The omens of the Encounter
What it covers
The eight omens the sources record as preceding the arrival of the Spanish, and the argument over when they were written down.
The full entry is in Spanish, and here is why
What you have read above is this project's own summary of the omens of the encounter. 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:
- Qué son estos relatos
- 1 · La llama en el cielo
- 2 · El templo que ardió solo
- 3 · El rayo sobre Tzummulco
- 4 · El cometa de tres cabezas, a pleno día
- 5 · El agua que hirvió sin viento
- 6 · La mujer que lloraba de noche
- 7 · El ave con un espejo en la cabeza
- 8 · Los cuerpos monstruosos
Read the full entry in the original Spanish → Nahuatl names and terms are identical in both versions.
How to cite this page
Alma Mexica, «The omens of the Encounter», The legends. Revised 2026-09-17. https://almamexica.org/en/legend/los-presagios-del-encuentro/