Monumental monoliths of pre-Hispanic Mexico (2/4) | #MexicoPrehispanico
A 4 parts review about mexica monoliths, gods and cosmogony...
In this second post we will begin to analyze the most representative monumental monoliths of Mexica Pre-Hispanic Mexico, which tell us about their myths of origin and their main gods. The most surprising thing will be discovering how these myths have a physical representation in their main buildings and temples, giving meaning to the cosmogony that explains their way of understanding the world.
We need to talk about two of the main Mexica goddesses: Coatlicue, whose name means "the one with the skirt of serpents", and Coyolxauhqui, "the one adorned with bells". Both monoliths are totally related because they represent mother and daughter, and their discovery, separated by almost two hundred years, generated a completely different impact on the society of New Spain and modern Mexico.
COATLICUE: the one with the skirt of serpents
Coatlicue is the Mexica mother goddess, also called Tonantzin by them, which means "our venerated mother". She is the mother of Huitzilopochtli, the main god of the Mexica and she is also the mother of Coyolxauhqui, as well as being the mother of the 400 gods of the stars of the south. But the history between them is kind of tragic:
Coatlicue lived on the sacred hill Coatepec and one day while she was sweeping as penance, a feather fell from the sky. She took the feather and kept it in her chest, but at the end of her penance she looked for it and did not find it. At that time she became pregnant with Huitzilopochtli. When Coyolxauhqui and her four hundred brothers found out that their mother was pregnant, they felt offended because they thought that their mother had been impregnated by a stranger and decided to go to the Coatepec hill to kill her at the instigation of their sister.
Huitzilopochtli, from Coatlicue's womb, warned his mother what was going to happen but reassured her by telling her that he was prepared. At the moment that Coyolxauqui and the 400 gods of the southern stars arrived with Coatlicue, Huitzilopochtli was born dressed in armor and prepared to face them. He managed to kill the 400 gods and then defeated Coyolxauhqui. According to legend, he decapitated her and sent her head to the sky, giving rise to the moon, and then threw her sister's body down the side of the hill, causing her to dismember and leaving her remains at the foot of the mountain. In this way Coyolxauhqui became a representation of the Moon and his brothers became the stars of the firmament, while he became a representation of the Sun that is always fighting and chasing the Moon.
An impactant story, isn't it?
The Coatlicue monolith was discovered 269 years after the destruction of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, on August 13, 1790, while maintenance work was being carried out to level the main square of the city, ruled at the time by the Spanish. Its discovery caused a stir in the indigenous population and that caused it to be buried again in the courtyard of the Royal University for 35 years, until it was transferred to the National Museum in 1825.
Coatlicue is represented with a head formed by the heads of two serpents, she has drooping breasts as a symbol of fertility, a necklace of hands and hearts, representing life, and a skirt of serpents, instead of legs she has the legs and claws of a bird. These elements indicate that it is a deity related to the terrestrial and the celestial, with life and death, with sacrifice and regeneration.
It can currently be visited at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Seeing it in front of you causes a great impact due to its dimensions and the mastery which it was carved, in addition to its excellent degree of conservation. Its measurements are 252x158x124 cm, its weight 3 tons, and was carved on andesite and colored with red pigment.
COYOLXAUHQUI: the one adorned with bells
The Coyolxauhqui monolith was discovered in February 1978 just off the northwest corner of Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral, when power company workers were digging for underground wiring. While they were removing the earth from the corner of the streets of Guatemala and the Republic of Argentina, they found a quarry monolith 320 cm in diameter with the relief of the lunar goddess and this became news with worldwide impact because its location, from According to legend, it marks the exact place where the Templo Mayor of Mexico-Tenochtitlan was located, the pyramid dedicated to Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, the religious center of the Mexica.
In this shield-shaped rock we can appreciate the relief of the dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui, her head, hands and legs separated around her torso, just as she died on the Coatepec hill. It is very important to note that this monolith was originally decorated in orange, blue, red and white colors and traces of these colors have been identified through chemical traces of pigments.
After its discovery, the surrounding buildings were expropriated and funds were allocated to carry out excavation work in the heart of Mexico City in order to bring to light the remains of the legendary Templo Mayor, hidden for more than 400 years.
Currently this impressive monolith can be admired in the Templo Mayor Museum, just 200 meters from its original location, in a majestic space that has been designed to show the public the discoveries of archaeological pieces made in the place for almost 50 years.
With these data we can explain a series of relevant points related to the Templo Mayor of the Mexica and its cosmogony:
For the Mexica, the mountains represented sacred places because they believed that the necessary resources for life were found inside them: water to drink and corn to eat.
The Templo Mayor of the Mexica was a pyramid 45 meters high, with double steps that had two temples on its upper platform, one dedicated to Tlaloc, the god of water, and the second to Huitzilopochtli, their main god.
The pyramid represented the sacred hill of Coatepec, and in one of the corners of the upper platform was the monolith of Coatlicue, mother of Huitzilopochtli….Do you imagine where the Coyolxauhqui monolith was placed?
The original spot por this monolith was right at the foot of the steps of the Huitzilopochtli temple, as if it had rolled down them from the top of the temple.
The Templo Mayor of Mexico Tenochtitlan is physical representation of the myths of Huitzilopochtli and Coyolxauhqui gods.
This pyramid, the Templo Mayor, is a physical representation of the myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, god of war and the sun, and the death of Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon.
This myth was constantly represented through the ceremonial sacrifices of Mexica prisoners of war. They were sacrificed in the temple of Huitzilopochtli, at the top of the pyramid their heart was taken out of the chest and offered to him, their heads decapitated and placed in the HueyZompantli, while their body rolled down the stairs and fell on the Coyolxauhqui monolith at the foot of them.
The myth became reality over and over again representing the origin and end of the main gods of the Mexica cosmogony.
We still have 4 pending pre-Hispanic monoliths, but we will leave the rest for future publications. I would like to read your impressions about these monoliths and their origin. I hope you have not had a very strong impact on you and that you still have the courage to learn more about this impressive civilization.