XOCHIQUETZAL = “FLOWER FEATHER”

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 9: Here the goddess is represented as wearing an upper garment of diversified pattern, finished with a variegated edging. Her shawl is painted in the chalchihuitl colours, and from it depend two strings or ribbons of a dark shade, completed with a flower. Her nose-plate is blue and is formed rather after the fashion of the butterfly design, while her helmet-mask represents a quetzal-bird. In sheet 58 she is vis-à-vis with the Death-god and is garbed like an earth-deity with a many-coloured robe. Her hair is dressed like that of the Zapotec women, that is, two tresses are twisted up like horns and secured with parti-coloured bands. On the same sheet (next picture) she confronts one of her servitors or priests (tlamacazque), and her garments in this place are very similar to those already described. In the next illustration the only addition to her costume is a wreath of flowers, but under her arm she holds a quetzal-bird and sits opposite a red Tezcatlipocâ. On sheet 59 she is represented in the first place opposite the tlamacazque, [[188]]and in the following picture confronts a naked prostitute. Between these figures is her servitor, surprised in the act of pressing the courtesan’s breasts. This female is characterized by her wearing of Xochiquetzal’s shawl, hair-dressing, and the hieroglyph of the warrior caste (shield and spears) shown above her head. In the lowest row of the same sheet the goddess is seen opposite the Vulture-god, Tlacacozcaquauhtli. In the following sheets of the codex her aspect and garb are practically similar to those described above, with the exception of sheet 60, where she appears in the act of parturition, with the double head and certain of the insignia of Quaxolotl, being delivered by Quetzalcoatl in the character of Xolotl. In the region of her mouth is an angular line of red.

XOCHIQUETZAL AND HER SYMBOLS.

(Codex Borbonicus, sheet 19.)

Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 42: Here Xochiquetzal is adorned by a wreath of flowers and faces her servant. On sheet 41 we observe that her cheek is painted with a round red spot, like that of the Sun-god, whilst her head is adorned with quetzal-feathers, and the quetzal-bird is held under her arm. She is ensconced on a jaguar skin, and on her head is the wreath of flowers with two feather tufts, which is especially characteristic of her. On her face is depicted a red, angular line. Opposite is the figure of her priest, and between them is a headless woman, whose head is replaced by a flowering tree. On sheet 39 she is shown as wearing a quetzal-bird mask and a blue, step-shaped nose-plate, while her face-paint is elaborately executed. In this picture is seen issuing from her body a quetzal-feather ornament, symbolic of a newly-born child. In one hand she holds a jewelled ornament, and in the other an ear of maize, and she wears the opossum wristlets applied to women in travail. Her new-born twins are seated beside her. In another part of this codex she is represented as facing various male deities in characteristic positions, which are evidently more typical of her personality than any insignia.

Codex Laud.—Sheet 38: She is here represented facing the tlamacazque in a kneeling attitude, with her hair dressed in a peculiar manner. Sheet 35 shows her similarly represented [[189]]to her picture in Codex Vaticanus B, sheet 39. Her twins are seated one on the instep curve of each foot.

Pottery Figures.—Various pottery figures of the goddess found in the Valley of Mexico are to be seen in the Uhde Collection, Berlin. In one of these she is represented holding an infant, and her general attire agrees with the manuscript representations of her. Her hair is dressed in the Zapotec style, rising up in two horns and secured with plaited bands. The shawl or tippet with a V-shape in front is a constant factor, and in one example is scalloped, in another plain, while in the third it ends in the chalchihuitl ornament and a bead or ball-fringing. In the Seler collection is a curious little statuette from Cholula, in which the goddess is again represented as carrying a child. She wears a flat cap, almost like that of a cook or chef, the precise significance of which escapes me, unless it be a local headdress, as some other examples in the same collection would seem to prove. In a relief found at Zanja de la Piedra Labrada, near Castillo de Teayo, she is represented opposite Tlaloc, as if to show her connection with rain. Her headdress in this place would seem to be a compromise between the Zapotec hairdressing and a motif representative of florescence. She wears the same V-shaped tippet, which is here adorned with three tassels, and she has the stepped nose-ornament. In her right hand she carries a sceptre of water-rushes, the same as that held by Tlaloc, and in her left the staff commonly seen in the representation of gods in the Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio), and which seems to me to be a development of the chicaunaztli, or rain-rattle.

