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THE AZTEC GODDESS OF THE EARTH 
The famous statue of the Aztec Goddess of the Earth called Coatlicue, ‘‘The Serpent-skirted One, ’”’ 
is a striking example of barbaric imagination. .It was found in Mexico City near the Cathedral in the 
year 1791. It doubtless occupied an important place in the great ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan, 
the Aztec capital, and probably dates from the last quarter of the 15th century. 
The head, which is the same on front and back, is formed by two repulsive serpent heads meeting 
face to face. The feet are furnished with claws, but the arms, which are doubled up with the elbows 
close to the sides, end each in a serpent’s head. The skirt is a writhing mass of braided rattlesnakes. 
The creature wears about the neck and hanging down over the breast'a necklace of human hands and 
hearts with a death’s head pendant in the center. Coatlicue seems to have been regarded as a very 
old woman and as the mother of the Aztec gods. 
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