Coatlicue was the Aztec earth gooddess and mother of the Aztec war god and chief deity, Huizilipochtli. Through an outward display of terror, the eight-foot statue was designed to show the power of gods over mortals. Two snakes arise out of her neck to form her face. Blood serpents emerge from her wrists. She wears a skirt of snakes and a necklace of human hands, hearts and a human skill pendant. Of all the components of the statue, the necklace communicated clearly that human sacrifice sustained the gods and maintained cosmic order. You can see a larger version of Coatlicue by clicking here. So what do you think? What would your normal expectation of a portrayal of an earth mother goddess be? How does this statue compare? What does this statue convey about Aztec civilization? Your thoughts...
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Coatlicue: Just Your Average Earth Mother Goddess?
Coatlicue was the Aztec earth gooddess and mother of the Aztec war god and chief deity, Huizilipochtli. Through an outward display of terror, the eight-foot statue was designed to show the power of gods over mortals. Two snakes arise out of her neck to form her face. Blood serpents emerge from her wrists. She wears a skirt of snakes and a necklace of human hands, hearts and a human skill pendant. Of all the components of the statue, the necklace communicated clearly that human sacrifice sustained the gods and maintained cosmic order. You can see a larger version of Coatlicue by clicking here. So what do you think? What would your normal expectation of a portrayal of an earth mother goddess be? How does this statue compare? What does this statue convey about Aztec civilization? Your thoughts...
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The statue does not look like what you might think of when you think earth goddess. Instead of having a peaceful apperarance she is made out of snakes and wears human body parts aroung her neck. This shows you the importance of sacrafice in Aztec society and the power of their gods. Their gods are very different from the Christian/ Muslim Gd and are even different from Greek gods. The Aztec gods don't seem to have the characteristic of love like other gods do and the human- god relationship seems to be all business
The goddess looks very menacing, almost evil. An Earth Mother goddess would usually look nurturing and gentle. The Aztecs believeed that the gods were not neccessarily there to help them, and they believed that human sacrifice was needed for the continuation of the Earth to keep the gods at bay.
I don't think this statue even looks like a person. The body I could distinguish, but not so much the face. This was probably a way of emphasizing the idea of human sacrifice, and how the body is important to the gods. And its almost like a threat- saying that without this sacrifice, all the world will die and be finished.
I personally think that the statue doesn't even look like a person. I know where the arms and legs are but the head is like nowhere to me. I couldn't even describe the top of where the head is suppose to be. This is not what i imagined a mother goddess would look like. Usually, when i think of the word goddess or mother, i think of a pretty, attractive person with like a dress or pretty outfit. Obviously, their god is different from other religions like Christianity, Buddhism, or whatever, because their god or prophet actually looks like a human being. But then again, this was a statue of Coatlicue, the mother of the Aztec war god as well.
seeing on how the aztecs did alot of sacrifice, the appearance doesnt come as much of a surprise to me.But if i didnt know any backround info on the aztec ways, i would be able to tell from the statue, i think thats what they were trying to do anyway.
I think that this statue was made to scare the working class and keep them inline. The priests probably had some part in the designing of the sculpture, but got the working class to build it for them.
This "Earth MOther Goddess" looks very evil and malevolent. If I were to create a Earth Mother Goddess I would combine all nature and natural distasters and create it to look a tad more peaceful....mother nature must have not been on their side.
I would imagine the Earth goddess to be more beautiful and less mencaing than this efigy. I would especially assume that she would be more human like considering the Aztecs believed the Gods lived in the same sphere as them. This statue aslo displays the importance of the human sacrifices to the Aztec, if this were the Inca this statue might have animal parts instead of humans.
This is much different than i would have imagined a mother goddess to be. She seems a lot crueler than i would expect. But i guess this makes sense because these people were big on sacrifices to the gods so the obviously thought their gods were not kind.
This statue is a bit creepy. Just imagine walking in the woods when it's dark with a flashlight and you see this statue. I think I would be creeped out.
yeah so this goddess is umm pretty dang freaky looking. i do however think it is interesting that it is a woman. i mean so thetre is influence of women if she was a main deity. but then there is the question, did they think women were terrifying? are the other gods as scary as her/ iam just curious is to why she look so demonic. i honestly would not want to worship someone who looks like they wanna eat me. thatd be a little wrong, on so many levels. buti guess i do get that they wanted there gods to look scarrier and more powerful than humans so it makes sense on a small level.
My view of a mother earth goddess is far from this picture. I would picture something nicer and divine looking. Not so evil and scary. This statue puts great emphasis on the Aztec's obidiance of sacrafice in order to keep the Gods happy. But it isn't what I would have pictured in my head at all.
