Pitao Cozaana

Zapotec ⟨Pitào Cozàana⟩; also Coqui Cozaana. The male half of the Zapotec creator-couple, god of the engendering of animals and men, of the hunt and of the ancestors, also remembered in the Isthmus as a fire-god and 'Señor de la Noche'. Distinct from the rain-god Cocijo and from the death-god Bezelao.

Domains

• creation of animals
• creation of humankind
• the hunt
• ancestors and lineage

Powers

• engenders and multiplies the beasts of the wild, above all the deer
• with Huichaana brings forth and multiplies men, the gods and the divinatory art
• grants game to hunters and a catch to fishermen who petition him

Epithets

• Coqui Cozaana Zapotec · Coqui Cozaana · cultLord Cozaana - the creator-god styled 'coqui' (lord)Cordova, Vocabulario en lengua zapoteca (1578); Marcus & Flannery, Zapotec Civilization (1996) (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: Pitao HuichaanaThe primal creator-couple of the Zapotec world; reciprocal of zapotec_pitao_huichaana.spouse.Münch Galindo, La Teogonía Zapoteca (1983): Cozana estaba casado con Huichana; Caso & Bernal, Urnas de Oaxaca (1952), treat Cozaana and Huichaana as consorts, a male-female creator pair. (secondary)
• father of: Pitao CopijchaFather of the sun-and-war god Copijcha, begotten with Huichaana.Münch Galindo, La Teogonía Zapoteca (1983): Copijcha, hijo de Cozana y Huichana, la pareja creadora. (secondary)
• emanation of: Coqui XeeProceeds from the infinite uncreated Coqui Xee (Pije-Tao), of whom the other gods are aspects/refractions.Whitecotton, The Zapotecs (1977); Münch Galindo, La Teogonía Zapoteca (1983): Coqui Xee, the uncreated source, precedes and gives rise to Cozaana and Huichaana and all the other gods. (secondary)

Sources

• Pitao Cozaana (Coqui Cozaana) is the Zapotec creator and multiplier of animals, men and ancestors, patron of hunters and fishermen and the divine progenitor; Córdova glosses cozaana as 'produzidora o engendradora de los animales' (from zàana, 'to engender'), and he is paired with the goddess Huichaana as the male-female creator couple.: Córdova, Fray Juan de. Vocabulario en lengua çapoteca. México: Pedro Charte y Antonio Ricardo, 1578 (cozaana, 'produzidora o engendradora de los animales'). (primary); Lind, Michael. Ancient Zapotec Religion: An Ethnohistorical and Archaeological Perspective. University Press of Colorado, 2015 (Pitao Cozaana, god of animals and the hunt, creator of men and animals and god of ancestors). (secondary); Whitecotton, Joseph W. The Zapotecs: Princes, Priests, and Peasants. University of Oklahoma Press, 1977 (Cozaana the progenitor and god of ancestors). (secondary)
• Cozaana and Huichaana form the initial divine couple of the world, creators of the Sun, the other gods and men and of the divinatory art, proceeding from the uncreated Coqui Xee.: Münch Galindo, Guido. La Teogonía Zapoteca y sus vestigios en Tehuantepec. UNAM, 1983. (secondary)