Storm god vessel

This small soapstone vessel represents the Teotihuacan Storm God, a major figure in the Teotihuacan pantheon. The body and attributes of the god have been compressed to conform to the shape of the vessel – round on the bottom and flared at the top. Only the elongated ears, which could have served as handles, and the curled lip and prominent fangs that identify the figure as the Storm God project in high relief from the vessel shape. This suggests that the figure may be a human impersonator of the god, wearing a mask bearing his attributes. This is often the case with Zapotec ceramic effigy vessels representing the lightening god Cocijo, found often in the graves of the Oaxacan site of Monte Alban (see MMA 2014.632.2). In Teotihuacan art priests or military figures are sometimes depicted as Storm God impersonators. In Teotihuacan sculpture and painting the bulging, goggled eyes, curled lip and fangs of The Storm God also appear in glyph-like combinations, independent of a figure (see MMA 1980.418).

The Storm God is frequently depicted holding a lightning bolt and symbols associating him with water and agricultural fertility. The weapons he holds here – a bundle of darts in his left hand and a scepter or weapon in his right - emphasize the deity’s military aspect. In ancient Mesoamerica, gods of rain and storms had close associations with warfare and rulership, and were often depicted with weapons, symbolizing their power to wield damaging lighting and thunder.

Several Storm God vessels, most ceramic, have been discovered in burials and offerings below the major pyramids of Teotihuacan, and images of the god are found in mural painting and almenas set along building rooflines (Robb, cat. 96), indicating the importance of the god in the Teotihuacan pantheon. In more than one mural the Storm God, or a priest impersonating the deity, is shown holding an effigy vessel like this one, suggesting their use in sacred rituals (Robb, cats. 20, 22).

Patricia J. Sarro, 2024

Further Reading

Berrin, Kathleen, and Esther Pasztory, eds. Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods. New York and San Francisco: Thames & Hudson Inc., 1993.

Carballo, David M. "Effigy Vessels, Religious Integration, and the Origins of the Central Mexican Pantheon." Ancient Mesoamerica vol. 18, no. 1 (Spring 2007), pp. 53–67.

Carballo, David M., Kenneth G. Hirth, and Bárbara Arroyo. Teotihuacan: The World Beyond the City. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2020.

Coe, Michael D., and Emile Deletaille. Rediscovered Masterpieces of Mesoamerica: Mexico-Guatemala-Honduras. Boulogne, France, 1985, p. 121, pl. 159.

Headrick, Annabeth. The Teotihuacan Trinity: The Sociopolitical Structure of an Ancient Mesoamerican City. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.

Manzanilla, Linda R. "Cooperation and tensions in multiethnic corporate societies using Teotihuacan, Central Mexico, as a case study." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 112, no. 30 (July 28, 2015), pp. 9210–9215.

Murakami, Tatsuya. "Entangled Political Strategies: Rulership, Bureaucracy, and Intermediate." In Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, edited by Sarah Kurnick, and Joanne Baron. Louisville, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2016, pp. 153–179.

Nielson, Jesper, and Chrisophe Helmke. "The Storm God: Lord of Rain and Ravage." In Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire, edited by Matthew Robb. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017.

Pasztory, Esther. The Iconography of the Teotihuacan Tlaloc. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology 15. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks. Trustees for Harvard University, 1974.

Pasztory, Esther. Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

Robb, Matthew, ed. Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire. San Francisco: de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2017.

Sugiyama, Saburo. Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership: Materialization of State Ideology at the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Taube, Karl A. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Colt of Sacred War at Teotihuacan. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 21, pp. 53-87, Spring, 1992.