Xochiquetzal and Tonatiuh.

(From a wall-painting at Mitla.)

Stone figure of Xochiquetzal.

(Uhde Collection.)

FORMS OF XOCHIQUETZAL.

MYTHS

Perhaps the most important of these is that found in the Sahagun collection of songs or hymns (the ninth item):

Out of the land of the rain and the mist

I, Xochiquetzal, come.

Out of Tamoanchan.

The pious Piltzintecutli weeps;

He seeks Xochiquetzal.

To the land of corruption I must go.

[[190]]

The goddess here declares that, like other fertility goddesses, she comes from the fruitful supernatural country of Tamaonchan, the home of the maize. Piltzintecutli, the Sun-god, seeks her, but, like Ishtar in Babylonian myth, she must betake herself to the Underworld, until it is once more time to resume her growth-assisting labours. We have here good grounds for positing the existence of a popular myth which would seem to have recounted how the divine lovers dwelt happily in Tamoanchan until Xochiquetzal was forced to quit the blest abode or was carried off, and was sought for by the Sun-god, a myth like that of Proserpine or Orpheus. It may refer to the sun seeking the flower, or may have a bearing upon the myth of Ixnextli, a variant of Xochiquetzal, who was expelled from Paradise, and of whom the interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A says: “Ixnextli, who is the same as Eve, is always weeping, her eyes dim with ashes, a rose in her hand, emblematical of her grief, being in consequence of her having gathered it. And accordingly they celebrate a fast every eight years on account of this calamitous event; the fast was on bread and water. They fasted on the eight signs preceding the entrance of the rose, and when that sign arrived, they prepared themselves for the celebration of the festival. They affirm that every series of five days comprised in this calendar was dedicated to this fall, because on such a day Eve sinned. They were accordingly enjoined to bathe themselves on this night in order to escape disease.” Regarding this myth the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says: “They represented her as Eve always weeping and looking at her husband, Adam. She is called Ysnextli, which signifies ‘eyes blind with ashes’; and this refers to the time subsequent to her sinning by plucking the roses. They accordingly declare that they are still unable to look up to heaven, and in recollection of the happy state which she lost, they fasted every eight years on account of this fall.” It is significant that the goddess pictured beside this statement is called “Suchiquezal.”

(From Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.) (From Codex Borgia.)

FORMS OF XOCHIQUETZAL.

XOCHIQUETZAL

(From the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.)

Diego Muñoz Camargo, in his Historia de Tlaxcala, equates Xochiquetzal with Venus and states that: “She dwells [[191]]above the nine heavens in a very pleasant and delectable place, accompanied and guarded by many people and waited on by other women of the rank of goddesses, where are many delights of fountains, brooks, flower-gardens, and without her wanting for anything, and that where she sojourned she was guarded and sheltered from the gaze of the people, and that in her retinue she had a great many dwarfs and hunchbacks, jesters, and buffoons, who entertained her with music and dancing and whom she sent as her confidants and messengers to the other gods, and that their chief occupation was the spinning and weaving of sumptuous artistic fabrics, and that they were painted so beautifully and elegantly that nothing finer could be found amongst mortals. But the place where she dwelt was called Tamohuanichan Xochitl ihcacan, Chicuhnauh-nepaniuhcan, Itzehecaya, that is, ‘the house of the descent or of birth, the place where are the flowers, the ninefold enchained, the place of the fresh, cool winds.’ And every year she was honoured with a great feast, to which many people from all parts were gathered in her temple.” He continues: “They say that she had formerly been the spouse of the Rain-god, Tlaloc, but that Tezcatlipocâ had abducted her, and brought her to the nine heavens, and made her the goddess of love. And then there was another goddess, Matlalcuêyê, the goddess to whom were attributed witchcraft and soothsaying. Her Tlaloc had made his consort after Tezcatlipocâ had carried off his wife Xochiquetzal.”[32]

