Tag: Goddess in the Spotlight

Author: Anne Key, PhD
Beltane 2009, Vol 8-3
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Discover More: “ASWM Presents MatriFocus”

Tlazolteotl
Photo © 2007 Anne Key.

My heart is a flower, the corolla opens;
Ah! It is the mistress of midnight and She has arrived
Our Mother, the Goddess Tlazolteotl.
(Hymn to Tlazolteotl, from Baéz-Jorge 101)[1]

She is easily identified, usually with black around her mouth, sometimes with a conical hat or riding a broom, and often squatting in a birth-giving posture. Tlazolteotl is one of the most endearing and complex goddesses of the Mesoamericans.

Her name is derived from the Nahuatl word for garbage, tlazolli, literally “old, dirty, deteriorated, worn-out thing … which was used to connote filfth, garbage, or refuse, all of which subsumed human waste products” (Klein 21). Tlazolli could also refer to profligate behavior, related to the root for quail (zolli), a bird associated with fertility and the earth “owing to its tendency to keep close to the ground and to its prolific breeding habits” (Sullivan 11). Indeed Tlazolteotl both provoked and pardoned licentiousness, explaining Her moniker “The Eater of Filth.”

The second part of Her name, teotl, signifies a deity, and in this generic form could refer to male or female. However, Tlazolteotl is almost always considered female. The early Spanish clerics compared Her to the Roman Venus because of Her connections to sexuality. Tlazoltetol not only encompasses illicit love, overindulgence, and dissolute behavior but also is the pardoner for those who engage in Her excesses.

Tlazolteotl is considered a lunar and agrarian Goddess. She is identified with the trecena [2] of the ritual calendar that begins with the day Ce Ollin, or First Movement. She is associated with the day sign of the jaguar. She was honored by the peoples of eastern coastal Mexico, the Huastecs, Mixtecs, and Olmecs, as well as the Aztecs of central Mexico. She was known by various names, including Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina and Tlazolteotl-Tlaelquani, indicative of Her many aspects.

Detail, page 39 of the Codex Borgia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Fertile and Generative Black
Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina originated in the rich fertile areas of the Huastec peoples in the lands bordering the Gulf of Mexico in the modern states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas. The Huastec region is a rich fertile area, especially known as a cotton growing region, with a long history of trading with Central Mexico. In a statue from post-Classic Huastec, Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina wears a conical hat indigenous to this region. On page 39 of the Codex Borgia [3], a ring of Cihuateteo (women who died in childbirth and were deified) dance around two figures. The Cihuateteo wear the typical red and black skirts and huipils of Tlazolteotl, adorned with crescent moons. The shells on their skirts, as well as the typical Huastec crescent moon nose ornament, connect them with the lunar cycles. Though the moon was considered the purview of a male deity, the cycles, the regenerative aspect, and the motion were female.

A number of Tlazolteotl figurines were part of an offering burial in honor of the Cihuateteo. These figurines show Tlazolteotl in Her aspect as midwife. In each hand She holds the bands used in traditional postpartum binding practice.[4] Though more obvious on these figurines in person than in photo, Her mouth is painted black.

In fact, Tlazolteotl’s most distinctive feature is the black on Her mouth and chin. The Olmecs used bitumen, a black viscous material, as paint for decoration on everything from pottery to the human body. Bitumen was chewed publicly only by girls and unmarried women (McCafferty 33)[5].

Bitumen (also called tar or asphalt) is the byproduct of decomposed organic materials. Could there possibly be a more apt decoration for Tlazolteotl than a paint made of deep, black, decomposed material associated with the burgeoning sexuality of young women? The black around Her mouth is linked with Her role as an “eater of sins,” as the “eater of filth,” but here the sin and filth are transformed into symbols of the dark erotic genesis of life.

Spinning, Weaving, and Sex
In her name Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina, the Ixcuina is from the Huastec for “Goddess of Cotton” (Sullivan 12). Her headdress usually includes two spindles of unspun cotton, which connect Her to weaving and to the rich cotton-growing region of the Huastec.

Tlazolteotl riding a broom.
Drawing © 2009 Sage Starwalker Collins, after the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer (circa 1400-1521), World Museum Liverpool (England).

In Mesoamerica, woven cotton textiles were used as a medium of exchange, and women were the principle weavers, bringing money and prestige to the household through their weaving. A spindle full of thread is also called a mazorca, the word for a full ear of corn, as they are similar in form. The strands of cotton that hang from the spindles in Her headdress mimic the tassel on the ear of corn. The life-cycle of corn parallels the cycle of spinning, from waxing to waning, and both parallel the human life cycle (Sullivan 28-29). Cotton had other connections to the female cycle, as the bark of the cotton plant was used for uterine contractions and to induce menstruation (Sullivan 19).

The act of weaving also had sexual connotations, as we see in this Nahuatl riddle: “What is it that they make pregnant, that they make big with child in the dancing place? The answer is ‘The spindles,’ and the dancing place is the bowl where the spindles are set” (Sullivan 14). Spinning and weaving were tied to women’s lives in metaphoric and concrete ways.[6]

Tlazoteotl-Ixcuina is associated with a four-part sisterhood: First Born, Younger Sister, Middle Sister, and Youngest Sister, each of which is named Tlazolteotl. This quadripartite representation may have lunar aspects, as the four phases of the moon (Baéz-Jorge 100). These sisters were the goddesses of carnality or lust, and the cleric Sahagún writes that “their names signified that all women have an aptitude for carnal acts” (36). I interpret this as an illustration of the female capacity, throughout her life, to embody the sacred cycle of generation, death, and regeneration. And certainly lust, the drive for connection and regeneration, is seated deeply in the female purview, and here most obviously connected to lunar cycles.

Purification and Pardoning
As Tlazolteotl-Tlaelquani, she is the “Eater of Excrement”, the pardoner of sins. Sahagún writes that the old or terminally ill would seek Her because this absolution could only be given once in a lifetime. Her clergy would not only hear confessions and grant absolution but would also find those, especially adulterers, who did not confess and bring them to public punishment. Tlazolteotl was invoked at a new birth, to cleanse a baby of her parents’ transgressions.

From the Tonalamatl de los Pochtecas comes a lovely image of Tlazolteotl. She is nude, wearing an elaborate headdress, and riding a broom. Her headdress includes the usual spools of unspun cotton, as well as a shell, showing her ties with the lunar cycles. She is drawn with a wrinkled paunch, symbolic of a woman who has given birth. She holds a red snake, symbol of the fertility of menstrual flow (Baéz-Jorge 100) The broom is a reference to the Aztec purification festival of Ochpaniztli, which honored the female deities, including Tlazolteotl.

As Tlazolteotl-Tlaelquani, She was the Goddess of the black, fertile earth, the rotting earth, the fecund earth that gains its energy from death, and in turn feeds life. Associated with purification, expiation, and regeneration, She turns all garbage, physical and meta-physical, into rich life.

