Itzpapalotl

Itzpapalotl is a butterfly made of knives. The image is precise rather than decorative: a skeleton with jaguar claws, and wings whose every edge is a flake of obsidian, which is the sharpest material the Mexica had and the one they made their sacrificial blades from. She rules Tamoanchan, where humans were made and where infants who die are sent — so the goddess in charge of dead babies is also the goddess who comes down in an eclipse to eat people. The Mexica did not find that a contradiction; the tzitzimimeh are the stars, and an eclipse is the stars getting out.

Domains

• war
• death

Powers

• to come down in an eclipse in the form of a black butterfly and eat souls

Relations

• mother of: MixcoatlMother of the cloud-serpent, the Chichimec hunting god the registry already carried. Her own origins are Chichimec — she comes into the Mexica pantheon from the north with him.Reference treatment of Itzpapalotl as the mother of Mixcoatl. (secondary)

Sources

• Itzpapalotl, the Obsidian Butterfly, is a skeletal Mexica warrior goddess of Chichimec origin who rules Tamoanchan, counts among the tzitzimimeh and cihuateteo, and is the mother of Mixcoatl.: Reference treatments of Itzpapalotl, her iconography, her Chichimec origins and her place among the star demons. (secondary)