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Goddess of the month: Tlazolteotl

We’re sincerely grateful to Dr. Angélica Baena Ramírez for this introductory article on Tlazolteotl, one of the more complex Mexica deities. Dr. Baena received her PhD in Mesoamerican Studies (National Autonomous University of Mexico) specializing in Mesoamerican Iconography. She taught at the Faculty of Higher Studies Acatlan (UNAM) for 6 years. She has published several articles regarding pre-Hispanic codices and Mexica religion.

Pic 1: Tlazolteotl; Florentine Codex Book I (Click on image to enlarge)

Tlazolteotl: Unclean is Unbalanced
Tlazolteotl was a goddess worshipped by the Mexica, although the Tlazolteotl cult originated in the region known as La Huasteca (Cabada Izquierdo, 1992).
The earliest Franciscan friars to enquire after this ancient deity describe her as a goddess of insatiable love, of infidelity, and of garbage.
In fact, Tlazolteotl was a very important goddess amongst the Nahua, fulfilling several functions (Mikulska, 2008; Gajewska, 2015). She was the patroness of spinning and weaving, of earthly fertility, of childbirth, of fortune-telling and of health; she helped cure victims of amorous tragedy.
In divinatory codices, she appears as the lady of the fourteenth day Jaguar and of the thirteenth trecena Movement. Tlazolteot is the seventh goddess in the series of Nine Lords of the Night and fifth lady in the series of 13 lords of the day (Boone, 2007).

Pic 2: Confession, Mexica style; Florentine Codex Book I (Click on image to enlarge)

Tlazolteotl’s different names: Tlaelcuani
Tlazolteotl had different names according to her different functions. She was called Tlaelcuani ‘Eater of Filth’, charged with consuming the muck of the world and seeding the earth. In this context she was the goddess of fertilizers (Giasson, 2001), natural ones being made from food waste and other organic materials that can nourish the soil and provide benefits later in the form of richer harvests (Johansson, 2000).
She bore the same name when fulfilling her role as cleaner of human impurities, especially when the result of making love. The word tlazolli means ‘rubbish’ but also refers to anything that is out of balance and structure (Burkhart, 1989); ie anything that has lost its natural order and hence caused illness.
Once a lifetime individuals would confess their greatest and most embarrassing sins, errors and excesses in front of a priest representing Tezcatlipoca and Tlazolteotl, in a ritual named neyolmehualiztli or straightening of the heart. Tezcatlipoca heard the confession and Tlazolteotl purged the person of their failings, which were seen as ‘dirty things’ (Florentine Codex: 1, 12; García Quintana, 2005).

Pic 3: Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina; Codex Telleriano-Remensis fol. 17v (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

Several documents confirm that her most fervent devotees were people who had been shamed, and who were prone to too many (love) relationships. In the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (1995: fol. 17v - pic 3) Tlazolteotl is referred to as Ixcuina or goddess of two faces, defender and protector of publicly shamed individuals and of adulterers. And protection they most certainly needed, since adultery was punishable by the death penalty (Telleriano-Remensis fol. 17r - pic 4).
In fact, anyone who committed adultery had to be careful: it was commonly believed that if rats entered a house and bit the family’s mats and capes, it was a sign that the rodents knew that the husband or wife of the house had an extra-marital relationship. The creatures revealed the presence of tlazolli or muck in a house (Sahagún, 1999: V, 22). Another way to detect the existence of adultery was the death of household chicks. If they were to die and fall upside down on the ground, it was considered an augury of adultery, called tlazolmiqui (Sahagún, 1999: V, 24).

Pic 4: Stoning of adulterers; Codex Telleriano-Remensis, fol. 17r (Click on image to enlarge)

Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina
This is one of the most complicated names for the goddess. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (1999: I, 12) indicated that the name reflected her constituting four sisters: the eldest called Tiacapan, the second Teicu, the third Tlaco, and the fourth Xucotzin.
Some researchers have suggested translations of the name Ixcuina, based on the Huastec language, including ‘Cotton woman’ (Sullivan, 1982) and ‘Arrow [shooting] woman’ (Rincón Huarota, 2011). Tlazolteotl is certainly associated with cotton and weaving, but also with shooting arrows and with the flaying of skin. We find an example of this on plate 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, where the goddess appears in Huastec costume, wearing the skin of a flayed victim (pic 5). In the Annals of Cuauhtitlan, when the ixcuinanme departed from Cuextlan (Huasteca region) in the year 8-Rabbit, on reaching Tollan in the year 9-Reed they initiated the practice of human sacrifice by shooting arrows.