Detail, page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Embodying the cycle
Tlazolteotl, Goddess of Cotton, Goddess of Filth, Eater of Excrement. She is the regenerative power of the earth, the midwife, and the pardoner. One of the most provocative renditions of Tlazolteotl is from the Codex Borbonicus. She squats in the birth-giving position, wearing the conical Huastec hat with tassels, similar to the tassels on new corn. She wears black and red, decorated with crescent moons which, to my eye, mimic the shape of a vulva.

This drawing shows Tlazolteotl conceiving a child (see the child coming from above and to the right, footprints leading to the place of conception, the head), and She births a child who wears a headdress, earrings, and necklace just like her mother. While embodying this cycle of life, Tlazolteotl wears the flayed skin of the sacrificial victim (the dimpled skin always signifies this, but it is very obvious here with the extra hands hanging below), a symbol of death feeding life.

Tlazoteotl is associated with the trecena beginning with Ce Ollin, 1 Movement. The glyph for ollinshows the combining of two elements to form movement, symbolizing the active principle. The symbol for ollin is here as well in the two snakes to the right — one fleshed and the other discarnate. The two, intertwined, convey in vivid detail the interdependence of death and life.

In this image, She is the cycle of death and life, of death feeding life, of life cycling to death. The twinned snakes encapsulate ollin, the movement of life. Tlazolteotl is the provoker and the pardoner, the active female principle in the continual cycle of death and life.

Notes

1. All translations from the Spanish are my own.
2. A trecena is a 13-day period of time in the ritual calendar (the Tonálpohualli). The entire 260-day ritual calendar cycle consists of 20 “months” of 13 days each. The name trecena comes from trece, which is Spanish for thirteen.
3. The Mesoamericans recorded their history and lore in a pictographic/logographic language drawn on long strips of paper referred to as “codices” (sing. codex). The paper, often made from deer hide, bark, or reeds, was whitewashed, allowing the full color of the graphics to be shown. The codices were often written on both sides of a long strip, and then folded accordion-style. The name of a codex often refers to its present location or owner. For example, the Codex Borgia was owned by Cardinal Borgia; it presently resides in the Vatican.
4. “Massage and binding is a traditional postpartum ritual practiced by the Maya women in the Yucatan…. In the final stage of the massage process, another female relative (usually the mother-in-law) helps the midwife by laying the binder over the abdomen and passing the ends to each other under the small of her back. The binder is cinched around the pelvis as tightly as the woman can stand it.” Fuller, Nancy and Brigitte Jordan. “Maya Women and the End of the Birthing Period: Postpartum Massage-and-Binding in Yucatan, Mexico”. Medical Anthropology, 5(1): 35-50, 1981
5. Bitumen was chewed by men only in private. Men publicly chewing bitumen were considered homosexuals.
6. See McCafferty and McCafferty for a full examination of women and weaving.

Bibliography

• Báez-Jorge, F. (1988). Los oficios de las diosas [The stations of the goddesses]. Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana.
• Fernandez, A. (1999). Dioses Prehispanicos de Mexico. Mexico City, Panorama Editorial.
• Klein, C. “Teocuitlatl, ‘Divine Excrement’: The Significance of ‘Holy Shit’ in Ancient Mexico. Art Journal, Vol. 52, No. 3, Scatological Art (Autumn, 1993), pp. 20-27.
• McCafferty, S.D. and G. G. McCafferty (1991). “Spinning and Weaving as Female Gender Identity in Post-Classic Mexico.” In Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes: An Anthology, edited by M. Schevill, J.C. Berlo, and el. Dwyer, pp. 19-44. Garland, New York.
• Sahagún, B. (1999). Historia general de las cosas de nueva España [General history of things of New Spain] (A. M. Garibay K., Trans.). Mexico City, Editorial Porrúa. (Original work published 1829).
• Sullivan, T. “Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina: The Great Spinner and Weaver”. The Art and Iconography of late post-Classic Mexico, Ed. Elizabeth Hill Boone. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC. pp. 7-37.

Graphics Credits

• Tlazolteotl, photo © 2007 Anne Key. All rights reserved.
• detail, page 39 of the Codex Borgia, courtesy of wikimedia commons.
• Tlazolteotl riding a broom, drawing © 2009 Sage Starwalker Collins, after the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer (circa 1400-1521), World Museum Liverpool (England). All rights reserved.
• detail, page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, courtesy of wikimedia commons.

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Anne Key, PhD
Imbolc 2009, Vol 8-2
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Discover More: “ASWM Presents MatriFocus”

Chicomecóatl, Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Veracruz
Photo © 2001 Anne Key

For some Mesoamerican cultures, Chicomecóatl was one of the most important agrarian goddesses.[1] She is considered one of the oldest deities and is counted as one of several maize divinities, though Her reach was much farther. She is the Goddess of all nourishment, seen as the protector of all food and drink. She is credited with being the first to make tortillas and other delicious and exquisite dishes and stews. At the time of the conquest, She was honored with temples in Central Mexico.[2]

Her name means “Seven Snake,” and she is also called, “Seven Ears of Maize.”[3]Typically She is shown with a headdress called an amacalli, a paper house; Her priestesses also wore these headdresses. She is often depicted carrying ears of corn. Her face, body, clothes, and sandals are ochre-colored, possibly as a reminder of the blood sacrifice that is the genesis of life in the Mesoamerican creation stories. She wears a necklace of green stone, probably jade. This, along with the waterflowers often painted on her huipil[4] link her to Tláloc, the rain deity, as well as Chalchihuitlicue, the Goddess of terrestrial waters. Chicomecóatl wears bells and rattles on her legs, no doubt to evoke the rain, the rattle of the snake, and the joy of dance in celebration of the fecundity of the earth.

In Her iconography, Chicomecóatl is often shown with maize tassels. These tassels, which form on the top of the ear of maize, are likened to human hair. The Mayan carving commonly referred to as “The Foliated Cross” from Palenque clearly shows the relationship between human and maize — the ears of maize are human heads, and the maize tassels are human hair.

Her name, a combination of the number seven (chicome) and snake (coatl)resonates on numerous levels. For the Mesoamericans, snakes were multivalent symbols, unifying many interrelated pieces. In rituals, snakes symbolized the life-force intrinsic in the foods and other gifts offered to deities. Snakes formed the connection between the material and the spiritual realms.

Snakes are associated with Goddesses who present an offering or libation. Chicomecóatl holds a cup in her right hand, expressing her connections to water and rain. In her left hand, she carries a shield with a painted sun, honoring the life-giving properties of the sun. With these accoutrements, She expresses the connection between earthly and feminine fecundity.

Snakes also signify regeneration; they are an image of the synthesis of the generative power of the cosmos.[5] On an even more practical, agrarian level, snakes predate upon many of the small animals that eat seeds and grain stores. This may be connected to Chicomecóatl in Her guise as the guardian of foodstuffs.

The number seven carries significance as well, especially in its connection to the lunar cycle. There are 28 (the product of 7×4) days in each lunar cycle. The lunar cycle is connected both to the gestation cycle[6] and to the ritual/divinatory calendar, the Tonálpohualli, which consists of 280 (the product of 28×10) days. The calendar date named chicomecóatl, or seven-snake, occurs on the seventh day of the seventh trecena[7] of the Tonálpohualli. These various intertwinings of Her name link and re-link Her to fecundity.

