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Leyenda de los Soles
Leyenda de los Soles. Ometecuhtli, creative duality, unfolded in four forces that would be the four creator suns and representatives of the four elements: earth (represented by the tiger), air, fire and water. These forces established a tenacious struggle for supremacy of the eras, of time and suns, giving rise to cataclysms and human and plant evolution.
*First Sun: This era begins in the year 1-Reed and ends in 4-Tiger. The inhabitants were eaten by ocelots and were turned into fish. It lasted 676 years.
** Second Sun: This era ends in the year 4-Wind. The inhabits were destroyed by strong winds and were converted into birds. It lasted 364 years.
*** Third Sun: This era ends in the year 4-Rain of Fire. There are floods and fiery rains. The inhabitants die from burns and are turned into monkeys.
**** Fifth Sun: In this era there is cosmic balance, thanks to the fact that not a single force predominates. This era or Sun could be destroyed by earthquakes, hence its name 4-Movement (Nahui-Ollin), which is also the year in which it will end, but we do not know how long it will last, because we are still living in it today.
In summary: The first era or sun was created and destroyed by a cataclysm and it was followed by chaos. This sequence of events is repeated four times until a fifth power, symbolized by movement and represented by Quetzalcoatl, achieved supremacy and cosmic stability, thus being able to create the humanity that exists today.
This fifth sun will be destroyed by movement, when stability is broken, just as the three previous eras were destroyed by water, wind, fire and tigers, respectively.
The Legend of the Suns is a myth of Nahua origin, recovered from oral tradition and preserved, together with the myth of the Creation of the Fifth Sun, in the Codex Chimalpopoca.
Last Modified: January 14, 1998.
Museo del Templo Mayor, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, México.
Seminario #8, Centro Histórico. Cuauhtémoc, México, D.F. 06060
©Copyright 1997
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