K. Dickson
Comparative Mythology: Mesoamerica
Synopsis of Aztec/Nahuat Cosmogonies

1. Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas

The self-created Ometeotl (Two God), in the form of Ometecuhtli/Tonacatecuhtli (Lord of Duality/Lord of Our Sustenance) and Omecihuatl/Tonacacihuatl (Lady of Duality/Lady of Our Sustenance), live in the 13th heaven and create four sons: Red Tezcatlipoca, Black Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl-Ehecatl, and Yellow (or Blue) Tezcatlipoca.

Six hundred years later, Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli create fire, half-sun, the first humans (Uxumuco and Cipactonal), days and months, Miclantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl (Lord and Lady of the Underworld), heavens 1-12, the crocodilian monster Cipactli (from which they make the earth), and the god (Tlaloc) and goddess (Chalchiutlicue) of rain.
Uxumuco and Cipactonal give birth to peasant workers (macehuales), and then Piltzintecutli. The gods create a woman for him out of the hairs of Xochiquetzal (Flower Plume).
Tezcatlipoca turns himself into the First Sun (Nahui Ocelotl = Jaguar Sun). The gods create a race of giants who eat acorns.
After 676 years, Quetzalcoatl throws Tezcatlipoca into the water; the latter turns into a jaguar and devours the giants. Quetzalcoatl becomes the Second Sun (Nahui Ehecatl = Wind Sun) for 676 years, during which time macehuales subsist on pinon nuts, until Tezcatlipoca ousts him and blows everyone away except for a few macehuales who are turned into monkeys.
Tlaloc becomes the Third Sun (Nahui Quiahuitl = Rain Sun) for 364 years. The macehuales eat a seed called acicintli (= water lily?). Macehuales are transformed into turkeys, butterflies, and dogs.
Quetzalcoatl sends a rain of fire to oust Tlaloc, and Tlaloc's wife Chalchiutlicue (Jade Skirt Woman) becomes the Fourth Sun (Nahui Atl = Water Sun) for the next 312 years. The macehuales eat a cornlike kernel called cincocopi.
A torrential rain causes the sun to collapse and the heavens to fall, and a flood turns the macehuales into fish. Tata and Nene weather the flood inside a hollow log, on the advice of Tezcatlipoca. Following his instructions, they eat only one ear of maize each until the flood waters recede. Tata and Nene create the fire drill and cook some of the fish that were once fellow macehuales. When the star gods complain about the smoke, Tezcatlipoca turns Tata and Nene into dogs by putting their heads on their rear ends.
Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca turn themselves into trees, and together with the other gods and four men they create, they raise the sky. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca are made lords of the sky and stars.
In another version, they turn themselves into serpents and together split the monster Cipactli in half, forming the sky from her upper and the earth from her lower half. In the course of the struggle, Tezcatlipoca's foot (or leg) is bitten off. Angered, the other gods degree that all things necessary for human life will come from Cipactli: trees, flowers, herbs from her hair; grass and small flowers from her skin; well, springs, caverns from her eyes; rivers and caves from her mouth; valleys from her nose; mountains from her shoulders. Cipactli then refuses to bring forth fruit unless fed with blood and human hearts.
Tezcatlipoca changes his name to Mixcoatl (Cloud Snake) and teaches men to make fire from flint.
Piltzintecutli and his wife give birth to Cinteotl (Maize).
Quetzalcoatl descends to the Underworld to retrieve the bones of those who lived under the Fourth Sun. [SEE 2. Leyenda de los Soles]
The gods recreate the original macehuales.
In year 14 after the Flood, the gods wage war to collect hearts and blood to feed a new sun they plan to create; humans are also created to be the new food.
In year 26, the gods draw blood from themselves. Quetzalcoatl throws his son into a fire, from which he emerges as the Fifth Sun (Nahui Olin = Movement/Earthquake Sun). Tlalocatecutli throws his son in afterwards; he emerges as the moon. The present age will be destroyed by great earthquakes.

