The fearful and yet supreme god Tlaloc has heard the wishes of his drought-stricken people in his mansion atop the cloud-covered mountains. Their only wish was for some water with the power to sprout crops. Befitting his name, Tlaloc rained the nectar of the earth upon it. It rained more and more, turning first into a storm and then into a hurricane. Tlaloc, who also possessed the destructive and provocative power of the rain that gave birth to hope, evidently wanted not only to be respected but also to be feared by his people.
The god of rain and storms Tlaloc is often mentioned in the myths of the Aztecs, the indigenous people of Mexico. In tropical countries, rain is a deadly problem for humans. If it doesn’t rain, the crops dry up and the people face hunger; if it rains too much, it brings disaster. This is why the Aztec native imagery of Tlaloc is so diabolical and powerful. Tlaloc is one of the gods with easily recognizable features in Aztec mythology. This god has a magnificent statue carved into stone in the eighth century, seven meters tall and weighing 168 tons, displayed at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. One of Tlaloc’s distinguishing features is the rattlesnake body, which circles around its mouth and wraps around the sides of its nose, with its pointed, venomous fangs protruding from the statue’s mouth. Half bodies and heads of intertwined snakes also have their place in the eye part of the figure. The lightning bolt in the sky is like a coiling snake, and this is why many American societies describe the rattlesnake as a sacred creature. It seems that the statue of Tlaloc in accordance with the real scales is different from the one-to-one sculpture idea that we have got used to carving into stone. It is understood that the artist wanted to imagine the Aztec God with a face outside of the molds and did not do this due to his technical inadequacy. If the products of these civilizations seem to us unimaginative and unnatural, the reason is hidden in the ideas they want to convey. The body of the holy serpent, representing the power of lightning, is quite suitable for the image of the rain god.
Primitive communities that produce works by using the symbolic features of animal figures, they kept this symbolism alive not only with sculptures, paintings or daily used items, but also with masks used in special ceremonies. The artist, who processed the physical features of certain mythological animals into masks, made the symbolic meanings of that animal even stronger. The person who uses these masks, which are owned by many tribes, feels himself transformed into an animal or acquired its characteristics. It can be thought that they live in a kind of dream world in which they can be both human and animal at the same time. Many masks made by primitive societies may have similar symbolic meanings, as well as unknown ones. It is not surprising that the mask symbolizing Tlaloc, the god of rain and storm, exhibited in the British Museum has the same symbolic features as the sculpture exhibited in Mexico.
Anyone who wears the serpent mask (Quetzalcoatl) of the god Tlaloc undoubtedly feels himself/herself empowered to influence the waters and vegetation that cover the earth behind the unique turquoise and blue mosaic stones. Anybody who looks into the eyes of the gigantic statue of the god Tlaloc does not just see the reliefs of the holy serpent. While the rattlesnake reminds of the lightning that appears in the sky on a rainy day, it also does not make you forget the storm. It has already taken the helpless servants in need of rain under the influence of the magic of images.
Author: Şura Şahin.
Translator: Evgheni Batu.