Chicomecóatl, on the Lápida de Aparicio, Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Veracruz
Photo © 2001 Anne Key

One of the most interesting depictions of Chicomecóatl is on the Lápida de Aparicio, a carved stone found in Aparicio, Veracruz, dating from the Classic Era (2500-900 BCE). In the carving, we can see a ball-player in full gear, including the yugo[8] around the waist. From the player’s neck spring seven snakes in place of the head. There are numerous interpretations of this piece. It may represent a sacrificed ball-player, graphically linking the sacrifice of life with the continued fecundity of the earth. The carving may also represent Chicomecóatl Herself, as both Goddess and ball player, participating in a grand ritual game of fertility.

Across Mesoamerica, ball courts are found within ceremonial centers. These courts hosted ball games that held sacred significance. The ball game resembled soccer; however, players were only allowed to use their hips or thighs and upper arms to control the ball. A number of feminine figures representing ball-players have been found in the Veracruz area. At many of the ball courts, commemorative stelae show female personages.

The ball game began with the earliest of the Mesoamericans, the Olmecs, “the people of rubber country,” as the Aztecs named them. Rubber was considered a sacred substance, made from the the “blood” (sap) of the rubber tree, and the great ball games throughout Mesoamerica were played with rubber balls. Rubber was also taken medicinally, to treat various ailments. It was frequently used in ritual adoration; traces are found around the mouths of the statues of the Goddess Tlazolteotl, and bits were used for pegging paper offerings and copal to deity statues. Though the specifics of the ball game remain hypothetical, it is certain that the game was connected to fecundity, regeneration, and the continuance of life itself. Chicomecóatl is a corporeal manifestation of these themes.

Chicomecóatl was venerated especially during the festival called Huei Tozoztli, held during the fourth month[9] (in today’s calendar, mid-April to May). This festival was one of the 18 agrarian festivals[10] celebrated annually, pegged to the 365-day solar/agrarian calendar called the Xiuhpohualli.[11] This was the time of year when the maize stalks began breaking the surface of the earth. Aptly named, the festival Huei Tozoztli is also called “the great perforation.” For the Mesoamericans, this was a time of both growth and sacrifice, for maize was one of their primary foods for sustenance.

Chicomecóatl is the embodiment of maize even in Her name, Seven Snake: the number seven is synonymous with “seeds,” and the snake, among other things, protects grain stores from vermin. Exemplifying the Mesoamerican concept of the reciprocal relationship of humans and deities is the reciprocal relationship of humans to maize. Maize was domesticated, by either accident or intent, thousands of years BCE.[12]

Wild maize has not only a tiny cob but also a thin husk over small hard kernels; in contrast, domesticated maize has thick husks that protect the large, plump, and juicy kernels, excellent for human consumption. However, the thick husks hinder self-seeding, as they must disintegrate for the maize seeds to be released. As well, the domesticated maize plant is not adapted for self-propagation because the tassel, the male part, is placed much higher than the cob, the female part.

Therefore, domesticated maize either needs to grow in a field dense with maize or rely on human pollination. It will not thrive if sparsely populated in the wild. The Mesoamericans well understood the role of humans in this cycle; they were responsible for the plants’ survival, and they depended on the plants for their own survival. For Mesoamericans, reciprocity was a central tenet of both agricultural and religious practice.

During the festival of Huei Tozoztli, home altars were decorated with maize plants, and in temples its seeds were blessed. Bulrushes were piled beside the deity statues, their white stems bloodied with self-sacrificial offerings. A culminating part of the festival was the procession of the maize. Flanked by elder priestesses,[13] the young priestesses each carried seven ears of rubber-anointed maize from last year’s crop, to be presented at the temple of Chicomecóatl. As the procession wound through the streets, everyone was silent.

As a prescribed part of the ritual, some of the young men broke the silence with noisy chatter. In answer to them, the elder priestesses severely lambasted them, saying: “And you, coward, think about this great heroic deed. You, still with your tassel[14] a youth …you have nothing to say here, for every woman is like I am.”[15] The young men answered the elder priestesses respectfully, giving honor to their lineage and begging their patience, as they were only youth. This exchange may have been part of a complex series of rites of adulthood rituals for the young men, in which the elder priestesses played an important role. After the exchange of repartee, the procession continued to the temple for the rituals.

Chicomecóatl, from The Codex Maglabecchiano, 15th century.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

All of the deities honored at this festival were presented daily with flowers and different offerings, including toasted maize, tamales, quail, candles and copal.[16] After being offered to Chicomecóatl, the food was shared and eaten. The seeds from the young priestesses’ ears of maize were taken out to sow the next year.

Elder priestesses were featured in rites of fertility. Because they had completed their obligations as agents of fecundity on earth, post-menopausal women were considered to be “donors,” committing their life-giving energies to the deities. De la Garza notes a similarity between the function of the elder priestesses and the snake, as links between the material and spiritual worlds, transferring the life-energy of the offerings: “And like the reptile (i.e. the snake), the vital energy of the sacrificial blood coils at the heads of these ancient women (or elder priestesses) giving the offerings” (318).

The festival of Huei Tozoztli was also called “the great awakening,” as Chicomecóatl was awakened from Her winter sleep. One of Her praise-songs for this festival speaks to this:

Seven Maize Ears, rise up;
Wake up! You are our mother.
Do not make us orphans.
You are already on your way to your house in Tlalocan.[17]

After the ceremonies, much dancing ensued, welcoming the new shoots and the newly awakened Chicomecóatl, Seven Snake, the Goddess of all Sustenance.[18]

Notes

Bibliography

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Anne Key, PhD
Samhain 2008, Vol 8-1
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Discover More: “ASWM Presents MatriFocus”

Cihuateotl. Provenance: Cocuite, Veracruz.
Note bicephalic dragon headdress, shell bracelets and belt. Postmortem features include mouth, eyelids, and finger and toenails.
Photo © Anne Key

The cosmology of the Mesoamericans presents a lush, complex landscape of deities and ideas. Study of this cosmology, through a particularly feminist lens, reveals powerful female deities. Among the most intriguing are the Cihuateteo[1].

The Cihuateteo (literally “women goddesses”)[2] appear in the pantheon of Mesoamerican cosmology as mortal women who died in childbirth and were then deified[3]. In regular cycles, the Cihuateteo traversed the heavens, the underworld, and the earthly plane. Daily they dwelt with the stars in the western sky in the heavenly region called Cihuatlampa (“place of women”) and accompanied the sun from noon to sunset, then through the night as it lit the underworld[4]. Every 52 days[5] in the ritual calendar[6], the Cihuateteodescended to earth to reign for a day associated with the west. It is the very regularity of the Cihuateteo’s presence that places them habitually in the lives of the Mesoamericans.

In central Mexico, Goddesses were worshipped at cihuateocalli (“goddess houses”) of different sizes and locations. The Cihuateteo were honored in neighborhood cihuateocalli built at the crossroads. During the days of the Goddesses’ descent, their images in the shrines were festooned with paper (amatetéuitl) pegged to the statues with bits of rubber or copal[7]. They were given offerings of tamales[8] and toasted corn, as well as bread shaped as butterflies and lightning rays.

