify an important difference because in a reconstruction
of the horizontal element made by Séjourné (1966b:Figure 180) the
“patches” are also spotted, just like the “patches” of the ceramic
mould mentioned earlier (see Figure 6c). If the interpretation of
maguey leaves is correct, then the form of the hills in the Atetelco
murals probably alludes to a link between the fertile mountain
and maguey; this would indicate that the fertile mountain of the
Atetelco is similar to a maguey plant.
On the same subject, it should be noted that in the South
Ballcourt at El Tajin we find images of a mythical mountain
covered with flowering maguey plants (Kampen 1972:Figure 24)
(see Figure 13). This mountain has been compared with
Pozonaltepetl, the hill where the gods invented pulque, according
to the Nahua tradition (Wilkerson 1984:126); with the heavenly
flowered hill proposed by Taube, mentioned above, and with
Tamoanchan, the site of creation in the Nahua tradition (Koontz
2009:276–282). The analogy proposed between the Atetelco moun-
tain and the South Ballcourt is not limited to the maguey plant. In
the representations at El Tajin, the flowering maguey mountain is
located in the aquatic world, as at Teotihuacan. The principal
actor in the two scenes of El Tajin is a Rain god, the tank in the
central building is represented full of water and with a fish figure
(see Koontz 2009:278–280). Consequently, all this would appear
to indicate that we are not in a heavenly paradise but in the
aquatic world of the Rain God.
At this point we may wonder whether, if the Atetelco fertile
mountain is associated with maguey, it might not also be linked
to pulque? Analyzing Figure 10, it can be seen that a triple drop
of liquid appears to hang from the plant placed above the descend-
ing god; similar drops with notched outlines have been identified as
drops of pulque (Miller and Taube 1993:163; see also Rivas Castro
2001). Likewise, it is of interest to note that both the “patches” of
this plant and those of the horizontal element placed below the
god, and the “patches” of the hills of the Atetelco fertile mountain,
all display the same notches in their outlines. Thus it is possible that
the “patches” in some way represent pulque, perhaps the froth. This
idea is reinforced by various fragments of ceramic, which represent
hands holding cups full of liquid, with drops running over the rim,
and capped with froth. The froth has small spots, just like some of
the “patches” already observed (Múnera and Sugiyama 2005:Photos
126–127). It is very probable that these fragments of ceramic are
indeed a representation of pulque: in the Conquest-period codices,
pulque was represented in the same way—in cups with a froth of
small spots, held by a hand in the same manner (see, for example,
Berdan and Anawalt 1992:3:Folios 70v and 71v).
If the fertile mountain of the Atetelco murals refers not only to
maguey but also to pulque, this would explain the presence of a
feast scene composed of small human figures in Mural 7 in the
west side of the same patio where the murals of the Butterfly Bird
God with the fertile mountain are found (Figure 14a and 14b).
According to Cabrera Castro et al. (2007:138), we see the partici-
pants at the feast drinking an intoxicating drink, singing, and
dancing. Tamales and perhaps tortillas can also be seen in big
40
Figure 12. Net jaguar grasping a maguey plant, Palace of the Sun, Teotihuacan (from Miller 1973:Figure 113). Reproduced with
permission.
ceramic dishes, just as in the offering scene painted on
a Teotihuacanoid vessel from Kaminaljuyu (Kidder et al. 1946:
Figure 207; Taube 1989:33). It is a feast similar to that represented
in the famous “Los Bebedores” mural in Cholula. In Mural 7
at Atetelco, the drinkers hold cups with drops overflowing the
rim. Taking all the above into account, the drink consumed by the
figures of Mural 7 is probably pulque. Yet whether or not it
is, there is an important detail that may indicate that the feast
is related with our god: on the heads of some of the participants,
and floating around in the scene, we see floral chains in profile,
which are characteristic motifs of the iconography of the Butterfly
Bird God (see Conides 2001:Figure 52c; Séjourné 1966c:
Figure 130; Taube 2006:Figure 7b). Thus on the walls of the
patio we not only find allusions to the myth of this god, but also
a representation of the cult in his honor.
