Ehecatl

Ehecatl (in standardized Classical Nahuatl, Ehēcatl, meaning “Wind” or “Life-Giving Breath,” and often venerated as Ehēcatl-Quetzalcōātl) is the primordial Mesoamerican deity of the wind, of moving air, and of vivifying cosmic breath. As the indispensable herald of the fertilizing rains, Ehecatl was charged with sweeping the roads of the earth and the sky with his strong gusts to open the way for the rain deities, the Tlaloque. In the cosmogonic myth of Teotihuacan on the birth of the Fifth Sun, recorded in Book 7 of the Florentine Codex, the newborn Sun Tonatiuh and the Moon remained paralyzed in the firmament without beginning their celestial path. Ehecatl carried out the sacrifice of his divine siblings, gathered all their animating power into his lungs, and blew with infinite vigor over the eastern horizon to break the inertia of the heavenly bodies and set off the cycle of time, of the seasons, and of mortal life. Master of music and of primordial love, he carried out the mythical descent of the maiden Mayahuel from the starry realms, an event that gave rise to the sacred maguey plant. His shrines had perfectly cylindrical architecture so that the winds could turn without obstacles, as shown by the circular temples of Calixtlahuaca and Tlatelolco.

7 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

Red beak-shaped mouth mask, conical cap, spiral shell jewel, curved ear ornaments

Primary sources

• Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (Nahua Academic Collaborators of Santa Cruz), Codex Florentinus: Books 1 and 7 (Doctrine of the winds, Teotihuacan and the course of the stars). translation: Critical edition by A. J. O. Anderson and C. E. Dibble (Monographs of the School of American Research, Santa Fe, 1970-1982). read
• Nahua Oral Tradition / André Thevet, Histoyre du Mechique (Chapter VI: The cosmic adventures of Ehécatl and the virgin Mayahuel). translation: Edition by Édouard de Jonghe (Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, new series, vol. II, 1905). read
• Tlacuilo painters of the Central Highlands, Codex Borgia (Plates 19, 29 and 35: Ehécatl's attire and insignia). translation: Iconographic commentaries by Eduard Seler (Fondo de Cultura Económica, facsimile reissue, Mexico, 1980). read
• Indigenous painters of the Colegio de Santa Cruz, Codex Telleriano-Remensis (Folios 8v-9r: the sign of Ehécatl and the ritual trecenas). translation: Critical study and reproduction by Eloise Quiñones Keber (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995). read

Studies

• Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (INAH / Templo Mayor Museum), Arquitectura para Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl (Study of circular temples in Central Mexico). Arqueología Mexicana, special issue no. 152, Editorial Raíces, Mexico City, 2020. open
• Alfredo López Austin (IIH-UNAM), Cuerpo humano e ideología: Las concepciones de los antiguos nahuas (analysis of the concept of ihiyotl and cosmic breath). Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, UNAM, Mexico, 1980. open
• Karl Taube (Specialist in Mesoamerican Iconography and Religion), Aztec and Maya Myths (The role of the breath of life in creation mythology). The British Museum Press in cooperation with University of Texas Press, 1993. open
• H. B. Nicholson (Scholar of Mesoamerican Ethnohistory), Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs (The wind symbolism). University Press of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 2001. open