Cōātlīcue

Etymology

The goddess' Classical Nahuatl name can be rendered both Cōātlīcue and Cōātl īcue, from cōātl "snake" and īcue "her skirt", roughly meaning "[she who has] the skirt of snakes". The name Tēteoh īnnān, from tēteoh, plural of teōtl "god", + īnnān "their mother", refers directly to her maternal role.

Myths

Coatlicue is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from pregnancy. Her face is formed by two facing serpents, which represent blood spurting from her neck after she was decapitated.

According to Aztec mythology, the goddess Coatlicue became miraculously pregnant when a ball of feathers fell on her while she was sweeping a temple—an event that symbolizes divine conception and cosmic destiny. She was to give birth to Huitzilopochtli, the future god of war and the sun. Interpreting this as dishonor, her daughter Coyolxauhqui, along with her 400 brothers, plotted to kill her. Just as the attack began, Huitzilopochtli emerged fully armed from his mother, defeated his siblings, and cast Coyolxauhqui into the sky, where she became the moon. This myth represents the triumph of cosmic order over chaos and the daily rebirth of the sun.

Cecelia Klein argues that the famous Coatlicue statue in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico, and several other complete and fragmentary versions, may represent a personified snake skirt. The reference is to one version of the creation of the present Sun. The myth relates that the present Sun began after the deities gathered at Teotihuacan and sacrificed themselves. The best-known version states that Tezzictecatl and Nanahuatzin immolated themselves, becoming the moon and the sun. However, other versions add a group of women to those who sacrificed themselves, including Coatlicue. Afterward, the Aztecs were said to have worshiped the skirts of these women, which came back to life. Coatlicue thus has creative aspects, which may balance the skulls, hearts, hands, and claws that connect her to the earth deity Tlaltecuhtli. The earth both consumes and regenerates life.

References

References

1. Susan D. Gillespie. (1989). "Los Reyes Aztecas: La Construcción del Gobierno en la Historia Mexica". Siglo XXI Editores.
2. Otilia Meza. (1981). "El Mundo Mágico de los Dioses del Anáhuac". Editorial Universo.
3. Cecilio A. Robelo. (1905). "Diccionario de Mitología Nahoa". Editorial Porrúa.
4. Guilhem Olivier. (2015). "Cacería, Sacrificio y Poder en Mesoamérica: Tras las Huellas de Mixcóatl, 'Serpiente de Nube'". Fondo de Cultura Económica.
5. [http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mythology-658/Aztec-gods-2.htm Mythology – Aztec gods] {{webarchive. link. (14 February 2009, Elise Nalbandian, [[AllExperts]], 13 February 2006)
6. Perez Amezcua, Luis Alberto. (2017-01-01). "Tecnopoïesis azteca: el mito de Coatlicue y la “nueva mexicanidad”". ICONO14.
7. Klein, Cecelia F.. (1 April 2008). "A New Interpretation of the Aztec Statue Called Coatlicue, "Snakes-Her-Skirt"". [[Ethnohistory (journal).