THE GOD AND THE BIRD: BEYOND TEOTIHUACAN
Both the Atetelco bird and the descending god dressed as this bird
also appear in other parts of Mesoamerica—as in, for example,
Paulinyi
images from Copan, Escuintla, and El Tajin, as well as Xelha,
in Quintana Roo. With the exception of the last-named site, these
images were identified by Taube as analogous with the represen-
tation of the descending figure in the Palace of the Sun (Taube
2003, 2005a). In Copan, Honduras, we find a particularly interesting
analogy in the form of the monumental macaws of stucco that
adorned the first ballcourt of the city (Fash and Fash 1996:
131–132) (Figure 15). The court was constructed in the fifth
century a.d., probably by the founder of the Copan dynasty,
K’inich Yaax K’uk’ Mo, who arrived from another land, bringing
with him extensive use of Teotihuacan iconography. The birds rep-
resented on each wing of the monumental macaws have smaller
heads, identical to the main head. From the bird’s abdomen
is born a feathered serpent’s head, similar to those at Teotihuacan;
this serpent holds a human arm crosswise in its mouth, just as
in the beak of the Atetelco bird. The arm is adorned with a circle;
it is probably the torn-off arm of Hunahpu, one of the Hero
Twins of the Popol Vuh (Fash et al. 2004:74).
Although the macaw is Maya in style, Taube (2003:278–280)
noticed that it is analogous with the descending figure in the
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan 41

Figure 13. The mountain of the flowering maguey at El Tajin, South Ballcourt (from Kampen 1972:Figure 25, detail). Reproduced with
permission.

Figure 14. Representations of pulque. Mural 7 at Atetelco (from Cabrera et al. 2007:Figure 9). Reproduced with permission.
42
Palace of the Sun. I think it highly likely that the archetype is the
many-headed bird of Teotihuacan, which appears in the Atetelco
mural. According to the version of the Popol Vuh from the
Classic period, the opponent of the Hero Twins is not a macaw
but a monstrous bird called the Principal Bird Deity, a zoomorphic
manifestation of the god Itzamna. And here we must stress that the
supernatural macaw of Copan, of Teotihuacan origin, nevertheless
appears occupying the place of the Principal Bird Deity, since it
is carrying the arm of Hunahpu. This substitution suggests that
for the artist and his public—apparently familiar with both the
Maya and Teotihuacan mythic and iconographic traditions—the
two supernatural birds were analogous. It must be stressed that
outside the Copan region, no ballcourts have been found with
macaw iconography in the whole Classic Maya world (Fash et al.
2004:82). In this respect, I consider that its exceptional nature
could be explained by its having originated in Teotihuacan. On
the other hand, this macaw iconography does appear in the ball-
courts of other important centers located in the Guatemala Plateau
and the Pacific coast, such as Kaminaljuyu and Cerro Bernal,
which display the presence or influence of Teotihuacan iconography
(Parsons 1986:101, 123–125, Figs. 201–209; García-Des Lauriers
2005:4).
With regard to the figure of the descending Butterfly Bird
God, we find the closest analogies on censers in the provincial
Teotihuacan style from Escuintla. In one case, the deity bears a
solar disc on his torso, just like images on other censers from the
same zone (Hellmuth 1975:Plate 30b, inside cover) (Figure 16a)
emphasizing the essence of his nature. In the case cited, the god
Figure 15. Supernatural macaw of stucco from the ballcourt in Copan. Reproduced with permission (from Fash et al. 2004:Figure 4.7,
drawing by Barbara Fash).
Paulinyi
also has a rectangular pendant nose, as can likewise be observed
in Teotihuacan art (Deletaille and Deletaille 1992:Figure 123). In
particular, the cut-off arm, which we saw in the beak of the
Atetelco bird, also appears together with the Butterfly Bird God
on two of these censers, although as an adornment in models of
buildings apparently dedicated to the god. In El Tajin, on the
coast of the Gulf of Mexico, a macaw figure that appears to bear
small macaw heads on his wings (Figure 16b) can be seen in a
relief. This image takes on a special significance if we consider
that in the iconography of El Tajin we have already analyzed a
close analogy with the aquatic mountain of Atetelco, namely the
mountain of the flowering maguey (Taube 2005a:41, 43, Figs. 4d,
6, and 7).
