This seems to me to indicate not so much that the god was identical with Mixcoatl, as Seler states, although he may have had connections with this deity, but that he typifies in some manner the evil influences of the rays of the planet Venus at certain times of the year. We know that the Mexicans, like many other peoples, believed that the stars emanated influences good and bad, and as Seler himself states in his essay on “The Venus Period in Picture-Writing,”[8] “it is possible that we have on these pages simply an astrological speculation arising from superstitious fear of the influence of the light of this powerful planet. By natural association of ideas the rays of light emitted by the sun or other luminous bodies are imagined to be darts or arrows which are shot in all directions by the luminous body. The more the rays are perceived to be productive of discomfort or injury, so much the more fittingly does this apply. In this way the abstract noun miotl or meyotli with the meaning ‘ray of light’ is derived from the Mexican word mitl, ‘arrow’ … thus miotli is the arrow which belongs by nature to a body sending forth arrows, a luminous body.… When the planet appeared anew in the heavens, smoke-vents and chimneys were stopped up lest the light should penetrate into the house.… It is hardly possible to see anything else in these figures struck by the spear than augural speculations regarding the influence of the light from the planet suggested by the initial signs of the period.” Seler also points out that we possess the analogy of the periods in which [[324]]the Ciuateteô, or “spectre women,” send down similar baleful influences from above.
COYOLXAUHQUI = “PAINTED WITH BELLS”
- Relationship: Daughter of Coatlicue, sister of Uitzilopochtli and the Centzonuitznaua.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Stone-head from Great Temple of Mexico.—This represents her as having on both cheeks the sign for “gold” and “bells,” hence the face of this head is really painted (xauhqui) with bells (coyolli). As a nose-ornament she has a peculiar pendant, consisting of a trapezoidal figure and a ray, the motif of which is partially repeated in her earrings. Her headdress is a small, close-fitting cap, the front of which is embroidered in a downy feather-ball pattern.
MYTHS
The myth which describes her enmity to her mother, Coatlicue, and her slaughter by her brother Uitzilopochtli, has already been recounted in the section dealing with the latter god.
NATURE AND STATUS
Coyolxauhqui’s insignia, as seen in the stone head of her from the great Temple of Mexico, is unquestionably that of a lunar goddess. Moreover, the terms of the myth referred to above make it plain that she represented the moon, who is “slain” by the first blow of the xiuhcoatl, or fire-snake (the dawn). The fact that she was the only sister of the four hundred stars, Centzonuitznaua, probably implies her lunar significance.