God of the twilight, the spirits, the twins, who helped the dead on their journey to Mictlán, lord of the evening star (Venus) and the underworld.
Xólotl was also the god of fire and bad luck. He was Quetzalcoatl’s twin, and the evil personification of Venus. Protects the Sun when traveling through the underworld at night. He also carried the human race forward and gave them the fire of wisdom. In art, he was depicted as a skeleton, a man with a dog’s head.
When the gods had to be sacrificed to set the Fifth Sun in motion, Xolotl hid himself so as not to be killed. First it became maize plant of two canes (xolotl); When he was discovered he ran again and hid in a magueyal, where he took the form of a double penca.
Once more the executioner found him but Xólotl escaped again by entering the water, where it was transformed into an amphibian called axolotl. This is its last metamorphosis. Finally, the executioner caught him and killed him. Xólotl is a god who hates death, who does not accept it and wants to escape from it by means of his transformation powers.
The name xoloitzcuintle (‘dog of Xólotl or ‘monstrous dog’) makes reference to Xolotl because, historically, one of the missions of this dog was to accompany the dead on their journey in eternity, just as the god was accompanying the journey of the Sun through the underworld.
“ The sun nailed to the sky’s center does not throb
life does not commence with out blood
without the embers of sacrifice
the wheel of days does not revolve
Xolotl refuses to consume himself
he hid himself in the corn but they found him
he hid himself in the maguey but they found him
he fell into the water and became the fish axolotl
‘and then they killed him’
Movement began, the world was set in motion
the procession of dates and names
Xolotl the dog, guide to the Underworld
he who dug up the bones of the fathers
he who cooked the bones in a pot
he who lit the fire of the years
the burst eye that weeps for us
other face of the Lord of Dawn
(Fragment of the poem 'Slamander’ by Octavio Paz)