On the days the Cihuateteo descended, children were cautioned to stay inside and men were warned to be careful, as contact with these Goddesses could cause palsy. These admonitions have historically been used to paint the Cihuateteo as maleficent beings. I offer another interpretation, seeing the days they descended as times when possession was imminent and viewing palsy as a symptom of possession. Only those who were skilled in dealing with divine possession should be outside on the days the Cihuateteo descended.

The negative framing of these Goddesses has led to their continued demonization. Modern writings compare them to vampires and other maleficent specters. However, according to the veneration practices of the Mesoamericans, the Cihuateteo are powerful, benevolent and munificent ancestors.

One of the most beautiful tributes to the Cihuateteo was the prayer that the midwife recited at the death of a young mother.[9] In this prayer the midwife cried at the death of her patient, urging the parents to be glad that their child had died in childbirth because she would become a Goddess and accompany the sun as a brave one, a mocihuaquetzque[10]:

My little one, my daughter, my noble woman, you have wearied yourself, you have fought bravely. By your labors you have achieved a noble death, you have come to the place of the Divine. …Go, beloved child, little by little towards them (the Cihuateteo) and become one of them; go daughter and they will receive you and you will be one of them forever, rejoicing with your happy voices in praise of our Mother and Father, the Sun, and you will always accompany them wherever they go in their rejoicing. (Sahagún 381-382)

At the end of the prayer, the midwife exhorted the new Cihuateotl not to forget her and all those left on earth, to remember and aid them as they led their hard lives on the earthly plane. This prayer portrayed the Cihuateteo as benevolent beings, honored and revered.

Throughout this prayer, the Cihuateteo were referred to in militaristic terms. They were called “brave” and extolled for “fighting bravely”, and their daily journey with the sun from noon to dusk mirrored the slain warrior’s journey with the sun from dawn to noon. The Cihuateteo were literally the embodiment of bravery. In fact, warriors would attempt to sever the middle finger of the dead woman’s left hand to use as a talisman to assure their own bravery and success in battle. The midwives and family members who carried her to her grave had to stop warriors from dismembering the body of the Cihuateteo.

The question of why the Cihuateteo were described in militaristic terms and venerated in the same way as warriors who died in battle has been much debated. Melgarejo Vivanco wrote that the Cihuateteo were given the same honor as dead warriors because it helped promote motherhood “with the incentive of deification” (167). A militaristic society, he noted, must be supplied with soldiers. This is a commonly repeated theory.

Cihuateotl. Provenance: Mexico City.
Note the skeletolized face and clawed fingers (clawed toes not visible). Belt around waist has similar ollin style knot.
Photo © Anne Key.

However, honoring women by comparing them to warriors assumes that warriors had died in battle before women died in childbirth[11]. I suggest that the scenario of the Cihuateteo existed before the culture knew war[12], and that the increasingly militaristic Mesoamerican society may have co-opted a longstanding custom of honoring women who died in childbirth to valorize its practices.

It can then be posited that warriors were given the same status as women who died in childbirth; that as an incentive for warriors to go into battle, they were to be honored as women had been honored for centuries, perhaps millennia. Women dying in childbirth were the exemplars of courage, given the highest honor available to mortals — to journey with the sun. Warriors would share this honor, giving them the same status as the Cihuateteo.

The iconography associated with the Cihuateteo differs in the various regions. The Cihuateteo statues from the state of Veracruz were modeled after the deceased bodies of individual women who died in childbirth. Multivalent symbols appear on these statues: fantastic headdresses represent the sky dragon and the earth monster; bicephalic pit-vipers wrapped around their waists represent internal female organs and attributes of deities associated with death. The vipers are tied in a knot similar to the glyph ollin, which means “movement”.

The most striking aspect of these statues is their humanness. These were real women — the artisans’ contemporaries, possibly their relatives, friends, part of their community. They were rendered as fleshy, corporeal, mortal, real. Every post-mortem detail was captured. I believe it is this humanness that makes these statues a true testament to the deceased women — they were truly revered ancestors.

In contrast, the Central Mexican Cihuateteo do not have individual characteristics; there is little variance among them. These statues are kneeling and have descarnated faces and clawed feet, contrasted with their long, luxurious hair. On the top of some of their heads, a day glyph of one of the days of the Cihuateteo’s descent is designed into the hair. Their belts or snakes are tied in the similar ollin glyph style knot. Their breasts are bared, visible above their knotted belts and skirts.

The Cihuateteo were the beloved and brave women who died in the act of childbirth. The midwife’s prayer assured the mother that her death had not been in vain, that she would be remembered for her act of bravery. The prayer poignantly expressed the bravery of the Cihuateteo, showing their honored place with the sun. There was no doubt that the Cihuateteo were powerful deities. Traversing the celestial, earthly, and underworld spheres and honored in neighborhood shrines, they were an integral part of the spiritual landscape of the Mesoamericans.

Notes

1. All translations from the Spanish or Nahuatl are mine.
2. Cihuateteo (pl); Cihuateotl (sing).
3. See Pomeroy for speculation that Spartan women who died in childbirth were also honored in the same way as warriors slain in battle.
4. The underworld portion of this cycle is not explicitly stated in Sahagún’s writings but can be found elsewhere. See Key for evidence and sources.
5. The 260-day ritual year was divided into 20 time periods called trecenas (from the Spanish trece meaning 13) made up of 13 days each. There were four sets of trecenas, each associated with one of the four directions. So in the whole 260-day cycle, five individual trecenas were associated with a single direction. The Cihuateteo descended on the first day of each trecena associated with the west: the 3rd, ce mazatl (one deer); the 7th, ce quiahuitl (one rain); the 11th, ce ozomatl (one monkey); the 15th, ce calli (one house); and the 19th, ce quauhtli (one eagle).
6. It has been suggested that this 260-day ritual cycle follows the human gestation period from the first sign of life to birth (covering 9 lunations) and is intricately associated with female cycles. See Tate for further information.
7. Copal is a fragrant tree resin burned in ritual. It is still used today.
8. Tamales are still considered sacred food, made and served on feast days. Tamales represent the human body: the masa (corn dough) is the skin, the meat is the muscle, and the red sauce is the blood.
9. Many prayers and rites of the Aztecs were recorded by B. Sahagún, one of the first clerics to arrive in Mexico from Spain. He recorded the Prayer of the Midwife in a romanized version of the indigenous oral language Nahuatl. Though his writings are certainly infused with a Catholic overlay, they are one of the few extant sources for pre-conquest rituals, prayers, and beliefs. For a beautiful rendition of many of the sacred sayings and prayers, see Sullivan and Knab.
10. This term is sometimes translated as “brave ones”, “valiant women” or “female warriors” and other times as “those that arose as women”. See Miller and Taube and Klein.
11. Rohrlich and Nash find “no evidence of gender and class distinctions, or of warfare, before the latter part of Toltec hegemony” (p. 93), possibly as late as 900 CE. However, more current scholarship by Marcus finds signs of warfare in the Oaxaca area by 700-500 BCE. According to Marcus, from 1400 to 1150 BCE the society was egalitarian, with families “integrated through participation in village ritual” (p. 2). However, signs of hereditary inequality began appearing in 1150 BCE, and by 700-500 BCE, warfare was evident.
12. de Piña Chán speculates that the Cihuateteo date from the Formative era but that they do not appear in statuary until the Classic era on the Gulf Coast (p. 152).

