THE AZTEC GODDESS OF THE EARTH 



The famous statue of the Aztec Goddess of the Earth called CoatUcue, "The Serpent-skirted One," 

 is a striking example of barbaric imagination It was foimd in Mexico City near the Cathedral in the 

 year 1791. It doubtless occupiod an important place in the sreat ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan, 

 the Aztec capital, and probably dates from the last quarter of the loth 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 himian 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. 



