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

Relations

• spouse: Pitao Huichaana
• father of: Pitao Copijcha
• emanation of: Coqui Xee

Sources

• Córdova, Fray Juan de. Vocabulario en lengua çapoteca. México: Pedro Charte y Antonio Ricardo, 1578 (cozaana, 'produzidora o engendradora de los animales').
• 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).
• Whitecotton, Joseph W. The Zapotecs: Princes, Priests, and Peasants. University of Oklahoma Press, 1977 (Cozaana the progenitor and god of ancestors).
• Münch Galindo, Guido. La Teogonía Zapoteca y sus vestigios en Tehuantepec. UNAM, 1983.