Topiltzin’s law: A mythological model of the protocol in the funeral rites of the lords of Anáhuac

"El protocolo de las exequias de los señores de Anáhuac obedecía a un modelo establecido por Quetzalcóatl y referido como 'Ley de Topiltzin'. El ritual y sus fases constitutivas tienen antecedentes históricos, pero lo esencial del aparato mortuorio se funda en una mitología que le confiere legitimidad. Quetzalcóatl define el protocolo ritual mediante una gesta parcialmente 'escenificada' en el contexto de las exequias de los gobernantes. Entre los mitos fundantes de la liturgia funeraria nahua, figura el relato 'Huida de Quetzalcóatl a Tlillan, Tlapallan'. El análisis de los textos que lo entrañan revela una isotopía narrativa en la que el rey-sacerdote tolteca, ya viejo, toma conciencia de que debe morir e ir a Tlillan Tlapallan." "The protocol of the funeral rites of the lords of Anahuac followed the example set by Quetzalcoatl known as 'Topiltzin’s law'. The ritual and its phases have an historic origin, but the essential part of its ceremonial apparatus is based on a mythology, which provides a legitimacy. Quetzalcoatl establishes the different stages of that protocol through a mythical gesta, partially acted out in the mortuary context of the rulers’ death. Among the different accounts which legitimated the funerary liturgy, figures the text known as 'Quetzalcoatl’s flight to Tlillan, Tlapallan'. A structural analysis of the texts will show how the Toltec priest-king, old and decrepit, takes conscience of the fact that he must die and go to Tlillan, Tlapallan."