Pic 5: Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina giving birth. She wears Huastec clothing and the skin of a flayed victim; Codex Borbonicus, pl. 13 (Click on image to enlarge)

Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina wears some items of clothing, characteristic of Huastec iconography, such as the unwoven cotton band round the forehead, cotton earplugs, conch shell pectoral, red-and-black colours, conical hat, and half-moon noseplug.
In plate 13 of the Codex Borbonicus Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina appears in birthing position, giving birth to the maize god. She bears the conical hat, red-and-black costume with half-moon motifs, plain cotton ear- and (half-moon) nose-rings and headband, all emphasising her association with this region.

Pic 6: Distinctive features of Tlazolteotl; Codex Telleriano-Remensis fol. 12r (Click on image to enlarge)

Distinctive features of Tlazolteotl in the codices:-
• Half-moon-shaped nose-plug (yacametztli)
• Spindles (malacatl) and plain cotton in the headdress
• Black rubber paint around the mouth, sometimes covering the nose as well
• Black circle on the cheek (appears generally when the goddess lacks the yacametztli.
Examples of these distinguishing marks can be found in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis (1995: fol. 12r - pic 6). Each of these iconographic elements gives valuable information concerning the roles of the goddess, as I will explain.

Pic 7: Patecatl, god of medicine and pulque, as patron of the trecena 1-Monkey; Codex Borgia pl. 70 (Click on image to enlarge)

1) Yacametztli, lunar nose-plug: drunkenness, medicine, textiles and fertility
Tlazolteotl is related to both the earth and the moon given their association with fertility and the moon with the menstrual cycle of women. The lunar nose-plug was also worn by the gods of pulque – an intoxicating drink obtained from the maguey plant and linked to several transgressions in different myths (Olivier, 2000), including that of Quetzalcoatl who as a result had to leave Tollan. The costume elements from the Huasteca region that Tlazolteotl wears – black-and-red with half-moon symbols – are also worn by the Patecatl god of pulque, medicine and drunkenness.

Pic 8: Tlazolteotl as patron goddess of Movement ‘Ollin’. She wears a skirt with a half-moon symbol and lunar noseplug typical of the Huasteca region. She bears a tzotzopaztli weaving tool in her headdress; Codex Borgia pl. 23 (Click on image to enlarge)

The Mexica considered inhabitants of the Huasteca region to be prone to excess, often to be seen walking around naked: since a local ruler Cuextecatl drank five cups of pulque and cast off his maxtlatl or loincloth, giving the green light to his subjects to do the same (Florentine Codex Book X).
Mayahuel was the goddess of the maguey plant. Mikulska (2008) considers that Tlazolteotl and Mayahuel were essentially the same deity, sharing broad associations with the fibres of the plant and with weaving.

Pic 9: Mayahuel with the face painting of Tlazolteotl; Codex Borgia pl. 48 (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

2) Spindles (malacatl) and unspun cotton in the headdress. Goddess of weaving and cotton.
Tlazolteotl was most certainly related to cotton, spinners and weaving (Sullivan, 1982; Mikulska 2008; Aguilar González, 2016) – which is why she bears a headdress and ear decorations of unspun cotton as part of her costume. The tzotzopaztli was a wooden tool in the form of a knife used to stretch loom threads and it appears in Tlazolteotl’s headdress on some occasions (see pic 8). She is associated with spiders, being the spinner of destinies (Codex Borgia, pl. 34).

Pic 10: Tlazolteotl with a spindle in her headdress; Codex Borgia pl. 55 (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

It’s important to note too that when Tlazolteotl features in the Codex Cospi as part of the series known as the ‘9 Lords of the Night’ she appears as a ball of cotton, her mouth painted black, and bearing the lunar nose-plug – thus proving her undoubted association with cotton.

3) Black rubber paint around the mouth (montenolcopi), sometimes also covering the nose.
Tlazolteotl’s black mouth has been associated with her role as Tlaelcuani or Eater of Filth. She shares this iconographic feature with earth-related deities; the earth was called Teteo Innan (‘Mother of the Gods’), Toci (‘Our Grandmother’), Temazcalteci (‘The Lady of the Sweat Bath’), amongst other names.