Finally, apart from these direct analogies, there would appear to
be another type of analogy in the Maya city Xelha, Quintana Roo, in
a group of murals with Teotihuacan iconography from the Early
Classic period (Lombardo de Ruíz 2001:106–109; Ruíz Gallut
2001:289–291). Represented in one of these murals is a figure
dressed in Teotihuacan style, wearing a headdress in the form of a
butterfly or a butterfly with jaguar’s teeth (see Miller and Taube
1993:49). On the same wall, in a mural close by, can be seen a dete-
riorated but recognizable image of a mountain, consisting of several
rows of superimposed hills in the Teotihuacan style; this mountain is
of a complexity similar to that of Atetelco. On the mountain can be
seen a large flock of circling birds (Figure 17). According to
Navarijo Ornelas (2001:242–247), the majority of these birds are
red macaws (Ara macao), but there are also some green parrots
(Amazona amazonica). These birds may correspond to the big
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan 43

Figure 16. (a) The Butterfly Bird God with his body covered with macaw heads, sculptural ceramic, Escuintla, Guatemala (Taube
2005a:Figure 6a); (b) the many-headed macaw figure of El Tajin, Mound of the Building Columns (from Taube 2005a:Figure 4b).
Reproduced with permission.

macaw of Atetelco (see Figure 9). This, in turn, may represent the
flock as a whole. It may also be a flock which arises from the
body of the bird, as in seen in Huichol mythology (Taube 2005a:
40–41).
In sum, how are we to interpret the relation between the super-
natural macaw and the Butterfly Bird God? This macaw may be
an important zoomorphic manifestation of the Butterfly Bird God;
in this case, the god would be of the same type as the Principal
Bird Deity, with an unknown mythical opponent, whose right arm
is in the bird’s beak. Although this interpretation is attractive,
there are other considerations which suggest a different
interpretation. The identifiable zoomorphic manifestations of the
god are the butterfly, a bird that is not a macaw, and especially a
hybrid creature: the butterfly-bird. The multiple macaw heads are
not a frequent attribute of the Butterfly Bird God and only appear
exceptionally. On the other hand, and as mentioned above, there
is a series of Teotihuacan vessels bearing representations of
figures with the attributes of the Butterfly Bird God hunting birds
with a blowgun. Thus we have a Teotihuacan god who on occasion
appears as a hunter with a blowgun, and a supernatural macaw car-
rying a human arm in its beak and that is in some yet undefined way
linked to this god. These two mutually related characters strongly

Figure 17. Flock of macaws over a mountain in a mural at Xelha (from Navarijo Ornelas 2001:Figure 8). Reproduced with permission.
44
evoke the well-known Popol Vuh episode (from the Postclassic
version) retelling the struggle of the Hero Twin blowgun hunters
against the Principal Bird Deity.
Nevertheless, if the supernatural macaw were the enemy of the
Teotihuacan god, and if there had been a confrontation between
them, how can we explain the fact that the physical characteristics
of the supernatural macaw sometimes appear as attributes of the
Butterfly Bird God? For the moment, we can speculate for
example that these attributes of the Butterfly Bird God may be an
indication of his victory over the macaw, by appropriation of the
enemy’s attributes or faculties. If this were the case, the torn-off
arms which adorn the buildings dedicated to the god in the
Escuintla censers would be a representation of the god’s own arm,
an allusion to his fight against and victory over the macaw. But evi-
dence cannot currently clarify which of the two possible interpret-
ations is valid.
THE BUTTERFLY BIRD GOD AND THE BALLGAME
The images of the supernatural macaw of Copan adorned a ball-
court. Although there is little information from Teotihuacan about
the ballgame, there are sufficient reasons to assert that the
Butterfly Bird God was associated with it. First of all, it should
be noted that the disc that crowns the ballgame marker in La
Ventilla (Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda 1963) imitates the
Teotihuacan censer discs—possibly solar symbols—and the
central motif of the marker disc generally appears on the side
plates of censers. As mentioned above, censers figure among the
most important manifestations of the iconography of the Butterfly
Bird God.
With respect to the link existing between the ballgame and our
god, images in the provincial Teotihuacan style of Escuintla speak
more eloquently on this subject, as compared to the laconic nature
of the art of Teotihuacan itself. On certain vessels from Escuintla
we can see a player with the attributes of the Butterfly Bird God,
facing a rival wearing a serpent headdress, in a setting of aquatic
symbols (Hellmuth 1987:Figures 1–10; Paulinyi 1995:95–102;
von Winning 1987:II:Chapter 2:Figure 18d) (Figure 18). Similar
markers to those at La Ventilla appear in these game scenes, the
disc of which may be surrounded by flames (Figure 19)
(Hellmuth 1978:Figure 12). Although in my first analysis of this
subject I was seeking indications that either player might win
(Paulinyi 1995:95–96), in reality only the player with the attributes
Figure 18. Ballgame scene from Escuintla, Guatemala. A player with attributes of the Butterfly Bird God and his opponent with serpent
headdress (from Hellmuth 1978:Figure 12). Reproduced with permission.
