About the word "teotl" and Ometeotl

[ANTHONY APPLEYARD]

--- Ramiro Medrano <Ramiro_Medrano at csumb.edu> wrote:
> I have read how many scholars believe the word "teotl" translates to
> "god," but I am not sure from where they take this belief. Maybe from
> the Spanish friars who were translating codices and such? 

> I have heard other scholars mention that teotl translates to either
> "cosmic energy" (no to be confused with "tonalli," which has more of
> a direct connection to "sun" or "day" energy) or "divine energy."

> But, if, for example, both "Ometeotl" and
> "Tezcatlipoca" are "gods", why don't they both have the -teotl
> suffix? 

Very many men have names which do not end in "-man".

> It is well known that "Ometeotl" was *the* creator of the Mexica. I
> am confused how there can be other "gods" if everything else was a
> representation of Ometeotl.

It is similar in Hinduism. Some say that all of their gods are aspects
of one god, but others talk of separate gods.

It is similar in Christianity with "3 or 1?": God and Jesus and the
Holy Spirit: the mystery of the Trinity.

> In other words, Ometeotl encompassed every existing thing in this
> universe, right?

In Hinduism it is smewhat similar with some beliefs about Brahma or the
Brahman or Parabrahman: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism

Without me getting any further sidetracked into religious mysticism, it
seems clear to me that [teotl] = "a god", and was used by the
Christians to mean "God".

Citlalyani.

_______________________________________________
Nahuatl mailing list
Nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/nahuatl