Pic 11: Spiders with the facial paint of Tlazolteotl; Codex Borgia pl. 34 (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

These goddesses share many iconographic features with Tlazoltetotl (Seler, 1980 vol. 1), as she forms part of the symbolic complex of mother goddesses – protectors of harvests, patronesses of weaving and spinning, associated with midwives, and with medical activities carried out by women.
The black paint makes the mouth stand out and form a focal point. The paint on the face of the goddess of the temazcal (Codex Magliabechiano, f. 77r) epitomises the steam bath itself, her mouth representing the entrance and exit points. The mouth or open jaws also symbolises the threshold in and out of the earth itself, giving birth to life but also to illnesses and death (Baena Ramírez 2010).

Pic 12: Tlazolteotl represented as a ball of cotton with distinctive features; Codex Cospi pl. 1 (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

In fact, the mouth traditionally played a central role in curing – it could cause but also cure illnesses through spells, and by sucking the illness from the body as part of a therapeutic technique. Amongst the spells gathered by Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón (Tratado IV, chap. 3) in the 17th. century among the Nahuas of Guerrero is one for curing tlazolmiquiztli, caused by polygamy. The presence of the ‘guilty’ individual could induce illness in young children, treated by a steam bath, in which the ritual specialist would use a spell invocating the tlazolteteo.
Despite the Tlazolteotl cult disappearing following the Spanish conquest, the concept of filth and disequilibrium caused by excessive desire and extra-marital relationships continues to this day (Hersch Martínez, 1995).

Pic 13: Toci-Tlazolteotl; Codex Telleriano-Remensis, fol. 3 r (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

4) Black circle on the cheek (generally features when the goddess is not wearing the yacametztli)
This circle represented a cavity or tlaxapochtli, as named by Sahagún (Florentine Codex I, 16), referring to the attire of Teteo Innan. In some images it appears represented in the cheeks of Tlazolteotl.
When she appears in the Codex Laud, the goddess has all her distinctive elements present (lunar nose-plug, spindles in the headdress, black mouth and circle in the cheek) and she holds sacrificial spines and a miniature broom for sweeping away impurities (Lewis, 1997).

Conclusions
As a deity Tlazolteotl formed part of the concept of a mother goddess. She fulfilled several functions, her outstanding roles relating to divination, childbirth, medicine, health, weaving, fertility and death. She shares iconographic and conceptual features with Teteo Innan, Toci and Temazcalteci.
Tlazolteotl’s distinctive iconographic marks emphasise her roles as goddess of spinning and weaving – not just of textiles but also of future time itself. Her presence in divinatory codices stresses her role as owner of people’s fates.

Pic 14: The temazcal steam bath, with Temazcalteci; Codex Magliabechiano fol. 77r (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

The black face paint around her mouth emphasises her role as Tlaelcuani or devourer of impurities, charged with excising the misdeeds committed by adulterers and other promiscuous individuals. Painting the mouth black symbolised either the entry/exit to/from the temazcal steam bath or the interior of the earth.
Tlazolli wasn’t simply understood as filth, nor as ‘sin’ as Spanish members of religious orders perceived it (Zamora Corona, 2019), but rather as an imbalance caused by the goddess but which she could herself also remedy.

Pic 15: Tlazolteotl in her medicinal role; Codex Laud pl. 41 (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

Today, tlazol ‘airs’ are still considered the cause of illness in some regions of Mexico, including the Huasteca. These airs are caused by excessive promiscuity and affect the families of the offenders, particularly small children. Even if a Tlazolteotl cult no longer exists, the concept of imbalance and dirtiness caused by excessive desire or unbridled promiscuity continues to this day.

