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The Myths of Mexico & Peru

Chapter 119: Chalchihuitlicue
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About This Book

An illustrated survey of pre-Columbian civilizations and their myth systems, beginning with Mexican society and its pantheon and presenting major myths, rituals, cosmologies, and legends—including Aztec and Maya traditions and representative figures such as the feathered‑serpent and night and rain deities. It examines Maya origins, narrative cycles, and ritual practice, then turns to the civilizations of the Andean world and their mythic motifs, and offers comparative interpretation alongside archaeological observations, bibliographic references, a glossary, and numerous illustrations that connect mythic narratives to surviving monuments and artifacts.

Chalchihuitlicue

This goddess was the wife of Tlaloc, the god of rain and moisture. The name means Lady of the Emerald Robe, in allusion to the colour of the element over which the deity partly presided. She was specially worshipped by the water-carriers of Mexico, and all those whose avocation brought them into contact with water. Her costume was peculiar and interesting. Round her neck she wore a wonderful collar of precious stones, from which hung a gold pendant. She was crowned with a coronet of blue paper, decorated with green feathers. Her eyebrows were of turquoise, set in as mosaic, and her garment was a nebulous blue-green in hue, recalling the tint of sea-water in the tropics. The resemblance was heightened by a border of sea-flowers or water-plants, one of which she also carried in her left hand, whilst in her right she bore a vase surmounted by a cross, emblematic of the four points of the compass whence comes the rain.