Old Mother

Otomi/Hñähñu (central Mexico). English 'Old Mother' leads; Otomi Zäna ('moon'), the Old Mother Pømbe. A lunar-earth goddess, consort of the Old Father / Otontecuhtli. Spelling Zäna uses the central-vowel diacritic of Otomi orthography.

Domains

• moon
• earth and fertility

Powers

• rule the night as moon and earth

Epithets

• Zǎnä

Relations

• spouse: Old Fire-and-Death God

Sources

• Carrasco, Pedro (1950). Los otomíes: cultura e historia prehispánicas. México: UNAM.
• Galinier, Jacques (2004 [1990]). The World Below: Body and Cosmos in Otomí Indian Ritual. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.