In this paper we construct a $\mathbb{Q}$-linear tannakian category $\mathsf{MEM}_{1}$ of universal mixed elliptic motives over the moduli space ${\mathcal{M}}_{1,1}$ of elliptic curves. It contains $\mathsf{MTM}$, the category of mixed Tate motives unramified over the integers. Each object of $\mathsf{MEM}_{1}$ is an object of $\mathsf{MTM}$ endowed with an action of $\text{SL}_{2}(\mathbb{Z})$ that is compatible with its structure. Universal mixed elliptic motives can be thought of as motivic local systems over ${\mathcal{M}}_{1,1}$ whose fiber over the tangential base point $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}q$ at the cusp is a mixed Tate motive. The basic structure of the tannakian fundamental group of $\mathsf{MEM}$ is determined and the lowest order terms of a set (conjecturally, a minimal generating set) of relations are deduced from computations of Brown. This set of relations includes the arithmetic relations, which describe the ‘infinitesimal Galois action’. We use the presentation to give a new and more conceptual proof of the Ihara–Takao congruences.

We show that the subcategory of mixed Tate motives in Voevodsky’s derived category of motives is not closed under infinite products. In fact, the infinite product $\prod _{n=1}^{\infty }\mathbf{Q}(0)$ is not mixed Tate. More generally, the inclusions of several subcategories of motives do not have left or right adjoints. The proofs use the failure of finite generation for Chow groups in various contexts. In the positive direction, we show that for any scheme of finite type over a field whose motive is mixed Tate, the Chow groups are finitely generated.

We describe a construction of an object associated to the fundamental group of ℙ1 − {0, 1, ∞} in the Bloch-Kriz category of mixed Tate motives. This description involves Massey products in the motivic cohomology of the ground field.

Fix a prime number [ell ]. We prove a conjecture stated by Ihara, which he attributes to Deligne, about the action of the absolute Galois group on the pro-[ell ] completion of the fundamental group of the thrice punctured projective line. Similar techniques are also used to prove part of a conjecture of Goncharov, also about the action of the absolute Galois group on the fundamental group of the thrice punctured projective line. The main technical tool is the weighted completion of a profinite group with respect to a reductive representation (and other appropriate data).