Huixtocihuatl

Depiction of Huixtocihuatl from Bernardino de Sahagun's "Primeros Memoriales", which was published in 1590 (fol. 264r). She holds a reed staff in her hand and wears garments with a water design.

In Aztec religion, Huixtocihuatl[pronunciation?] (or Uixtochihuatl, Uixtociuatl) was a fertility goddess who presided over salt and salt water. The Aztecs considered her to be the older sister of the rain gods, including Tlaloc.[1] Much of the information known about Huixtocihuatl and how the Aztecs celebrated her comes from Bernardino de Sahagún's manuscripts. His Florentine Codex explains how Huixtocihuatl became the salt god.[2] It records that Huixtocihuatl angered her younger brothers by mocking them, so they banished her to the salt beds. It was there where she discovered salt and how it was created.[2] As described in the second book of the Florentine Codex, during Tecuilhuitontli, the seventh month of the Aztec calendar, there was a festival in honor of Huixtocihuatl. The festival culminated with the sacrifice of Huixtocihuatl's ixiptla, the embodiment of the deity in human form.[2]

  1. ^ Kroger, Joseph (2012). Aztec goddesses and Christian Madonnas : images of the divine feminine in Mexico. Granziera, Patrizia. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p. 40. ISBN 9781409435976. OCLC 781499082.
  2. ^ a b c de Sahagún, Bernardino (1499–1590). General history of the things of New Spain : Book I, the Gods. Anderson, Arthur J. O., Dibble, Charles E. (Translators, 1970) (2nd ed., rev ed.). Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research. p. 86. ISBN 9780874800005. OCLC 877854386.