Coyolxāuhqui
Coyolxauhqui
Aztec goddess whose name means 'painted with bells', often associated with the moon.
When their mother Coatlicue became pregnant, Coyolxāuhqui led her four hundred brothers to kill her. The war god Huitzilopochtli was born fully armed and defeated them, casting Coyolxāuhqui down the sacred mountain. In 1978 workers in Mexico City found a great stone disk showing her, which led to the excavation of the Templo Mayor.
Symbols
Bells on her cheeks Great carved stone disk
In the ancient sources
Nahua accounts recorded after the conquest
- Coyolxāuhqui
- “painted with bells” her name
- Florentine Codex, Book 3, chapter 1 (c. 1577) Coatlicue, sweeping on Coatepec mountain, tucks a ball of feathers into her dress and becomes pregnant; ashamed and angry, Coyolxāuhqui rouses her four hundred brothers to kill her.
- Florentine Codex, Book 3, chapter 1 Huitzilopochtli is born fully armed with his fire serpent, cuts off Coyolxāuhqui's head, and her body breaks apart as it rolls down the mountain.
- Templo Mayor, Mexico City (found 1978) A great carved stone at the foot of Huitzilopochtli's temple shows her dismembered body, as the story describes.
The Florentine Codex was compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua elders and scholars. The texts never call her a moon goddess; that link was proposed later by modern scholars.
Cross-checked against these texts and records, in public-domain or freely available versions where they exist. Line, section and chapter numbers follow the standard editions, so a particular translation may differ slightly.
Correspondences Explore all
- Planet
- Moon
- Stones & metals
- Gold (her bells)
These mix ancient attributes with modern associations from contemporary pagan and magical practice; the modern ones weren't part of her original worship.