Xochiquetzal: Definition from Answers.com

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Xochiquetzal, from the Codex Rios, 16th century.

In Aztec mythology, Xochiquetzal (Nahuatl pronunciation: [ʃotʃiˈketsaɬ]) was a goddess associated with concepts of fertility, beauty, and female sexual power, serving as a protector of young mothers and a patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and the crafts practised by women such as weaving and embroidery. Unlike several other figures in the complex of Aztec female earth deities connected with agricultural and sexual fecundity, Xochiquetzal is always depicted as an alluring and youthful woman, richly attired and symbolically associated with vegetation and in particular flowers. By connotation, Xochiquetzal is also representative of human desire, pleasure, and excess, appearing also as patroness of prostitutes and artisans involved in the manufacture of luxury items.^[1]

She was followed by a retinue consisting of birds and butterflies. Worshippers wore animal and flower masks at a festival, held in her honor every eight years.

Her twin was Xochipilli and her husband was Tlaloc, until Tezcatlipoca kidnapped her and she was forced to marry him. At one point, she was also married to Centeotl and Ixotecuhtli. By Mixcoatl, she was the mother of Quetzalcoatl.

Anthropologist Hugo Nutini identifies her with the Virgin of Ocotlan in his article on patron saints in Tlaxcala.^[2]

In pre-Hispanic Maya culture, a similar figure is Goddess I.

Notes

^ Clendinnen (1991, p.163); Miller & Taube (1993, p.190); Smith (2003, p.203)
^ Nutini (1976), passim.

References

Bierhorst, John (1985). A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos: With an Analytic Transcription and Grammatical Notes. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1183-6. OCLC 11185890.

Clendinnen, Inga (1991). Aztecs: An Interpretation. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-40093-7. OCLC 22451031.

Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317.

Nutini, Hugo G. (1976). "Syncretism and Acculturation: The Historical Development of the Cult of the Patron Saint in Tlaxcala, Mexico (1519-1670)". Ethnology (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh) 15 (3): 301–321. ISSN 0014-1828. OCLC 1568323.

Smith, Michael E. (2003). The Aztecs (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23015-7. OCLC 48579073.

Wimmer, Alexis (2006). "Dictionnaire de la langue nahuatl classique" (online version, incorporating reproductions from Dictionnaire de la langue nahuatl ou mexicaine [1885], by Rémi Siméon). http://sites.estvideo.net/malinal/nahuatl.page.html. (French) (Nahuatl)

External links

v • d • e Aztec religion and mythology

Aztec religion	Human sacrifice in Aztec culture · Templo Mayor

Aztec mythology	Centeotl · Chalchiuhtlicue · Cihuacoatl · Coatlicue · Coyolxauhqui · Ehecatl · Huehuecoyotl · Huehueteotl · Huitzilopochtli · Mictlantecuhtli · Mixcoatl · Quetzalcoatl · Tezcatlipoca · Tlaloc · Tlazolteotl · Toci · Tonatiuh · Xipe Totec · Xiuhcoatl · Xiuhtecuhtli · Xochipilli · Xochiquetzal · Xolotl ·

Places in Aztec myth	Aztlán · Mictlan · Tlalocan · Tamoanchan · Tlillan-Tlapallan

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