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Tlaloc

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The Aztec god of rain, fertility, and water, recognizable by his goggle-like eyes, fanged mouth, and association with both life and destructive storms.

Detailed Definition
Tlaloc controls storms, fertility, and water, demanding child sacrifices for abundant rains. He resides on mountaintops. In poetry, Tlaloc embodies the duality of nature—nurturing yet destructive—and appears in works on climate, sacrifice, and the sacredness of water in Mexican ecological and spiritual verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god with goggle eyes, pours through Mexican poetry as a symbol of life-giving yet fearsome power; In drought-stricken verse, poets chant to Tlaloc with offerings of corn; Poets use Tlaloc’s tears to frame both floods and famines as divine messages; In eco-poetry, Tlaloc’s waters choke on pollution; Some works contrast Tlaloc’s ancient reverence with modern water privatization; Contemporary poets invoke Tlaloc in rituals for ecological balance.
Additional Notes
Tlaloc is the Aztec (Mesoamerican) rain god—though not South American, rain deities like Illapa share functional parallels; appears in transnational Latin American poetry addressing water scarcity, agricultural dependence, or the politicization of natural forces.
Also Known As
Tláloc
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