Aztec PantheonUnderworld
Mictlan
The nine-level underworld of Aztec mythology, a perilous four-year journey for the souls of the dead to reach Mictlantecuhtli.
About Mictlan
Nine levels down
Mictlan is the underworld of Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl. Most dead travel a four-year road of mountains, winds, and a river the dog Xolotl helps them cross. Sahagun records the dangers; the Leyenda de los Soles has Quetzalcoatl descend for bones to make this age's humans. Those who die in war, in childbirth, or by water go elsewhere (sun, Tlalocan). Mictlan is default, not a moral hell. No surviving liturgy maps all nine floors in one tidy list.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Florentine Codex, Book 3 (Sahagun)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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