Teteo Inan, «Mother of the energies», is one of the forty-five energies that rule the days, trecenas and veintenas of the Mexica calendar. The origin of the energies, medicine and the temazcal — and the veintena of Ochpaniztli.

Why do you call Teteo Inan 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 Teteo Inan as to the other forty-four.

Why is the full entry on Teteo Inan only in Spanish?

Because the entry on Teteo Inan 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

Teteo Inan

Mother of the energies

What it rules

The origin of the energies, medicine and the temazcal — and the veintena of Ochpaniztli.

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 Teteo Inan. 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
Quiénes la buscaban
Ochpaniztli, el barrimiento
Las tres que no se le apartaban
De dónde viene su imagen

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

The name

The mother of the energies. The source also names her «heart of the earth» and «our grandmother» — Toci — and in the steam baths they called her Temazcalteci, «the grandmother of the baths».

The sources name her four ways: Teteo Inan, Tlalli Iyollo — «heart of the earth» — Toci — «our grandmother» — and Temazcaltecih, «the grandmother of the baths», because her image was set in the temazcales.

Where its image comes from

The images in this app are drawn for it, not traced. Below is what the sources say about her appearance, feature by feature. What they do not say is left blank: a declared gap is better than an invented feature.

How to cite this page

Alma Mexica, «Teteo Inan», The energies. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/energy/teteo-inan/