Works Cited

• Key, Anne. Death and the Divine: The Cihuateteo, Goddesses in the Mesoamerican Cosmovision. Diss. California Institute of Integral Studies, 2005.
• Klein, Cecilia. “The devil and the skirt: An iconographic inquiry into the pre-Hispanic nature of the Tzitzimime”. Ejournal: Revista estudios de cultural Náhuatl. 31 (2000): April 20, 2003, http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/cultura_nahuatl/ecnahuatl31/ECN31002.pdf.
• Marcus, J. Women’s Ritual in Formative Oaxaca: Figurine-making, Divination, Death, and the Ancestors. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1988
• Melgarejo Vivanco, J. L. Los Totonaca y su cultura [The Totonacs and their culture]. Xalapa, Mexico: Universidad Veracruzana. 1985.
• Miller, Mary and Karl Taube. The Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. New York: Thames and Hudson. 1993.
• de Piña Chán, Beatriz.B. “ Elementos psicopompos en la arqueología mexicana [Psychopomp elements in Mexican archaeology]”. Ed. H. K. Kocyba, Y Gonález Torres, & R. Piña Chán Historia comparativa de las religiones Mexico City, Mexico: INAH. 1988. 145-168.
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. Spartan Women. New York: Oxford University Press. 2002.
• Rohrlich, R., & Nash, J. “The patriarchal puzzle: State formation in Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica”. (No publication information available.) 1981. 90-95.
• Sahagún, Bernardino. Historia general de las cosas de nueva españa. Transl. A.M. Garibay K. Mexico City: Editorial Porrúa. 1999.
• Sullivan, Thelma D. and Timothy J. Knab. A Scattering of Jades: Stories, Poems, and Prayers of the Aztecs. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 2003.
• Tate, Carolyn. “Writing on the Face of the Moon”. Manifesting Power: Gender and the Interpretation of Power. Ed. Tracy Sweely. New York: Routledge. 1999. 81-102

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Anne Key, PhD
Lammas 2009, Vol 8-4
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Discover More: “ASWM Presents MatriFocus”

In 2006, another giant monolith was found at the Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Like the Coatlicue monolith found decades earlier, this new discovery also towers at over seven feet tall. She is Tlaltecuhtli, the Earth Goddess.

Images of Tlaltecuhtli are often found carved on the bottom of Aztec sculptures — where the sculpture comes in contact with the earth. The most famous of these images is the one on the bottom of the giant Coatlicue from the Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Representations of Tlaltecuhtli are found at the murals of Teotihuacan, a ceremonial center near modern-day Mexico City.

Her name literally means “earth-lord” (Tlal =land; cuhtli = lord).[1] While the suffix of her name connotes male gender, she appears in myth as female and her pictorial representation is decidedly female, usually in the birth-giving posture. Midwives prayed to Tlaltecuhtli in the cases of difficult birth. Also she was invoked as the Sun in prayers to another Aztec deity, Tezcatlipoca (Miller 168). Tlaltecuhtli is the Earth Goddess, part of the Central Mexican pantheon, and her image stretches into the Mayan territories.

Image and Meaning
One of Tlaltecuhtli’s most distinctive features is her gaping maw, showing flint knives[2] for teeth and a protruding tongue. Her hands and feet are often clawed, bringing to mind both predatory birds and carrion-eaters. Here she is pictured with skull masks at her elbows and feet as well as in her hands. Her birth-giving posture connects her to frog imagery.

Tlaltecuhtli, Templo Mayor, Mexico City

The open mouth of the Tlaltecuhtli can be seen as a tomb — or as a womb. On the first page from the Tonalámatl de los Pochtecas the Earth Goddess appears, jaws wide, teeth exposed. Out of her mouth grows the tree of life. The tree of life growing from these jaws of death completes this picture of the earth as womb and tomb, and of the mouth and eating as analogous to birth and death.

Images of the Earth Goddess appear in Maya iconography as well. In the Mayan ceremonial complex of Izapa, Stele 25 shows the Earth Goddess as a crocodile, arranged vertically, pointing headfirst towards the ground with her tail becoming a tree.[3] These are two beautiful symbols of the creative force of the earth as represented by the Earth Goddess, connecting her with trees, the firmament, and the act of creation either out of her own mouth or with her own body. The Izapan style Earth Goddess represents the earth and death and the “dynamics between death and birth that govern the universe”, according to De la Garza (2002, p. 98), who identifies the symbolism of the Earth Goddess or, as she terms it, the “Terrestrial Dragon” as linking life and death:

Considering its relationship with the earth, the dragon symbolized the earthly surface, as well as the generating power hidden inside. Thus it is linked with the death god who dwells there, the jaguar, who is a symbol of the dead Sun, the netherworld, and the night sky.(122)

The Earth Goddess resembles a crocodile here but has also been identified in both English and Spanish interpretations as a variety of beings: snake, alligator (caimán), crocodile or lizard (lagarto or lagartija), dragon, and mythical monster/creature. Whatever species, mythical or real, that the Earth Goddess represents, she unites both telluric and aquatic aspects.

The image of the caimán corresponds to the day-sign Cipactli. Ce Cipactli (one-caimán), is the first day of the 260-day ritual calendar. As the ritual calendar can represent the cycle of human life, Cipactli represents the beginning of life. Tlaltecuhtli is the maw of life and death, the mouth that is womb and tomb. And as we will see in the following myth, she is the incarnation of the earth.

Myth
The Earth Goddess is associated with the very creation of the earth. She stands as a symbol of telluric creation and as a symbol of the creative capacity of the earth. In myths and the codices, the Earth Goddess in her form as Cipactli literally becomes the earth; she is a primordial sea creature whose dismembered body forms the earth.

From the 16th century manuscript Histoyre du Mechique comes the myth of the creation of the earth (Markman 213). In this myth, the two gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca carried Tlaltecuhtli from heaven to earth. When they arrived on earth, they found it covered with water and realized they needed to create land. The two gods changed themselves into two snakes and seized Tlaltecuhtli by the hands and feet and pulled her with such force that she was severed. Her body from her shoulders down became the earth, and from the shoulders up it became the heavens.

The other deities were extremely upset by the actions of these two gods. In order to recompense Tlaltecuhtli, all the gods arrived on earth to console her and deemed her the source of all sustenance:

And in order to do this, they made from her hair trees and flowers and grasses, from her skin the very fine grass and small flowers, from her eyes wells and fountains and small caverns, from her mouth rivers and great caverns, from her nose mountain valleys, and from her shoulders mountains. And this goddess sometimes wept at night, desiring to eat men’s hearts, and would not be quiet until they were offered to her, nor would she bear fruit unless she was watered with the blood of men. (Markman 213)

This myth has a blatantly misogynistic overlay, possibly from the original manuscript by a Spanish chronicler (which has since been lost) or by the French translator, or by the orator himself. Certainly this view is limited: The earth as an unwilling participant in creation and the reciprocal relationship of human to earth as based in sadness and anger.

