In different cultures around the world we find creation stories involving a series of Ages or Suns preceding our own era, often expressed in the form of epic poems and sagas. First, we shall look at the Leyenda de los Soles or Aztec Legend of the Suns. The clearest version is contained in the anonymous Anales de Cuauhtitlan, an important Nahuatl document written around 1558. The story of the Five Suns symbolizes the Aztec cosmogony accounting for the creation of the universe and the world in which the Aztecs lived at the time of the Spanish Conquest. But there are difficulties. The Aztec pantheon was vast and complex and deities revealed multiple personalities. The structure of the Nahuatl language differs significantly from English. Moreover, the ancient Aztecs had a very different world outlook from our own. Consequently, different translators sometimes produce readings of the same text that are so different one from another that the casual readers might think they were translations of different texts. The following summary is based on several of these interpretations.
The First Sun was called 4 Tiger. Presided over by the god Tezcatlipoca, it was destroyed when its giant inhabitants were eaten by jaguars. The Second Sun, 4 Wind, under the god Quetzalcoatl, was destroyed by hurricanes and the people turned into monkeys. The Third Sun, 4 Rain, under the god Tlaloc, was destroyed by a fiery rain and the people turned into turkeys, butterflies, and dogs. The Fourth Sun, 4 Water, under the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, was ended by flood and the people turned to fish.
After the destruction of the Fourth Sun it was necessary to rebuild the shattered universe. The Fifth Sun, 4 Movement, was presided over by the god Tonatiuh, the Sun God himself. This is the Sun or Age in which the Aztecs lived when the Spaniards came, an Age that was to be filled with earthquakes and hunger. But it was also the age of Quetzalcoatl and the ascendency of the Aztec empire. There are various accounts of how the waters were dispersed, the earth restored, and the present universe created, mainly through the efforts of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca.
The Nahuatl epic Legend of the Suns is embodied in the famous Aztec Calendar Stone now on display in Mexico City. Aztec cosmogony and the identification of Time and Space are represented on the Sun Stone, as it is also known, through the association of colours, cardinal directions, and gods and animals according to the Tonalpohualli or Count of the Years. The central figure is Tonatiuh, the Sun. His protruding tongue indicates his need for human blood sacrifice. The first Four Ages are set in stone around the centre piece, the entire central image representing the Fifth Sun. The representation of the Ages surrounding the visage of Tonatiuh is more or less parallel with the written account in the Leyenda de los Soles.
Beginning in the upper lefthand corner facing outward from the Sun Stone is the First Sun, Oceletonatiuh, the Jaguar Sun, the earliest creation period. It was also the most remote age of giants who did not till the earth but foraged for food, until they were eaten by tigers. Next in order is the Second Sun, Ehecatonatiuh, the Winds Sun, in which the human race was in danger of being destroyed by hurricanes. In one version the gods transformed humans into apes so they could hold on better in a wind storm. This accounts for any similarity between men and apes (Darwin got it backwards). Following this comes the Third Sun, Quiauhtonatiuh, the Rain of Fire Sun, during which everything was consumed by the rain of lava and fire. Humans were saved by being turned into birds. Finally we come to the Fourth Sun, Atonatiuh, the Water Sun, when everything perished because of torrential rains and floods which reached the highest peaks of the mountains. The gods changed men into fish to save them.
In the Aztec Legend of the Suns the people are either destroyed or turned into animals in each of the Ages. The Aztecs believed that the Fifth Sun was also destined to be destroyed by earthquakes if they failed to provide sacrifices for the gods. Preservation of the present sun or universe was the main reason for human sacrifice on such a large scale. The Aztecs were convinced that if the gods were willing to sacrifice themselves humans should be prepared to do likewise.
I once attended a course in anthropology at the National University in Mexico City. On a field trip with our lecturer, Professor Margain, to the pyramids at Teotihuacan we students sat in the Ciudadela, the Great Square, facing the very sacrificial altar on which the invalid god Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself in the flames so that the sun might begin to move. The complete story of the Fifth Sun has yet to be told, for it is the present sun in which we ourselves now live.