Another myth, given by Boturini, recounts her temptation of the holy ascetic Yappan, who dwelt in a desert place in order to lead a continent and solitary life, so that he might win the favour of the gods. He took up his abode on a rock called Tehuehuetl, but the gods conceived a doubt of his piety, and sent an enemy of his, Yaotl (enemy), to watch his movements. Even this bitter foe found nothing to cavil at in his conduct, and women sent by the gods to lead him from the paths of rectitude were sternly repulsed. The divine beings were about to consider his apotheosis, when [[192]]Xochiquetzal, feeling that her reputation as a tempter of men was at stake, angrily assured them that she was able to effect his seduction. Descending to earth, she sought out the hermit, whom she assured of her admiration and esteem, and asked by what path she might ascend to his rocky seat. All unsuspicious of her intent, Yappan descended from his place on the rock and assisted her to climb the rugged eminence. Yappan forgot his vow of chastity, and when the goddess had departed, found himself deserted by the angry gods to the mercies of his enemy, Yaotl, who slew him out of hand. The gods transformed the slain man into a scorpion, and Yaotl having also slain Yappan’s wife, Tlahuitzin, whom he had abandoned for the life ascetic, she was transformed into an animal of the same species, and crawling under a stone, found her husband there. But the gods, wrathful at Yaotl’s excessive cruelty, changed him into a locust.[33]

FESTIVALS

Chicomexochitl (“Seven Flower”).—In the sign ce ocelotl, on the day chicomexochitl, the artists united to hold festival to the goddess, and the laundresses, says Sahagun,[34] fasted forty days. “They joined together, twenty or more, to obtain a better quality of pictures and weaves and to this end offered up quails and incense.” This was one of the movable feasts.

In an illuminating passage in his disquisition upon the Aubin tonalamatl (p. 123) Seler says: “As I have remarked at the opening of the section, the goddess Xochiquetzal is properly the expression of the day-sign xochitl. But owing to the transference of the series of rulers of the day-signs to the weeks in the peculiar way affected by the calendar-makers, that is, by a general shifting of one member,[35] [[193]]Xochiquetzal has been brought into association with the sign ce quauhtli (one eagle). But in Telleriano-Remensis at this week the hand-mark[36] which indicates the feast-day proper of the ruler of the week stands at the first day itself—the sign ce quauhtli, that induced the calendar-makers to effect the above-described dislocation in the second half of the list of rulers. For more than one reason the day ce quauhtli must really have seemed to the priestly savants specially appropriate to the goddess Xochiquetzal, and above all, because this day was one of the five which fell at the beginning or western quarter of the tonalamatl disposed in columns of five members. Hence these five days were collectively regarded as dedicated to the earth-goddesses, and as the days in which the ghostly women dwelling in the west, the Ciuateteô, swooped down upon earth, striking the children with epilepsy and beguiling the men to lust and sin.” These Ciuateteô were stregæ, witches, succubi, and their characteristics, which are touched upon in the section dealing with Tlazolteotl, will be more fully outlined elsewhere.

