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Description

Watercolour and ink

Huixtocihuatl was a Mexica (Aztec) fertility goddess who was the patron of salt and salt waters. She was also the patroness of salt making and the discoverer of salt itself. Huixtocihuatl was the older sister of the Tlaloques, the Aztec rain gods. The most important of these was Tlaloc, the Lord of the Celestial Waters. Legend has it Huixtocihuatl was in a heated argument with the Tlaloques, and they tried to drown her in saltwater. That was how she made her discovery. [1]

She is often depicted carrying a cane decorated with paper and topped by incense filled paper flowers. The design on her huipil (tunic) and skirt emulated water and the red and white hem would be symbolic of clouds, representing her familial ties to the Tlaloque. [2]

Every year, a festival called Tecuilhuitontli was celebrated in her honour. During this festival, a woman would be chosen as the Ixiptla (‘embodiment’) of Huixtocihuatl. Song and dance played an important role in this festival, as dancers would fill the streets in rows and sing songs in a high tremble while carrying garlands of iztauhyatl flowers. The Ixiptla would use her reed staff to mark the beat as the singers’ voices would ring out, matching the sound of the bells they wore around their ankles. The song and dance culminated on the last day of Tecuilhuitontl when the procession reached the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. Here, the dancers escorted the Ixiptla of Huixtocihuatl to the shrine of Tlaloc where she would be sacrificed. Her heart cut out and raised as an offering and then stored in a green stone jar. [3]

Follow me on instagram: www.instagram.com/saxtorphillu…
For more info about commissions: fav.me/dd1rfla
My website: www.saxtorphillustration.com/

[1] www.historynaked.com/huixtocih…

[2] Sahagún, Bernardino de (1590). Primeros Memoriales. Sullivan, Thelma D. (Translator, 1997)

[3] Sahagún, Bernardino de (1499–1590). General history of the things of New Spain : Book I, the Gods. Anderson and Dibble 1981 trans.

Description

Watercolour and ink

Huixtocihuatl was a Mexica (Aztec) fertility goddess who was the patron of salt and salt waters. She was also the patroness of salt making and the discoverer of salt itself. Huixtocihuatl was the older sister of the Tlaloques, the Aztec rain gods. The most important of these was Tlaloc, the Lord of the Celestial Waters. Legend has it Huixtocihuatl was in a heated argument with the Tlaloques, and they tried to drown her in saltwater. That was how she made her discovery. [1]

She is often depicted carrying a cane decorated with paper and topped by incense filled paper flowers. The design on her huipil (tunic) and skirt emulated water and the red and white hem would be symbolic of clouds, representing her familial ties to the Tlaloque. [2]

Every year, a festival called Tecuilhuitontli was celebrated in her honour. During this festival, a woman would be chosen as the Ixiptla (‘embodiment’) of Huixtocihuatl. Song and dance played an important role in this festival, as dancers would fill the streets in rows and sing songs in a high tremble while carrying garlands of iztauhyatl flowers. The Ixiptla would use her reed staff to mark the beat as the singers’ voices would ring out, matching the sound of the bells they wore around their ankles. The song and dance culminated on the last day of Tecuilhuitontl when the procession reached the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan. Here, the dancers escorted the Ixiptla of Huixtocihuatl to the shrine of Tlaloc where she would be sacrificed. Her heart cut out and raised as an offering and then stored in a green stone jar. [3]

Follow me on instagram: www.instagram.com/saxtorphillu…
For more info about commissions: fav.me/dd1rfla
My website: www.saxtorphillustration.com/

[1] www.historynaked.com/huixtocih…

[2] Sahagún, Bernardino de (1590). Primeros Memoriales. Sullivan, Thelma D. (Translator, 1997)

[3] Sahagún, Bernardino de (1499–1590). General history of the things of New Spain : Book I, the Gods. Anderson and Dibble 1981 trans.