Tlazolteotl

goddess of sex in Aztec mythology

Tlazolteotl (or Tlaçolteotl) is an Aztec goddess. She is the goddess of purification, steam bath, midwives, sin and adulterers. In Nahuatl, the word tlazolli means vice and diseases. Thus, Tlazolteotl was a goddess of filth (sin), vice and sexual misdeeds. However, she was also a purification goddess.[1] Her dual nature is seen in her epithets; Tlaelquani ('she who eats filth [sin]') and Tlazolmiquiztli ('the death caused by lust'), and Ixcuina or Ixcuinan ('she of two faces').[2][3] Her sisters include Tiacapan (the first born), Teicu (the younger sister), Tlaco (the middle sister) and Xocotzin (the youngest sister).[3]

Huaxtec statue of Tlazolteotl from Mexico, 900-1521 CE (British Museum)

She is the mother of Centeotl and Yum-Kax, the Maya maize god.[4]

  1. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya, by Mary Miller & Karl Taube Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 1997), p. 168
  2. Soustelle, J., (1961) The Daily life of the Aztecs, London, WI, pp. 104, 199
  3. 3.0 3.1 Bernardino de Sahagun, 1950–1982, Florentine Codex: History of the Things of New Spain, translated and Edited by Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles Dibble, Monographs of the school of American research, no 14. 13. parts Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, p. 23
  4. Aztec Gods and Goddesses