Tláloc

Tláloc is the Aztec god of rain, water, and fertility. In Aztec religion, he controlled precipitation, storms, and underground waters, and was believed essential for agricultural cycles, especially maize. Tláloc was worshiped across the Mexica state and other Nahua communities as a powerful regulator of weather and life-sustaining moisture.

Iconography and associations typical of Tláloc include a blue-green complexion, goggle-like eyes, and fangs. He is often depicted with a headdress and sometimes holding a rain vessel or other symbols of water and rain. The god is linked with the Tlálocan, a paradisiacal realm of rain and vegetation, and with mountains and caves where rainwater is thought to originate.

Worship and ritual around Tláloc were centered in major temples within city centers, notably a prominent Tláloc temple at the north end of the Templo Mayor complex in Tenochtitlan, alongside the temple of Huitzilopochtli. Ceremonies during the rainy season and times of agricultural need included offerings of maize, fruit, and other goods; in drought periods, some accounts note that more extensive sacrifices were performed to appease or appease the deity and secure rain.

In myth and ritual, Tláloc is often associated with Chalchiuhtlicue, the goddess of rivers, lakes, and seas, highlighting a broader water-related divine pair within the Nahua cosmology. The name Tláloc is typically translated as “the rain god” or “the one who makes it rain,” reflecting his central role in weather, rainfall, and agricultural life.

Tláloc remains a significant figure in the study of Aztec religion, appearing in art, sculpture, and codices, and continuing to be referenced in discussions of Mesoamerican concepts of rain, water, and fertility.