Coatlicue
The Aztec earth goddess whose name means “serpent skirt”, mother of Huitzilopochtli. Her colossal statue in Mexico City has two facing serpents for a head, a necklace of hands and hearts and a skirt of woven snakes.
Meaning
Coatlicue is “she of the serpent skirt”, the mother of Huitzilopochtli in the Mexica story of his birth on Coatepec. The art historian María Teresa Uriarte describes the colossal statue in the Museo Nacional de Antropología: in place of a head are two turquoise serpents facing each other, their jaws joined to make a single face with one forked tongue; she wears a necklace of hands and hearts with a skull at the centre, serpent heads replace her hands, her feet are eagle’s claws and her skirt is made of rattlesnakes. Alfredo López Austin calls her a goddess of the earth, death and fertility, and a statue of her from Coxcatlán, Puebla, one of the strongest images of the idea that death gives rise to life.
Origin and history
The great Coatlicue was found on 13 August 1790 under the Zócalo of Mexico City, in the same year as the Sun Stone. INAH counts these finds, with the Stone of Tízoc in 1791, as the seed of Mexican archaeology, and a plaque marks the spot in the south-east of the square. When it was carved is disputed: Justino Fernández dated it to about 1454, Esther Pasztory to the New Fire ceremony of 1506.
The first study, by Antonio de León y Gama in 1792, did not call her Coatlicue. He identified the statue as a divine couple, Teoyaomiqui and Huitzilopochtli, wearing the insignia of many gods.
Reading the statue
Uriarte reads the statue as a message of Mexica power: the mother of the god who led them to Tenochtitlan, made to legitimise their rule. Coatlicue looks both forwards and backwards, and on the base is a relief of Tlaloc-Tlaltecuhtli, lord of the earth and its waters. Iliana Godoy sees in the necklace the warrior’s most precious gifts: the heart, seat of courage, and the hands, trained in the use of weapons.
See also
Huitzilopochtli, Sun Stone (the Aztec calendar stone), Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent), Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror), Mictlantecuhtli.
Sources
- Coatlicue, imagen de consolidación del Estado mexica (María Teresa Uriarte, Arqueología Mexicana), María Teresa Uriarte, “Coatlicue imagen de consolidación del Estado mexica”, Arqueología Mexicana no. 55, pp. 68–69, Arqueología Mexicana (Editorial Raíces / INAH), article text
- Cabeza, corazón y manos de la Coatlicue (Iliana Godoy, Arqueología Mexicana), Iliana Godoy, “En manos de Coatlicue”, Arqueología Mexicana no. 71, pp. 48–51, Arqueología Mexicana (Editorial Raíces / INAH), article text
- Coatlicue (Alfredo López Austin, Arqueología Mexicana), Alfredo López Austin, “Los rostros de los dioses mesoamericanos”, Arqueología Mexicana no. 20, pp. 6–19, Arqueología Mexicana (Editorial Raíces / INAH), caption
- Coyolxauhqui, la hermana mayor de Huitzilopochtli. Luna y placenta (Patrick Johansson K., Arqueología Mexicana), Patrick Johansson K., “Coyolxauhqui, la hermana mayor de Huitzilopochtli. Luna y placenta”, Arqueología Mexicana no. 154, pp. 24–31, Arqueología Mexicana (Editorial Raíces / INAH), article text
- La Piedra del Sol y Coatlicue. Primeras investigaciones (Leonardo López Luján and Marie-France Fauvet-Berthelot, Arqueología Mexicana), Leonardo López Luján and Marie-France Fauvet-Berthelot, “Antonio de León y Gama y los dibujos extraviados de la Descripción histórica y cronológica de las dos piedras…”, Arqueología Mexicana no. 142, pp. 18–28, Arqueología Mexicana (Editorial Raíces / INAH), article text
- Reinstalan placas conmemorativas a los descubrimientos de la Coatlicue y las piedras del Sol y de Tízoc (INAH), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, boletín, 2025, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, bulletin text
- God of the Month: Huitzilopochtli (Mexicolore), Julia Flood, Mexicolore, Mexicolore, article text
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Last reviewed October 3, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research
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