However, the underlying storyline shows Tlaltecuhtli as the earth; the earth is literally the Goddess incarnate. Her body is the contours of the land, and all nourishment and sustenance come from her. Commenting on this myth, Carrasco likens the theme of dismemberment to the act of creation: “This combination of dismemberment and creation is an emphatic characteristic of Mesoamerican mythology. The creation of the world is constantly joined in the destruction of the world in mythic narratives” (440). Viewed through a different lens, one where the dismemberment happens willingly, the earth is the gift of the Goddess, and the reciprocal sacrifice that humans offer is their gift to her.

Báez-Jorge sees the Earth Goddess as the center of a quadripartite group of deities: Cóatlicue as the origin of the celestial deities; Chicomecóatl as the provider of sustenance; Cihuacóatl as motherhood and death;and Chalchiuhtlicue as controlling terrestrial waters. In the center is the Earth Mother, the “sacred essence that incorporates the totality of the numinous characteristics that are dialectically linked (human fertility and vegetation; life and death; phases of the moon, etc.) and in turn that which is realized by an internal connection that unifies these distinct responsibilities” (132-133).

The Jaws of Life and Death
Tlaltecuhtli is the earth incarnate, the in-carn-ation of the earth; the earth made flesh. The Earth Goddess embodies the duality of creation and death. The Goddess has her mouth open to give and receive in reciprocal relationship with those who dwell in her.

A song from the Nahua peoples of San Miguel in Sierra del Puebla beautifully portrays this relationship of earth and human. The earth, the most holy earth, is the source of life for the people of San Miguel. As they themselves say here:

We live HERE on this earth (stamping on the mud floor)
We are all fruits of the earth
The earth sustains us
We grow here, on the earth and lower
And when we die, we wither on the earth
We are ALL FRUITS of the earth (stamping on the mud floor).
We eat of the earth
Then the earth eats us. (Broda 107)

Notes

Bibliography

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
Lammas 2009, Vol 8-4
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Discover More: “ASWM Presents MatriFocus”

Tanit, with a pill-box crown, the “polos.” She is dressed in a robe in the Greek style. Her jewelry consists of a glass-paste necklace with graduated beads, and gold earrings.  Her arms are in what was probably a “blessing” position, and they have some limited movement. A number of other figurines like this came from Ibiza. Terracotta. Half life-size. Fifth-fourth century BCE. Found in the Punic graveyard of Puig des Molins, Ibiza, Spain (The Phoenicians settled in Spain around 650 BCE.) Archaeological Museum, Barcelona.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after photograph at http://tinyurl.com/lkzmxs.

When I was in Malta with a group in 1992, I got permission from the archaeological museum to visit the excavations at Tas Ṡilg,[1] a promontory overlooking the picturesque harbor of Marsaxlokk. Not far outside the gate to the excavations, we could see the small church of Our Lady of the Hail on part of the hill. The excavations were at that time overgrown, fragrant with herbs and full of small lizards, but the dark-red and grey mosaic floor under my feet gave witness to an earlier glory. I was standing on part of the huge sanctuary that had covered the hill. It had been dedicated, variously, to Phoenician Astarte, possibly to Carthaginian Tanit, to Greek Hera, and to Roman Juno Caelestis. I climbed over the exposed Phoenician walls to where the remains of a megalithic temple were quite recognizable. When the archaeologists dug into that area, they found a damaged but splendid statue of one of the so-called “fat ladies” of Malta. So, from the megalithic temple of about 3000 BCE to the Virgin Mary chapel of today, Tas Ṡilg has continued to be sacred to goddesses.

Female figure wearing a loose robe and wrapped with wings from the hips down. A veil topped by a hawk’s head covers her curly hair. In her right hand  she holds a small dove-shaped incense burner and in her left a small bowl. Earrings and bracelet complete her outfit. Everything suggests that she was a priestess of Tanit in her robes of office. A figurine of Tanit with wings was found in Ibiza in the Balearic Islands. Relief sculpture from a coffin. From Carthage. End of fourth century-beginning of third century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, Moscati 1999: Plate 9.

The heyday of the great temple began when the Carthaginians gained control of the Maltese archipelago in the 6th century BCE. Over the next 300 years, the temple, now belonging to Astarte and Tanit, grew in grandeur and wealth until, in 218 BCE, the Carthaginians lost Malta to the Romans. As was their custom, the Romans identified the local goddess with their Juno Caelestis and expanded the sanctuary on a grand scale, with a monumental gateway and magnificent mosaic floors. This rich and flourishing temple complex was certainly the world-famous sanctuary to Juno that Roman orator Cicero accused Caius Verres of pillaging while governor of Sicily and Malta, between 73 and 71 BCE. Despite Verres’s depredations, the temple survived well into our era, still dedicated to Tanit’s Roman counterpart, Juno Caelestis.

The great Carthaginian goddess Tanit is definitely still a puzzle. We do know that she was the tutelary or protector goddess of the city of Carthage, originally a Phoenician colony in North Africa (Aubet 2001: 343). However, scholars are still undecided on the spelling and meaning of her name, her origins, her personality and powers, and, most of all, the question of her having been the prime recipient of child sacrifices at Carthage and elsewhere in the Punic (Carthaginian) and Phoenician world.[2]

In the closely related Semitic dialects Phoenician and Punic,[3] the goddess’s name was written tnt (Lipiński 1995: 199). Scholars have rendered it diversely as Tanit, Tannit, Tanit(h), Tennit, or Tinnit. However, its meaning is still disputed. One explanation is that it comes from the Semitic root “to lament” and so signifies “She Who Weeps,” perhaps for a disappearing (dying) god like Adonis (Lipiński 1995: 199; Lipiński in Lipiński 1992: 438). Yet other scholars translate Tanit as “Dragon or Serpent Lady.” This would be an example of an epithet “later personified as a distinct goddess” (Meyers 1997: IV, 316). “Tanit,” according to this theory, derived from the same root as Tannin, the snaky, dragon-like sea monster of Canaanite myth and the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah 51: 9; Ezekiel 29: 3-5) (Olyan 1988: 53-54 note 63). The first to make this suggestion was F. M. Cross, and he also argued that Tanit began as an epithet of the Canaanite goddess Asherah (1973:32-33; Olyan 1988: 58).

Head of goddess Tanit on coin from Carthage, her city. Such coins often had a war (?) horse on one side. Tanit’s elaborate coiffure is held in place by a band of what looks like plaited grain. She wears earrings and two necklaces. Coin probably produced during the Second Punic War, 218-202 BCE, when Carthaginian general Hannibal crossed the Alps and invaded Italy. British Museum. Electrum. 14 mm in diameter, 2.76 g in weight.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after a photograph at http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/.