Quecholli.—The people of Tlaxcallan held a festival to Xochiquetzal in the month quecholli, when the Mexicans celebrated the feast of Mixcoatl. At the Tlaxcaltec feast numbers of young women were sacrificed to the goddess, “to the honour of love,” and the prostitutes were also in the habit of offering themselves for immolation, we are informed by Torquemada,[37] first haling the “honest” women through the mire and subjecting them to the foulest abuse. The Tlalhuica, who lived in the hot lands south of Mexico, themselves, like the Tlaxcaltecs, a people of Nahua race, held a festival in honour of Xochiquetzal in the month tepeilhuitl, which the Mexicans dedicated to the Tlaloque, gods of rain, as is related by the interpreter of the Codex Magliabecchiano. Torquemada, too,[38] states that the Tlaxcaltecs sacrificed many children to Xochiquetzal and to the mountain-gods (Tlaloque) evidently at this season. Xochiquetzal was also connected with the festival of the atamalqualiztli, [[194]]celebrated every eight years. In the picture of that feast in the Sahagun MS. we observe her seated at a loom. From these considerations it is manifest that the verdurous and “watery” attributes of the goddess connected her with the Tlaloque, but that she was not actually of their company.

TEMPLES

In Tlalhuica, not far from Cuernavaca or Quauhnauac, stands the pyramid of Xochicalco, one of the most perfect specimens extant of Nahua architectural skill. There is reason to believe that Xochiquetzal was originally the local deity of one of these mountains the waters from which irrigate the fields below,[39] and it seems probable that the teocalli of Xochicalco typified this eminence. We know that the teotlalpan, or “Place of Divine Earth,” in the sacred precinct at Mexico, was sacred to Mixcoatl, a deity who was perhaps of Otomi origin, and that it was probably symbolic of a mountain in the Otomi country of which he was the presiding deity, so that the probability is borne out by analogy. In the country of the Tlaxcaltecs stood the heights of Xochtecatl, “Goddess of the Flowery Land,” a mountain, according to Torquemada, about six miles in circumference, which was the nucleus of a settlement, and was surrounded by graves hewn out of the solid rock. This, perhaps, provides a fuller illustration of the theory advanced above.

NATURE AND STATUS

The original home of Xochiquetzal seems to have been among the Tlalhuica and Tlaxcaltecs. But as the latter were closely connected with the Mexicans racially, there is good reason to believe that she was also an original member of their pantheon. In any case she had a place in the metropolitan calendar, and the contention of the compilers of both interpretative codices, as well as of the native author of the picture writings in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, that she is to be equated with Tonacaciuatl, the [[195]]female member of the creative pair, seems to have been a later development.

But Xochiquetzal is more especially the goddess of flowers, the female counterpart of Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl. As has been mentioned, she was probably at first the goddess who presided over some lofty mountain whose streams watered the sun-dried plains beneath and clothed them in abundant florescence, perhaps that very mountain of Xochtecatl to which allusion has been made, and which stood in Tlaxcaltec territory. As the “feminine” of Xochipilli, however, she certainly partook of his festive and frivolous character, and thus presided over the song, the dance, and all sportive amusements. By a further slight effort of imagination she came to be regarded as the goddess of illicit love, or of the sensuous side of intercourse between the sexes, not so much a goddess of degraded animal passion, like Tlazolteotl, as a figure bearing a close resemblance to the Apsarasas of Hindu myth, lovely and voluptuous, and, like them, addicted to the game of throwing the dice (patolli). A further step established her as the patron goddess of the prostitutes who existed for the pleasure of the unmarried warriors and who resided with them in the great common house of the bachelors. From this circumstance arose the obscene character of the feast of Quecholli among the Tlaxcaltecs and the Tepeilhuitl festival among the Tlalhuica.

Xochiquetzal was also in some measure the patroness of pregnant women, according to the interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A, and these worshipped and sacrificed to her in order that they should not give birth to girls. She is herself figured in Codex Borgia as the great parturient, and in Codex Vaticanus B (sheet 39) as has been indicated above.

She had also, like Xochipilli, an artistic significance, as the patroness of weavers and artists. She was revered by the women who practised the former art, the invention of spinning and weaving was attributed to her, and many kinds of craftsmen paid her honours. She had, moreover, a magical side to her character; in the Aubin tonalamatl she is seated opposite the dancing wizard, and she is furthermore one of [[196]]the Tzitzimimê, or deities of the darksome night, among whom she is symbolized by the spider.

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