Who is Opochtli?

Luther College's competition is named for Opochtli, the Aztec 'patron saint' of atlatls. Opochtli, also known as 'the Left Handed One' or 'He Who Divides the Waters', was the god of those who made their living in the lakes and marshes of the Valley of Mexico, particularly the southern part of the basin. As such, he is credited with the invention of items associated with fishing and hunting waterfowl, in particular the atlatl and harpoon.

Opochtli can be identified through several aspects of his attire, particularly his distinctive shield. According to the description of him included in Sahagun's Historia de Nueva Espaņa "in his left hand he held a shield painted red, and in the center of the red field there was a white flower with four leaves which formed a cross, and from these leaves projected again four points which also were leaves (petals) of the same flower." Aztec scholar Zelia Nuttal has interpreted the object held in his other hand as an atlatl. The depiction of Opochtli is from the post-conquest Florentine Codex.


Opochtli, Atlahua, Amimtil Opochtli, like many Aztec deities, also appeared in other forms or transfigurations. Specifically his two alter egos were Amimitl and Atlahua, who are essentially representations of the two weapons principally associated with him. The name Amimitl literally translates as "water-arrow" or "harpoon"; Atlahua glosses as "Lord of the Atlatl." The images on the left of these three are from Sahagun's Primeros Memoriales.

 

Minacachalli depicted in Florentine Codex As noted above, Opochtli is intimately tied to hunting and fishing in the lakes and marshes of the Basin of Mexico. Along with the atlatl, he is credited with inventing the three-pronged spear, or minacachalli, shown here in a post-contact drawing from the Florentine Codex. This device was used both for procuring fish as well as waterfowl and was differentiated from the war spear known as a yaomitl. Both types of darts were commonly made from cane available along the lake and marsh margins. Apparently, one of the primary differences between the two was that the yaomitl was normally tipped with only a single obsidian, bone, or wood point.

 

Anthropologist Matthew Stirling documented the continued use of the minachachalli and the phatamu in 1944 for hunting waterfowl on Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacan, Mexico, as seen in the image on the right. The local Tarascans used 9 foot, unfletched darts tipped with three prongs of wire thrown from dugout canoes. Aside from the use of metal for the tips and the use of cane from introduced Arundo donax, the technology was identical to that depicted in colonial-era documents.

The information presented above has been derived from several sources:

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