Chicomecoatl
Aztec/Mexica · deity · cosmogonic · deity
Chicomecoatl is maize at the point where it feeds you. The Mexica did not have one corn god; they had the crop divided by stage — Xilonen is the tender ear you can eat green, Centeotl is the young plant, Chicomecoatl is the mature stand rooted in the ground with everything in it. She is shown holding two ears of maize like a pair of sceptres. Her festival, Ochpaniztli, means 'the sweeping', and it works by analogy: the old season is swept out and its personification is killed and flayed so that the next one can come in clean.
Domains
- harvest
Relations
- counterpart of: Centeotl
Sources
- Reference treatments of Chicomecoatl, of the maize deities and of Ochpaniztli.