Snake Asterism

The Mexica viewed the constellation known as Scorpius as a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake is an animal with sacred significance in Mexica mythology and culture and represents the thirteenth month in the Aztec calendrical system. According to the Aztec Calendar Stone, an Aztec cultural artifact preserved by Dominican Friar Diego Duran and several Aztec priests in 1597, the rattlesnake was honored by the Aztec priests, and they would bake a specific type of bread in the shape of a rattlesnake as a form of “communion”; this practice was known as “eating the god”.

Frog Asterism

The Aztec Calendar Stone was previously compiled in the Florentine Codex by Aztec elders on behalf of Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagún in 1558 with the intention to examine and study the cultural practices, cosmology, and history of the Mexica people. Both priests came across several asterisms that were represented by different animals that were culturally significant to the Mexica, but were generally known from the astronomical interpretation of the ancient Greeks. The constellation known as Gemini, also named by Ptolemy, is viewed as a frog in Aztec astronomy. The frog symbolizes the fifth month in the Aztec calendar, and is associated with the legend that the Mexica people experienced a devastating drought. They prayed for rain to save their crops, and in the following month their drought was alleviated by copious amounts of rainfall.

Further Reading

• Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli - A brief history of the Aztec deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli who represented the planet Venus (the Morning Star).
• The Tianquiztli Constellation - Discussion of the history and mythology behind the Aztec interpretation of the Pleiades known as Tianquiztli. 
• Tezcatlipoca: Aztec God of Night and Smoking Mirrors - Additional description of the deity Tezcatlipoca, Aztec god of night and sorcery, as well as the patron deity of Aztec kings and young warriors.