Pitao Xoo
Zapotec · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Zapotec ⟨Pitào Xoo⟩. The god/force of earthquakes, the deified tremor of the moving earth, rendered on the Atzompa elite urn as 'El Señor Ocho Temblor' (Lord 8 Earthquake). SOLITARY: no genealogy, consort or other named kin is recorded for Pitao Xoo — he is attested purely as the functional deity of the quaking earth (Córdova 1578; Sellen 2007).
Domains
- earthquakes
- the moving earth
Powers
- shakes the earth and looses the tremor that moves the ground
Sources
- Pitao Xoo is the Zapotec god of earthquakes; Córdova records xoo as the word for the tremor of the earth and Pitao Xoo as its deity, and the earthquake force was conceived as a living, pèe-charged supernatural power rather than an ordinary anthropomorphic god.: Córdova, Fray Juan de. Vocabulario en lengua çapoteca. 1578 (xoo, 'temblor de tierra'; Pitao Xoo, god of earthquakes). (primary); Lind, Michael. Ancient Zapotec Religion. University Press of Colorado, 2015 (Pitao Xoo, god of earthquakes). (secondary); Sellen, Adam T. El cielo compartido: deidades y ancestros en las vasijas efigie zapotecas. UNAM, 2007 (xoo as living supernatural force of the moving earth). (secondary)