In Aztec mythology, Mictlantecuhtli ("lord of Mictlan") is the god of the dead and King of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), the lowest section of the underworld.

 He is depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. His headdress is decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wears a necklace of human eyeballs. 

His wife is Mictecacihuatl, and together they dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan and rule over the dead. Mictlanteculhtli is associated with spiders, owls, bats, the eleventh hour, and the northern compass direction. 

The twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl stole the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlanteculhtli. The death god pursued, and although they escaped, they dropped the bones, which shattered and became the various races of mortals.