Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Deity

Lord One Deer and Lady One Deer

Mixtec Deities
Lord and Lady One Deer Mountain Palace

Lord One Deer and Lady One Deer are the primordial creator couple of Mixtec mythology, appearing at the very beginning of the creation narrative recorded in Mixtec codices such as the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I, also called the Codex Yuta Tnoho. Lord One Deer, also called Lion Serpent, and Lady One Deer, also called Jaguar Serpent, are said to have appeared already in human form, wise and possessed of great power, and to have raised a great rock into a mountain near the town of Apoala on which they built a palace. From this seat the primordial couple set in motion the separation of sky from earth and light from darkness, a divine duality paralleled among the Aztec by the creator pair Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl.

Facts
Attestation
Veneration Today
Historically attested; no continuous cult 2
Historicity
Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1
Function
Domain / Function
Primordial being 1
Identity
Gender
Dual 2
Belief
Theology
Polytheistic: many gods 1
Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
Mary Miller and Karl Taube, Thames and Hudson
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