Lady of the Waters
Otomi · deity · primordial · deity
Otomi of the Sierra Madre Oriental (Puebla, Hidalgo, Veracruz). The Lady of the Waters, Maka Xumpø Dehe, is one of the principal deities of the Sierra Otomi pantheon alongside Lord Sun, Grandfather Fire and Lord Earth. Popularly called la Sirena, she is the mistress and owner of springs, rivers and the waters that bring rain, imagined as a long-haired woman of the springs, and she receives offerings at water sources during the Santa Cruz observances and in the healing rites of Otomi ritual specialists. Galinier records the water divinity hmũthe as ruling the green kingdom of humidity, exuberant vegetation and love.
Domains
- water
- vegetation and love
Powers
- to own the springs, rivers and rain-bearing waters
- to quicken the green realm of moisture, lush vegetation and love
Epithets
- Hmũthe
- Nxünfō Dehe
Sources
- "Otomí of the Sierra," in Encyclopedia of World Cultures, vol. 8: Middle America and the Caribbean, ed. James W. Dow (Boston: G. K. Hall/Macmillan, 1995).
- Galinier, Jacques (2004 [1990]). The World Below: Body and Cosmos in Otomí Indian Ritual. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
- Gallardo Arias, Patricia (2012). Ritual, palabra y cosmos otomí: yo soy costumbre, yo soy de antigua. México: UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.