2. Leyenda de los Soles

The first four suns:
 

NAME  DURATION FOOD DESTRUCTION TRANSFORMATION
4 Jaguar 676 years grass  eaten by jaguars annihilated
4 Wind 364 years serpent swept away by wind monkeys
4 Rain 312 years flint destroyed by rain of fire turkeys
4 Water 676 years flower drowned by flood fish

Tezcatlipoca shuts the first human pair inside a log and sets it adrift to weather the Flood. Having eaten all their food, the couple later catch and cook a fish. By way of punishment, Tezcatlipoca turns them into dogs; they later die, and their jade bones go to the underworld (Mictlan).

Quetzalcoatl descends into Mictlan along with his canine spirit-double (nahual) Xolotl to recover their bones in order to repopulate the earth. The Lord of Mictlan requires him first to blow a conch that has no holes, but Quetzalcoatl gets worms to bore holes in it and bees to fill it with sound. He then attempts to escape with the bones, but falls into a pit dug by messengers of the Lord of Mictlan, and the bones are smashed and scattered. He returns with them to Tamoanchan, where the goddess Cihuacoatl (Woman Snake) grinds them in a bowl as Quetzalcoatl bleeds his penis into it. New humans are thus created.

The gods deliberate what the new humans will eat. Quetzalcoatl disguises himself as a black ant and follows a red ant to the Mountain of Food (Tonacatepetl). They carry back corn for the gods and humans. Tlaloc and the other gods of rain (=Tlaloque) later destroy the mountain and make off with the food it contains.
[VARIANT 1: Quetzalcoatl fails, but Nanahuatl (=Nanahuatzin) succeeds in carrying the mountain back.]
[VARIANT 2: The gods descend into the cave of Piltzintecuhtli and  his wife Xochiquetzal, where their child Centeotl is buried. From his hair springs cotton; from his ears, several plants; from his nose, chia; from his fingers, sweet potato; from his nails, a variety of maize; from the rest of his body, many other food plants.]
Quetzalcoatl steals the woman Mayahuel from her grandmother. Pursued by her monster guardians, the tzitzimime, they disguise themselves as branches, but the tzitzimime recognize Mayahuel and tear her to pieces. Quetzalcoatl buries her bones, and from the grave springs the maguey plant, from which pulque (Nahuatl octli) is made.
Twenty-six years after the creation of the earth, Nanahuatl (=Nanahuatzin) sacrifices himself in fire to arise as the Fifth Sun (4 Motion). Jaguar, hawk, and wolf are scorched in the fire. He is followed by another god (= Tecuciztecatl) who becomes the moon. Nanahuatl demands blood sacrifice before he will move in the sky. The remaining gods sacrifice themselves at Teotihuacan, and from their remains are made the sacred bundles (tlaquimilolli) used in Aztec ritual.

3. Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana (= Florentine Codex)
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The gods meet at Teotihuacan to discuss the creation of a sun [=the Fifth Sun, 4 Motion]. Tecuciztecatl (Lord of Snails) and Nanauatzin (Pimply One) offer to sacrifice themselves in the fire of a hearth (teotexcalli). Tecuciztecatl is rich and arrogant; Nanauatzin, poor and humble. Tecuciztecatl's courage fails him, and Nanauatzin instead casts himself first into the fire, rising later as the sun. In second order, Tecuciztecatl becomes the moon.

An eagle (quauhtli) and ocelot (ocelotl) pass through the fire next, singeing themselves, and giving rise to the term quauhtlocelotl, used with reference to a warrior.
The other gods await the first appearance of the sun and moon, uncertain where it will arise. Among others, Quetzalcoatl (Plumed Serpent) and Ehecatl (Wind) both look to the east.
The sun and moon both rise there with equally blinding light. A god throws a rabbit into the moon's face, thereby dimming it.
The gods agree to be sacrificed to impart movement to the motionless sun and moon, entrusting Ehecatl to slay them. Xolotl (Double) flees, and hides first as a stalk of twinned maize (xolotl), then a double maguey plant (mexolotl), then a salamander (axolotl), before he is caught and killed.
Ehecatl blows wind to set first the sun in motion and then, after the sun has set, the moon. 
The age of the Fifth Sun (Nahui Ollin = 4 Motion) begins. It will end after 701 years, in the year 2012 CE, when the world will be destroyed by earthquake.