Coatlicue
Coatlicue AmericaLiteral meaning: ‘the serpent lady’. She was the Aztec earth goddess, and the mother of Huitzilopochtli, the tribal god of the Aztecs. Although one of the wives of the cloud serpent Mixcoatl, who was also the god of hunting, Coatlicue was magically impregnated with Huitzilopochtli. One day while she was sweeping a feathery ball descended to her like a lump of thread, and she took it and put it in her bosom. After the housework was done, she looked without success for the ball, from which legend says she became pregnant without sin. This miraculous conception awakened the fury of her existing offspring, 400 sons and daughters aggrieved by the apparent slight on the family honour. They would have killed their earth serpent mother had not Huitzilopochtli emerged fully armed from her womb and set about his brothers and sisters, many of whom he slew.
Coatlicue was the earth serpent goddess. She was of especially horrible aspect: her...
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