Not surprisingly, most scholars treat Tanit as having come from the Phoenician mainland — as a descendant of one or more of the great Canaanite goddesses. Many think she was a Punic version of Astarte (Hardin 1963:87-88), but in some temples the two were clearly separate deities, though related (Ahlström 1986: 312; Betlyon 1985: 53-54). Some argue that her name is a version of Anat (Hvidberg-Hansen 1986: 178; Albright 1968: 42ff.). A few others see her as either originating in North Africa or being a combination of an indigenous North African goddess with one or more of the Phoenician/Canaanite deities (Ben Khader and Soren 1987: 44-45). An older explanation connects Tanit with the Egyptian goddess Neith (Olyan 1988: 54 note 63).

Small figure of a Phoenician lady or priestess wearing long robe and cloak, part of which she holds in her left hand. Her jewelry consists of earrings, two necklaces, and what looks like a wrap-round snaky bracelet. Her ornate coiffure is held back by headbands, and she wears sandals. Likely an ornament or handle of a large cult vessel. From Golgoi, Cyprus. Seventh century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Harden 1963: Plate 71.

The Greeks called her Tenneith or Tinnith and, as mentioned above, identified her with Hera, while the Romans named her Juno Caelestis. The Syrian who became Roman emperor (203-222 CE) under the name Elegabalus, which means “God of the Mountain” (Baal Hamon “Lord of Mt. Amanus”?), identified his empress with Juno Caelestis. He took her statue to Rome, where he built a temple for her on the Capitoline Hill next to that of Juno Moneta (Benko 2004: 33). So, as Caelestis, Tanit was worshiped in Rome. (Benko 2004: 30-33). She was also identified with Artemis and Persephone (Lipiński 1995:205).

From the evidence of archaeology, there can be no doubt that Tanit was a very popular goddess in Phoenician settlements in the West. However, today there is evidence that Tanit was known and worshiped in Phoenician proper. A tantalizing Carthaginian inscription found in 1898 read “To the Lady [Chief] Ashtart and Tannit in lbnn [Lebanon?],” but scholars were unsure what lbnn meant[4] (Bordreuil 1987; Cross 1973: 30). However, an ivory plaque solved the problem. The plaque, found in an 8th century BCE temple at Phoenician Sarepta, was dedicated to “Tanit and Astarte.” This constituted the first evidence that Tanit was worshiped in the Phoenician homeland, especially what is now Lebanon (Bordreuil 1987: 81). Before that find, Tanit was thought to be a strictly western and Carthaginian goddess (Aubet 2001: 68).

In 1971, a fisherman hauled in a group of figurines from the seabed off the coast of Israel. He had come upon a shipwreck dated to the 5th century BCE carrying, among other things, what turned out to be more than 400 mold-made terracotta figurines. From the “sign of Tanit” on the bases of some of them, scholars have identified them as representing Tanit. They were probably destined for one of the Phoenician temples, to be sold to worshipers as offerings or keepsakes (Meyers 1997: V, 17-18).

One of Astarte’s titles at ancient Ugarit in Syria and in Phoenicia was Shem Baal (shm b’l) “Name of Baal,” and it is interesting that Pane Baal (pn b’l) “Face [or Presence] of Baal” was a Tanit epithet in Punic inscriptions. It might have indicated that Tanit represented Baal (Hamon) in some way (Seow in Toorn et al. 1999: 322). In addition, in one 5th-century BCE inscription, Astarte was also called Pane Baal (Betlyon 1985: 54). However, Edward Lipiński, who thinks the epithet tnt signifies “She Who Weeps,” suggests that Tanit Pane Baal meant “Pleureuse en face de Baal” — “Weeper in the Presence of Baal” (1995: 2003). Undoubtedly, Tanit and Astarte were closely connected.

Ornate Carthaginian stela, with two images of Tanit. One, in the bottom right-hand corner, a frontally posed nude with hand touching a flowering tree (life, fertility?), the other a human-faced, coiffed “sign of Tanit” with crescent and sun above her head. Her human hands hold cornucopias. One cornucopia pours forth grapes, the other a pomegranate, all symbols of fertility. The space is further filled with flowers and leaves. Small circles with a central dot may represent breasts? From Carthage, now in the British Museum. Limestone. Neo-Punic, second century CE. Height 47.500 cm.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Tubb 1998: 145.

Tanit and Asherah may have been associated as well (Brody 1998: 30). A later title of Tanit, rabat “Chief,” usually translated “Lady,” was also one of Asherah’s epithets and indicated the supreme status of both goddesses (Ribichini in Toorn et al. 1999: 340).

In Carthage at the height of her power and elsewhere in the Punic world, Tanit’s consort was Baal Ham(m)on, “Lord of Mt. Amanus,” identified with Canaanite high god El and later with Zeus (Clifford 1990: 61-62; Olyan 1988: 5). The Romans, however, equated him with their god Saturnus (Brody 1998: 22). Inscriptions before the 5th century BCE were usually dedicated to Baal Hamon alone. After the fifth century Tanit Pane Baal had joined him in the dedications and soon was being mentioned first. One example, from Carthage, reads: “To the Lady Tanit Face [Presence] of Baal and the Lord Baal Hammon, offering made by Bodashtart son of Hamilcar, son of Abdmelcart, son of Bodashtart, because he heard his prayer” (quoted from Harden 1963: 120). Not long into the 5th century BCE, Tanit seems to have supplanted Baal Hamon as main deity of Carthage, at least in the religion of ordinary folk.

The details of Tanit’s nature and powers are not really clear. Like Astarte, she had a complex personality (Markoe 2000:130). First and foremost, she was the mother deity of Carthage, protector of the city and provider of fertility. As such she seems to have been a deity of good fortune. Goddess of the heavens, she was often associated with the moon (Benko 2004: 23). Like Asherah, she had maritime connections and was a patron of sailors (Brody 1998: 32-33; Betlyon 1985: 54). There is also some indication that she had a warlike nature, as we would expect of the protector of a city (Ahlström 1986: 311).

On carvings, Tanit’s presence was often signaled by dolphins or other fish as befitted her patronage of sailors.[5] Fertility symbols also abounded: pomegranates, palm trees, bunches of grapes, grain, leaves, and flowers. Indicators of her celestial connections were the crescent moon and sun. A caduceus entwined with what look like snakes might refer to Tanit as “She of the Snake” or, as one scholar has suggested, it might be a stylized version of Asherah’s sacred tree (Carter 1987: 378). Often, dove-like birds appear (Benko 2004: 24; Moscati 1999: 139). On some stelae an enigmatic open hand might suggest the delivery of a blessing (Azize 2007:196). In addition, Tanit was depicted in winged form in a cult cave on the Spanish island of Ibiza (Lipiński 1995:424-425; Ferrer 1970).

Many stelae feature the so-called “Sign of Tanit,” perhaps a stylized human body, formed by a triangle topped with a circle, the two shapes being separated by a horizontal line usually with upturned ends. Sometimes it also included a crescent (moon?). Since the circle occasionally had a human face sketched on it, the “Sign of Tanit” is generally accepted as representing the goddess, though some think the circle to be the disk of the full moon (Lipiński 1995: 206-215).

