Coyolxauhqui

The myth of Coyolxauhqui tells how she sought to kill her mother Coatlicue, who had become miraculously pregnant from a ball of feathers. But the unborn child, Huitzilopochtli, sprang from his mother's womb already grown and fully armed to defend her, and cut off his sister's head.

The name Coyolxauhqui means in Nahuatl “she who is adorned with bells” or “she whose cheeks are decorated with little bells,” because the myth describes her with golden bells on her cheeks. On her sculpture, these bells can still be seen carved near her face.

In 1978, workers from Mexico City's electric company digging in the historic center accidentally came upon an immense carved stone disk depicting the dismembered Coyolxauhqui. This chance discovery set off the great excavations of the Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztecs.

The disk of Coyolxauhqui was placed at the foot of the staircase of Huitzilopochtli's temple: the bodies of sacrificial victims, thrown from the summit, would roll down to the stone, symbolically re-enacting the dismemberment of the defeated goddess.

According to the Aztecs, the battle between Huitzilopochtli (the Sun) and Coyolxauhqui (the Moon) surrounded by her 400 brothers (the stars, the Centzon Huitznahua) is replayed every day: the rising of the Sun drives the Moon and the stars from the sky, just as the god drove off and defeated his sister.