An Illustrated Dictionary Of The Gods And Symbols Of Ancient Mexico by Unknown Author

Author:Unknown Author [Author, Unknown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Rabbit, or Tochtli, was the 8th day sign in the Central Mexican calendar and one of the four yearbearers. In the trecena 1 Mazatl, the day sign 2 Rabbit was particularly unfortunate: those born on this day and for several thereafter were given to drunkenness.

coyolxauhqui, huitzilopochtli’s sister, was identified by Eduard Seler as a moon goddess, her own light shattered and diminished by Huitzilopochtli, although there is no textual confirmation of the identification. In two separate images at the sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan, Coyolxauhqui’s dismembered two-dimensional image was carved on a round stone at the base of Huitzilopochtli’s pyramid, and her large, lifeless, three-dimensional head probably rested on the temple steps, both possibly references to the moon.

Among the Classic Maya, a young, beautiful woman was the moon goddess, and she frequently sits on the crescent of the Maya glyph for moon, bearing a rabbit in her arms. Among the Maya, although the moon was also identified with the rabbit, the full moon in particular - as opposed to any other phase -may have been associated with the moon goddess. The name of this goddess is not known, but she is not ixchel, as is often alleged; Ixchel is an old goddess.

Many modern Maya believe that the

female moon was dimmed after a squabble with her husband the sun, and that she may have lost an eye in the quarrel. In a modern Zapotec story, a pair of orphan children who later become the sun and moon escape from a sweathouse before their apotheosis. See also CREATION ACCOUNTS.

mortuary bundles In many parts of Mesoamerica, the remains of important individuals were not buried at the time of death, but were rather placed in bundles - a form of the sacred bundle. According to Aztec belief, the sacred god bundles are simply the funerary bundles of those gods who were sacrificed following the creation of the fifth sun at teotihuacan. Both deity and funerary bundles took a somewhat human form and wore masks; among these were possibly included the famous stone masks of Teotihuacan. On Stela 4 of Tikal, the Early Classic ruler Curl Snout holds a sacred bundle bearing the mask of tlaloc. At Tikal, masked mortuary bundles appear as early as the Protoclassic period. Burial 85, dating to 50 bc, contained the remains of a mortuary bundle accompanied by a fuchsite mask.

Mixtec moon sign containing a rabbit. Stone of Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Late Postclassic period.

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