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A-gnosis — Tzitzimitl
Published: 2011-10-30 22:13:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 1880; Favourites: 18; Downloads: 14
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Description
Since it's soon Halloween, Day of the Dead and All Saints' Day I couldn't resist to do a piece of Aztec mythology art. So here is a tzitzimitl (plural tzitzimimeh).
The tzitzimimeh were both som kind of fertility deities who were worshiped by midwives and women about to give birth, and fearful figures depicted as female skeletal warriors associated with the stars. It was believed that they could attack the sun during solar eclipses or descend to earth and eat the living. So they could be both benevolent and manevolent. They were led by the warrior goddess Itzpapalotl ("Clawed Butterfly" or "Obsidian Butterfly").
The space photo in the background is from NASA Images .
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Comments: 8
Sorry I haven't replied before, but I really love this picture. Itzpapalotl is so cute! (You know what I mean.) I do like Aztec dieties; the artists weren't afraid to show them as horrendous looking - just look at Coatlicue. Have you heard about women who died during child birth - they were considered to be divine, and young warriors would try to cut off some of the hair from the body or even take a finger to put on their shield, because they thought the goddess would protect them!
I especially love the little necklace of hands and hearts, and the pattern on her dress!
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Thanks! I'm glad you like her.
I cheated a bit when I drew her, thogh, since I used a picture of an ordinary tzitzimitl as reference and not a picture of Itzpapalotl. She's really supposed to have some kind of wings and look a bit more fancy, but I wanted to have the drawing done in time for Halloween.
I knew about the notion that men who died in war and women who died in childbirth were believed to go to one of the heavens instead of the underworld, but I didn't know about the other stuff. Intersting!
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It is so wonderful that you are interested in the Aztec gods. They seem very interesting and if more familiar would make wonderful fanfiction type novels. Maybe some movitated senior or senoritia will take advantage of this opportunity and get in on the action so to speak. I am saying that it would be great if someone who is descended from the Aztec' s could take this information and educate us in a creative way about their myths and legands about their ancient gods. Not as a textbook but well researched but novelized mythology.
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Thank you! The aztec mythology is indeed very interesting and I would also like to learn more about their myths and legends. So far I haven't read so many actual stories, just the names of the gods and what kind of functions thay had in the Aztec religion (I've wondered if that is the reason why the Greek mythology has touched me so deeply, because there we have so many literary stories where the gods appear as creatures with human strengths and weaknesses).
Anyway, are you familiar with Lords of Death and Life by Jonathan Dalton? It's an awesome and beautiful comic that contains elements from both the Mayan and Aztec mythology. I can highly recommend it, if you haven't read it already.
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That's a pretty mixed description. They have interesting jobs, help out with the babies or kick the hell out of the sun. Awesome.
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Those deities who aren't depicted as neither wholly good nor wholly bad are usual the most interesting ones.
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