Mayáhuel, «She of the four hundred breasts», is one of the forty-five energies that rule the days, trecenas and veintenas of the Mexica calendar. The maguey and pulque — sap turned into ritual drink.

Why do you call Mayáhuel an energy and not a god?

Because «god» translates badly. The Mexica did not separate the deity from the force it stands for as the European word does. «Energy» is not perfect either, but it does not carry that freight. It is a decision of this site, declared as one — and it applies to Mayáhuel as to the other forty-four.

Why is the full entry on Mayáhuel only in Spanish?

Because the entry on Mayáhuel quotes Sahagún, Durán and the codices in their own sixteenth-century words. A quotation carried across stops being a quotation. The Spanish entry is linked from this page.

The energies

One of the forty-five energies

Mayáhuel

She of the four hundred breasts

What it rules

The maguey and pulque — sap turned into ritual drink.

Why «energy» and not «god»

Because «god» translates badly. The Mexica did not separate the deity from the force it stands for in the way the European word does, and calling them gods imports an idea that is not theirs. «Energy» is not perfect either, but it does not carry that freight. It is a decision of this site, and it is declared as one.

The full entry is in Spanish, and here is why

What you have read above is this project's own summary of Mayáhuel. The full entry — the part that rests on the sixteenth-century sources — has not been translated, and that is a decision rather than an omission.

We chose not to touch the primary text. Those sections quote Sahagún, Durán and the codices in their own words, often in sixteenth-century Castilian. A quotation carried across stops being a quotation: it loses the register, the ambiguity and the exact wording someone might want to check against a facsimile.

In Spanish the entry carries:

El nombre
El origen del maguey
Su pareja: Patécatl
De dónde viene su imagen

Read the full entry in the original Spanish → Nahuatl names and terms are identical in both versions.

How to cite this page

Alma Mexica, «Mayáhuel», The energies. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/energy/mayahuel/

The name

Mayahuel is made of metl (maguey) and yahualli (round) — «what surrounds the maguey». She was shown emerging from the plant itself, sometimes with many breasts, in reference to the countless leaves of the maguey and to everything it gives.