I think the appearance of Coatlicue does stray from OUR idea of an earth goddess, just because we, as a society, are considerably more tame than the Aztecs were, obviously. But just the statue represents a lot of things about the society, more than just the importance of human sacrifice.
The statue is terrifying. That's a major point. How did the Aztec empire control their lower classes and their neighbors? Through terror. Just as religion manifests itself in different areas to whatever needs to be done control the people, the Aztec religion shows its face in Coatlicue. The Aztecs had a much more morbid, maybe even more realistic, view on life: they asked the gods for survival, at a great cost.
And if anything, she is exactly what I'd expect an Aztec earth goddess to look like. The statue of Coatlicue exudes power and seems to demand subordinance through fear. The Aztecs wanted power and control over their people, and I think they definitely admired Coatlicue.
the goddess looks somewhat evil. It looks like a goddess that means business. This is probably used so workers will work harder and so people will sacrifice themselves for the goddess.
I have to agree and say this is pretty wierd and scary. If I were to see a statue with human wrists, heads, and feet on it I would be pretty intimidated. And more importantly, I would be inclined to obey the code of conduct. This kind of reminds me of the legalism view towards governing. The Qin Dynasty used this tactic to scare or intimidate the people to do the right thing.
lol. wow. Not what I picture a mother earth goddess to look like, but if this is how there culture is, than it is. I'm not a big fan of the human hands and blood... nor snakes for that matter, but at least snakes represent wisdom, although I do not personally think wisdom comes from sacrifices to the gods. Wouldn't they be kind to nature, as "earth" is important, rather than encrusting it with blood and the stench of death...ah!
she is definitely not what i picture when i think earth goddes.....I see momre of a peaceful, loving, caring, motherly character. But this is the opposite of that. She looks threatening and mean. But it shows how important the sacrifeices were to the society. I understand why they fear the gods now though.
I think the serpents mean a lot in this statue. First of all the Serpent represents wisdom and Dominance. The Aztecs probably worshiped all the serpents that they saw. It probably became one of the most important animals. Also it shows that the serpents and the gods are not to be messed with because they will bite back. The statue is definitely not the type of vision i had. They probably made the god look scary because they wanted everyone to fear the god. They probably thought that gods werent too nice so they had to find ways to give to and please the gods. My vision is more like a human with plants and such on her. That is because we are a human dominate world and so its kind of natural on what we see. We see things more like ourselves than something different. Kind of like the map that we had to draw at the beginning of the year. Most people were able to draw the U.S. better than and in greater detail than the rest of the world.
I see this statue as the duality of nature. comparing the sepent head formation with the claws on the feet to the human body parts on her chest, almost like a mother would treat a baby. She seems like a monstrous devouring mother that cant be kept satisfied.
wow. okay, if MY mo looked like that, or even HALF as scary, i'd b running...
wen u thinkn of mothers you think of like a warm smile, kindness and cookies. idk, maybe it's just me but,...this doesn't really seem to fit. i guess it shows the "tounch-my-child-and-die" quality to mothers. i mean, if someone hurts a child, within 2 seconds you have an angry mo going after you. i guess I would feel pretty safe if that's my mom, and just imagine the DAD...**shudders**
as for the nature part to her, i can plainly see the serpants, but i mean, even the most beautiful thing can hurt you. a rose is to show love, but those thorns HURT!!! i guess every beuty has a dark side. rule #1 in painting, you can't have light without shadow...
it really makes a lot of sense considering the way the aztecs worshipped. it shows that the gods needed human sacrifice, so the aztecs had to keep sacrificing. the statue seems to put a lot of emphasis on humans.
Yeah, this isn't what I'd expect of a normal earth goddess, she shows of not peace, prosperity and abundance of growth and vegetation but death and murder. Sort of reminds me of Medusa in Greek mythology. Yeah but she looks really evil, I mean... human hands as a wristband? Its twisted and looks like the government is trying to encourage the people to pay tribute or else.
I think the statue was made to show that the gods needed sacrifices and it was in their nature to want sacrifices, as domonstrated by the human around its neck. I think it's kinda cool that the goddess looks like it's made out of rock, instead of a peaceful, beautiful goddess that would be our interpretation of her.
the statue is kinda odd. its not your average god statue. i think it was built to make people fear their gods more and therfor respect them more
By looking at this statue, we can see that the Aztecs were in serious terror for thier possible decline in agriculture. They really wanted to keep thier maize! They made this statue very horrifying(even though i can't even distinguish the parts of the body nor the snakes)to terrorize people to capture more people for human sacrifice. I guess this can be another way to spread their territories; by making people conquer more land by fear of death.
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