Paulinyi
of the Butterfly Bird God appears explicitly as the winner in two of
these scenes, decapitating his opponent (Hellmuth 1978:Figure 11,
1987:Figures 1–10) (see Figure 20).
To whom do the attributes of the opposing player allude? Both
the clothing and the headdress of the figure represented in
Figure 18, consisting of serpents’ heads, resemble the attire in the
form of a many-headed serpent of the images of rulers in Stelae
1 and 7 at Itzimte, Campeche. Covering the face of the first ruler
appears a Rain God mask (Paulinyi 1995:100; von Euw 1977:9,
19). This, together with the aquatic environment in which the
game is taking place, would indicate that the opponent must be
a serpent related with the Rain God or the Rain God himself man-
ifested in this form. The absence of feathers on its body means that it
cannot be a feathered serpent, but some other form. The attire of our
player, together with that at Itzimte, corresponds to a supernatural
serpent of Teotihuacan origin, identified and named the “War
Serpent” by Taube (1992b:63–65, Note 6). According to him, the
“War Serpent” is an early version of the fire serpent Xiuhcoatl
from the Postclassic period (1992a; 2002:270–289).
The fiery and warlike nature of the serpent, as Taube indicates, is
beyond doubt. Nevertheless, in my opinion, its characteristics corre-
spond to a different supernatural entity to Xiuhcoatl, although also
with a fiery connotation: the lightning serpent of the Rain God. This
is supported by the fact that in various representations of this “War
Serpent,” a close relation is observed between it and the Teotihuacan
Rain God (Paulinyi 1995, 1997). It should be noted that the head of
the Teotihuacan Rain God appears several times in the open mouth
of the “War Serpent” in Stela 6 at Copan (Baudez 1994:Figures
63–64), in Lintel 25 at Yaxchilan, and in a carved panel from the
Palenque area (Miller and Martin 2004:Plate 36). In these cases the
serpent is acting as the body or carrier of the god. At the same time
it bears both fire symbols (the “comb-and-bar” of Teotihuacan in
the third case), and water symbols (the Teotihuacan net in the first
case), or a symbol recently identified by Taube (2005b:Figures 11e
and 11f) as a rain cloud, which corresponds very well to the dual
water-fire nature of the Rain God.
Now, the ballgame match that we see may form part of the myth
which we are deciphering. It is also possible that the game may cor-
respond to a rite performed not by supernatural beings, but by
mortals invested with their attributes, and that it refers to a victory
of the Butterfly Bird God over the lightning serpent, which need
not necessarily have occurred in the context of the ballgame. The
scene of the ballgame is set in an environment with aquatic
The Butterfly Bird God and his Myth at Teotihuacan
Figure 19. The player with attributes of the Butterfly Bird God and the player with serpent attributes on both sides of the ballgame
court marker surrounded by flames, at Escuintla, Guatemala (from Hellmuth 1987:Figures 15–18). Reproduced with permission.
symbols, with an opponent who belongs to or represents the Rain
God, the inhabitant of the depths; thus the game must be taking
place in the world of earth and water, perhaps only symbolically.
And so we may possibly have returned to the same mythical point
from which we set out—the place to which the Butterfly Bird
God descends and from which he is reborn. But how does the ball-
game fit into the history of the god as it unfolds before us? Since in
this game the figure with the attributes of the Butterfly Bird God
achieves victory over the representative of the Rain God, it is reason-
able to suppose that this would occur after the rebirth of the god
Figure 20. The ballgame player with attributes of the Butterfly Bird God
decapitates his opponent, at Escuintla, Guatemala (from Hellmuth
1987:Figure 4, detail). Reproduced with permission.
45
from a squash and before he rises from the Underworld. It is also
possible, however, that the episode of rebirth from the squash and
the victorious conclusion of the ballgame are synonymous: while
representations of the ballgame are found exclusively in Escuintla,
the themes of the birth from the squash and the Triple Hill are con-
centrated in Teotihuacan.
