Editing Mictlāntēcutli (section)

==Attributes==
{{CSS image crop|Image=Codex Borgia page 73.jpg|bSize=450|cWidth=220|cHeight=300|oTop=60|oLeft=170|Description=Mictlantecutli in the Codex Borgia.|Location=left}}[[File:Mictlantecutli.ogg|thumb|Mictlantecutli]]Mictlantecuhtli was considered {{convert|6|feet|m}} tall and was depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull.<ref name="Miller">Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.113.</ref> Although his head was typically a skull, his eye sockets did contain eyeballs.<ref name="MatosMoctezuma_b">Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.206.</ref> His headdress was shown decorated with owl feathers and paper banners and he wore a necklace of human eyeballs,<ref name="Miller" /> while his [[earspool]]s were made from human bones.<ref name="Fernandez">Fernández 1992, 1996, p.142.</ref>

He was not the only Aztec god to be depicted in this fashion, as numerous other deities had skulls for heads or else wore clothing or decorations that incorporated bones and skulls. In the Aztec world, skeletal imagery was a symbol of fertility, health and abundance, alluding to the close symbolic links between life and death.<ref>Smith 1996, 2003, p.206.</ref> He was often depicted wearing sandals as a symbol of his high rank as Lord of Mictlan.<ref name="MatosMoctezuma">Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.434.</ref> His arms were frequently depicted raised in an aggressive gesture, showing that he was ready to tear apart the dead as they entered his presence.<ref name="MatosMoctezuma" /> In the [[Aztec codices]], Mictlantecuhtli is often depicted with his skeletal jaw open to receive the stars that descend into him during the daytime.<ref name="Fernandez"/>

His wife was [[Mictecacihuatl]],<ref name="Miller"/> and together they were said to dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan. Mictlantecuhtli was associated with [[spider]]s,<ref name="Fernandez"/> [[owl]]s,<ref name="Fernandez"/> [[bat]]s,<ref name="Fernandez"/> the 11th hour, and the northern compass direction, known as Mictlampa, the region of death.<ref>Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, pp.54, 458.</ref> He was one of only a few deities held to govern over all three types of souls identified by the Aztecs, who distinguished between the souls of people who died normal deaths (of old age, disease, etc.), heroic deaths (e.g. in battle, sacrifice or during childbirth), or non-heroic deaths. Mictlantecuhtli and his wife were the opposites and complements of [[Ometecuhtli]] and [[Omecihuatl]], the givers of life.<ref name="MatosMoctezuma_a">Matos Moctezuma & Solis Olguín 2002, p.458.</ref>

Mictlantecuhtli was the god of the day sign ''Itzcuintli'' ([[Dogs in Mesoamerican folklore and myth|dog]]),<ref name="Miller"/> one of the 20 such signs recognised in the [[Aztec calendar]], and was regarded as supplying the souls of those who were born on that day. He was seen as the source of souls for those born on the sixth day of the [[Trecena|13-day week]] and was the fifth of the nine [[Lords of the Night|Night Gods of the Aztecs]]. He was also the secondary Week God for the 10th week of the [[Tonalamatl|20-week cycle of the calendar]], joining the sun god [[Tonatiuh]] to symbolise the dichotomy of light and darkness.{{Citation needed|date=October 2008}}

In the Colonial [[Codex Vaticanus 3738]], Mictlantecuhtli is labelled in Spanish as "the lord of the underworld, [[Tzitzimitl]].<ref>Klein 2000, pp.3–4.</ref>