References:-
• Códice Chimalpopoca: Anales de Cuauhtitlán y Leyenda de los Soles (1992) Primo Feliciano Velázquez (trans.) and Miguel León Portilla (preface), México, UNAM
• Códice Florentino. Sahagún, fray Bernardino de 1950-1981 Florentine Codex. General History of the things of New Spain, Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson (translated from Náhuatl to English, notes and illustrations), The School of American Research/The University of UTAH. Santa Fe, Nuevo México
• Códice Telleriano-Remensis (1995) Codex Telleriano-Remensis: Ritual, Divination and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript, Eloise Quiñones Keber (ed.) University of Texas Press, Austin
• AGUILAR GONZÁLEZ, Wendy (2016) Toci-tlazoltéotl: la diosa del tejido entre los mexicas. México: UNAM, Master’s Thesis in Mesoamerican Studies
• BAENA RAMÍREZ, Angélica (2012) La importancia de Tlazolteotl en la medicina nahua. México: UNAM, Master’s Thesis in Mesoamerican Studies (2010) “Tlazolteotl. Diosa mexica de la medicina”, Síntesis Social, 1: 1-16
• BOONE, Elizabeth H, (2007) Cycles of time and meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate. Austin: University of Texas Press
• BURKHART, Louise M. (1989) The slippery earth: Nahua-Christian moral dialogue in sixteenth-century Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989
• CABADA IZQUIERDO, Juan José (1992) “Tlazoltéotl: una divinidad del panteón azteca”, Revista Española de Antropología Americana, 22: 123-138
• GAJEWSKA, Marta (2015) “Tlazolteotl, un ejemplo de la complejidad de las deidades mesoamericanas.” Ab Initio 11: 89-126. http://www.ab-initio.es/numero-11/ (16.06.2022)
• GARCÍA QUINTANA, María José (2005) “La confesión auricular. Dos textos”, Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, 36: 331-357
• GIASSON, Patrice (2009) “Tlazolteotl, deidad del abono, una propuesta”, Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, 32: 135-57
• HERSCH MARTÍNEZ, Paul (2009) “Tlazol, ixtlazol y tzipinación de heridas: implicaciones actuales de un complejo patológico prehispánico”, Dimensión Antropológica, 3: 27-59
• JOHANSSON, Patrick (2000) “Escatología y muerte en el mundo náhuatl precolombino”, Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, México, UNAM, 31: 149-183
• LEWIS, Laura (1997) “Temptress, Warrior, Priestess or Witch? Four Faces of Tlazolteotl in the Laud Codex”, en VEGA SOSA, Constanza, MARTÍNEZ BARACS, Rodrigo (Eds.), Códices y documentos sobre México. Segundo Simposio, México, INAH: 179-191
• MIKULSKA, Katarzyna (2008) El lenguaje enmascarado. Un acercamiento a las representaciones gráficas de deidades nahuas, México, IIA-UNAM/PSTL/IEIEI University of Warsaw
• OLIVIER, Guilhem (2000) “Entre transgresión y renacimiento, el papel de la ebriedad en los mitos del México antiguo”. En Navarrete Linares, F., & Olivier, G. (Eds.), El héroe entre el mito y la historia. Centro de estudios mexicanos y centroamericanos: 101-121
• RINCÓN HUAROTA, Ricardo (1997) Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina. Un caso de sincretismo en la religión azteca. México: ENAH, Tesis de licenciatura en Arqueología
• RUIZ DE ALARCÓN, Hernando (1999) Tratado de supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que hoy viven entre los indios naturales de esta Nueva España, Alicante, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/nd/ark:/59851/bmcdn423
• SULLIVAN, Thelma (1982) “Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina: the Great Spinner and Weaver”, in BENSON Elizabeth (Ed.), The Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central Mexico. A Conference at Dumbarton Oaks, October 1977, Washington. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library Collections: 7-35
• ZAMORA CORONA, Alonso (2019) “Tlaelcuani: sobre la posible función del almanaque in extenso del Códice Borgia”, en SAVKIC, SANJA (Ed.), Culturas visuales indígenas y prácticas estéticas en las Américas desde la antigüedad hasta el presente, Berlin, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut / Gebr. Mann Verlag: 111-136.

Image sources:-
• Pix 1 & 2: images from the Florentine Codex scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
• Pix 3, 4, 6 & 13: images scanned from Codex Telleriano-Remensis by Eloise Quiñones Keber, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995
• Pix 5, 7, 8 & 12: images courtesy of Angélica Baena Ramírez
• Pix 9, 10 & 11: images from the Codex Borgia scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1976
• Pic 14: image from the Codex Magliabechiano scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1970
• Pic 15: image scanned from our own copy of the Codex Laud, ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1966.

This article was uploaded to the Mexicolore website on Nov 26th 2022

Aztec limerick no. 41: ode to Tlazolteotl -
You may well have got the impression
That ‘sin’ was a Christian obsession.
As for the Mexica
The case was FAR weaker -
A once-in-a-lifetime confession...

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