Tonatiuh, «The fifth sun», is one of the forty-five energies that rule the days, trecenas and veintenas of the Mexica calendar. The sun in movement — the present era of the world.

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

Why is the full entry on Tonatiuh only in Spanish?

Because the entry on Tonatiuh 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

Tonatiuh

The fifth sun

What it rules

The sun in movement — the present era of the world.

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 Tonatiuh. 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: la hoguera de Teotihuacan
El sol que no se mueve solo
Patrono de los guerreros
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, «Tonatiuh», The energies. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/energy/tonatiuh/

The name

Tonatiuh comes from tona («to make sun», «to give warmth») and the motion suffix tiuh — «the one who goes on being sun», or «the one who goes on his course». The name already holds the central idea: the sun is not a fixed object but a journey.