Chalchiuhtlicue
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In Aztec mythology, Chalchiuhtlicue (also Chalciuhtlicue, or Chalcihuitlicue) ("She of the Jade Skirt") was the goddess of lakes and streams.[1] She is also a patroness of birth and plays a part in Aztec baptisms. In the myth of the five suns, she had dominion over the fourth world, which was destroyed in a great flood that she created to punish the wicked.[1] She also presides over the day 5 Serpent and the trecena of 1 Reed.
Her husband was Tlaloc and with him, she was the mother of Tecciztecatl and ruler over Tlalocan. In her aquatic aspect, she was known as Acuecucyoticihuati, goddess of oceans, rivers and any other running water, as well as the patron of women in labor. She was also said to be the wife of Xiuhtecuhtli. She is sometimes associated with a rain goddess, Matlalcueitl.
In art, Chalciuhtlicue was illustrated wearing a green skirt and with short black vertical lines on the lower part of her face. In some scenes babies may be seen in a stream of water issuing from her skirts. Sometimes she is symbolized by a river with a heavily laden prickly pear tree growing on one bank.
She is depicted in several central Mexican manuscripts, including the Pre-Columbian Codex Borgia (plates 11 and 650, the 16th century Codex Borbonicus (page 5), Codex Ríos (page 17), and the Florentine Codex, (plate 11). When sculpted, she is often carved from green stone as befits her name.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Taube, Karl (1993). Aztec and Maya Myths. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78130-6.
