How can Mixcoatl the Aztec deity be Tezcatlipoca the brother of Quetzalcoatl and also the father of Quetzalcoatl as some sources claim?

Answer 1

Aztec mythology frequently features deities who are symbolic representations of one another. When it is suggested that Tezcatlipoca "became" Mixcoatl to invent fire, the real message is that Tezcatlipoca, as one of the most powerful gods in the pantheon, needed to borrow the auspices or powers of a different god in order to do so since fire was outside his normal milieu. It's not that Tezcatlipoca and Mixcoatl are the same person as much as it's that Aztec myths are fluid about allowing the one to stand in for the other as necessary.

And by the same token, Tezcatlipoca being Quetzalcoatl's brother may not be meant to be taken literally, either. The two gods were in many ways polar opposites representing very different concepts and ideas; viewing them as twins might be a result of the fact that the things they represented were sort of twinned, like calling darkness and light or life and death twins.

Keep in mind also that the Aztec empire was by no means operating under a unified religion that was the same in all areas. It was a collection of different city states and ethnic groups united under Mexica rulership, and therefore the myths are different from area to area. Mixcoatl, in particular, went through a lot of different forms and versions as he was originally a major patron god of some of the local ethnic groups that were conquered by the Aztecs and only later became less important.

Basically, Aztec mythology is not simply linear like Greco-Roman or Celtic myth, so what look like contradictions are often just different ways of looking at the same gods and ideas.