ZAPOTLANTENAN = “MOTHER OF ZAPOTLAN”
- Area of Worship: Mexico; Zapotlan.
- Symbol: The eagle-feather.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio).—Behind the region of the chin and on the front part of the neck the goddess has a black, almost beard-like painting. She wears a crown of paper flecked with ulli gum, and decorated at the top with quetzal-feathers. Her collar is of chalchihuitl stones and she wears a plain overdress and skirt edged with horizontal bands, connected by slanting strips. Her feet are sandalled, and her shield has the insignia of the eagle-feather. In her hand she carries the rattle-staff of the Rain-god.
PRIESTHOOD
Sahagun states (Appendix to bk. ii) that Zapotlantenan had a special high-priest, the Zapotlan teohuatzin, who was charged with making all the necessary arrangements for the [[229]]festival of that goddess, such as procuring a supply of paper, copal, ulli, and odoriferous plants for incense. Clavigero says that she was annually honoured with the sacrifice of human victims and with particular hymns composed in her praise.[70]
NATURE AND STATUS
Sahagun states[71] that she was said to have been the inventor or discoverer of turpentine, which was used in Mexico for medicinal purposes, and it seems probable that she may have been revered as a goddess of medicine. Clearly she is also an earth-goddess of the people of the populous valley of Zapotlan, on the other side of the Otomi country, adopted into the Mexican pantheon, but having no place in the calendar.