A TEOTIHUACAN MYTH
How can we interpret the myth revealed here? What does the rebirth of
the Butterfly Bird God signify? The first possibility is that the death
and rebirth of the solar god is a myth about the solar cycle and the
renewal of plant life: the god arises from the fruit of a squash plant.
Another possibility would be that the god dies and is reborn to
become a new being—in this case the solar god—a recurrent motif
in Mesoamerican creation myths. There is no clear-cut separation,
however, between these two alternatives: the beginning of a solar
calendar cycle may be considered as a replica of the creation of the sun.
The episodes identified from the myth about the Butterfly Bird
God present considerable similarities with the Popol Vuh, which
would support the idea of a Teotihuacan creation myth. This is
why the Butterfly Bird God appears occasionally as a hunter with
a blowgun, descends to the Underworld to be reborn, perhaps
plays the ballgame while he is there and, after his triumph, rises
from the Underworld. All this evokes the history of the Hero
Twins and their father in the Popol Vuh. Furthermore, rebirth in
the form of an edible plant or vegetable occurs in both myths: our
god arises from a squash, while the father of the twins is reborn
as the Maize God. Likewise, the fertile mountain of Teotihuacan
is comparable to Broken Place, Bitter Water Place, the primordial
mountain of the Popol Vuh. Similarly, although the many-headed
46
macaw of Teotihuacan is not identical to the Principal Bird Deity, it
may be that it played a similar role in the context of the Teotihuacan
myth. At the same time, there are marked differences between the
Popol Vuh and the Teotihuacan myth. The Teotihuacan solar god
with his butterfly and bird attributes is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon
of the central Mexican Plateau, as is the mythic role of the squash,
which goes back at least to the squash images carved in the rock at
Preclassic Chalcatzingo (Ángulo 1987:Figures 104, 106). His
opponent in the ballgame is not any of the malignant gods of
death, as in the Popol Vuh, but possibly a lightning serpent of the
Rain God, one of the oldest and most important gods of the same
area. Moreover, in the Teotihuacan myth, great emphasis is placed
on the rebirth of the sun god: this is apparently the first manifes-
tation of a long tradition in the central plateau, which centuries
later would assume the form of the Aztec myth of the creation of
the Fifth Sun.
The coincidences and differences observed in the analysis of the
two myths speak in favor both of a basic family relationship and of
the independence of these two traditions that come respectively
RESUMEN
Poco se sabe sobre los dioses del panteón teotihuacano y su mitología es
prácticamente desconocida. Partiendo del análisis de un grupo de murales
de Atetelco (Teotihuacan), y arribando a otros escenarios mesoamericanos,
se propone una reconstrucción parcial de un mito teotihuacano. En los
murales de Atetelco aparece en un contexto acuático el actor principal
del mito, el Dios Mariposa Pájaro, quien es un dios solar vinculado con
la vegetación. Este dios se encuentra acompañado por una montaña fértil
con calabazas, la que probablemente es su lugar de nacimiento. La
montaña, que al parecer se ubica en el inframundo, tiene cerros que
imitan las hojas del maguey, por lo cual se vincula con la planta de
maguey y con el pulque; a su vez, dicha montaña es análoga con el
cerro con plantas de maguey floreciente representado en El Tajin. Según
distintas evidencias, el Dios Mariposa Pájaro desciende al inframundo y
renace, surgiendo de esta manera de las profundidades de la tierra.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks, first of all, to Maestro Rubén Cabrera Castro, who showed me
the new Atetelco murals in 2005 and later invited me to analyze them, gen-
erously making available all the photographs, drawings, and archaeological
information necessary for the work. Preliminary results of this analysis
were presented in the symposium “Atetelco: Un conjunto arquitectónico
teotihuacano, su secuencia ocupacional y sus funciones a través de sus
materiales arqueológicos,” organized by Cabrera Castro at the XXVIII
Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, August 2007,
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from the east and west of Mesoamerica. There are also indications
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The myth protagonized by the Butterfly Bird God must have
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When we contemplate the hero of this myth, we realize that he is
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Dentro de este contexto, la montaña fértil podría significar el lugar de su
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se trataría de un mito de creación, cuya estructura básica habría sido seme-
jante a la del Popol Vuh.
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