(left) Punic stela from Cirta (Constantine), which lay west of and inland from Carthage in North Africa. A stylized human-shaped “sign of Tanit” stands above a dolphin, Greek symbol of maternity. One arm bears a “caduceus.” Below the dolphin an inscription fills a rectangular space. No earlier than the third century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Moscati 1999: Plate 18.
(right) Votive stela from the “tophet” at Carthage. Punic inscription, which fills the square at the bottom, says that the stela was dedicated to Baal (Hamon) by a man with a Romanized name, Gaius Julius Arish, son of Adon-Baal. British Museum. Limestone. Length 75 cms, width 38 cms. Second-first century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after photograph online at www.britishmuseum.org/ under title “Limestone stela with dedication to Baal.”

A huge sanctuary, a central feature of the city of Carthage, was probably dedicated to Tanit and her consort (Markoe 2000: 136). Its oldest level dated to the 8th century BCE. It was razed when the Romans finally defeated the Carthaginians in 146 BCE. In rebuilt Roman Carthage, the magnificent shrine to Juno Caelestis was “one of the greatest and most influential sanctuaries” in the Empire (Benko 2004: 23). Christian sources reported that the temple was the most public space in Carthage and was still being used in the time of St. Augustine (353-430 CE), a native of the city (Benko 2004: 35-36). The temple was converted to a Christian church in 399 CE and was destroyed and turned into a Christian cemetery in 421 CE (Benko 2004: 41).[6]

Stela from the “tophet” at Carthage. It shows a priest or worshiper wearing a tight outfit (or perhaps naked with bands wound round his body?) and with a pill-box hat on his head. His right arm is raised in a gesture of worship or blessing, and he carries a small child in his left arm. In the imagery above him there are two fishes (dolphins?) and a sun with crescent — all seem to point to Tanit as the deity being honored. This stela has traditionally been interpreted as the ritual preliminary to child sacrifice, with the priest’s carrying a living infant to the altar. Alternatively, he could be commending a dead infant to Tanit’s care.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Harden 1963: Plate 35. </span

Scholars still dispute the conditions under which fetuses, infants, or children were sacrificed to deities. As elsewhere, human sacrifice seems to have been practiced in the Phoenician world in times of crisis (Aubet 2001: 246ff.). However, according to a number of Greek and, later, Christian writers, the Carthaginians regularly sacrificed their children to Baal-Hamon. Later, Tanit also received the grisly offerings. Adding to the gruesome reputation of the Phoenicians, the Hebrew Bible forbade the Israelites from burning their sons and daughters “as an offering to Molech” (2 Kings 23: 10). Such sacrifices took places at sites called “tophets” (Jeremiah 7: 31). A deity named Malik or Malek, probably originally an epithet meaning “king,” existed in the ancient Near East, since the word occurs as a theophoric or “god-bearing” element in names at Ebla, Mari, Ugarit, Phoenicia, and elsewhere (Müller in van der Toorn et al. 1999: 538-542; Lipiński 1995: 227-229; Heider 1985: 401).

Urn from the “tophet” at Carthage.  Such pottery held the cremated remains of babies or young animals. The jar style is Canaanite/Phoenician. British Museum. Fifth century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after photograph online at www.britishmuseum.org/ under title “A vessel for sacrificial ashes.”

There is little or no evidence that Malik required human sacrifice. The “Molech” in the Hebrew Bible is likely the same name presented with the vowels of the Hebrew word boshet meaning “shame” (Weinfeld 1972: 149). On the other hand, archaeologists have unearthed sacred enclosures in a number of Carthaginian cities that were extensive cemeteries. They contained the burnt remains of extremely young humans and animals interred in urns and usually marked with stelae, sometimes ornate, sometimes with inscriptions. Many of the inscriptions described the deposit as a molk, now understood as a kind of offering (Weinfeld 1972: 135 ff.). The recipient of molk offerings was originally Baal-Hamon alone and, later, Tanit joined him. Archaeologists began calling the cemeteries “tophets” and interpreting the contents of the urns as burnt sacrifices (Brown 1991: 14; Stager and Wolff 1984: 2). Because so many inscriptions mentioned Tanit, the “tophet” at Carthage became regarded as the “precinct” of the goddess (Aubet 2001: 250). Tanit was then seen as demanding child sacrifice.

(left) Stela from Lillibeum in Sicily, depicting a worshiper or priestess revering a “caduceus” with a “sign of Tanit” hovering in the top left-hand corner. As Stéphane Beaulieu pointed out, the woman appears to be pregnant. She might be praying to Tanit for a successful delivery.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Brown 1991: 300, figure 58b.
(right) Punic stela from Cirta (Constantine), a town west of and inland from Carthage in North Africa. A slightly humanized, but still sylized “sign of Tanit” holds a piece of vegetation in the right hand and a “caduceus” in the left. Brown describes the latter as a “crescent-disk” (1991: 114). Below is an incised square for an inscription.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Brown 1991: 295, figure 53b.

The cemetery at Carthage was in use from around 700 BCE to 146 BCE. It contained over 20,000 urns holding the cremated bones of young humans and animals, 80% of which were fetuses or neonates (Aubet 2001: 251-252; Schwartz 1993:49). The accepted scholarship agrees with the excavators that the bones are the result of thousands of sacrifices, especially since the inscriptions were mostly votive; that is, they indicated that the depositors owed the deities a return for a favor. An example of such an inscription is: “To our lady, to Tanit . . . and to our lord, to Ba’al Hammon, that which was vowed . . . “ (Stager and Wolff 1984). The interpretation that the vow entailed the infant in the urn may not be correct, but it is generally advanced.

The physical anthropologist Jeffrey Schwartz had a different idea about the meaning of the cemetery. He carried out extensive studies of the bones from Carthage’s “tophet.” He pointed out that burials of infants and young children were very rare at Carthage, except in the “tophet,” and that 95% of the burials outside the “tophet” consisted of older children, teenagers, and adults. He concluded that the site was a graveyard for the very young, aborted fetuses, stillborn babies, and newborns who had died of natural causes (1993: 53-56). This explanation makes sense, even in the interpretation of inscriptions. Carthaginian parents would probably have wanted to entrust their dead babies to protective deities, particularly a kindly, motherly goddess, whom they might ask for another child.

Pendants in the shape of the “sign of Tanit” found at Ashkelon in modern Israel.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after photograph online at http://cnes.cla.umn.edu/courses/archaeology/Ashkelon/AshkelonFindsFramset.html

In summary, I tend to understand Tanit as originally an epithet of the Canaanite goddess Asherah. Over time, the title became the name of a goddess in her own right. She retained many of the characteristics of her predecessor and added others from the goddesses in the complex world she inhabited. Although, in times of crisis, Tanit and her consort might have received human sacrifices (normally, young adults), the motherly goddess, giver of fertility, would have been very unlikely to ask for the sacrifice of a baby. Rather, the grieving parents gave the baby back to the goddess for safekeeping, in hope of future progeny.

Notes

Bibliography

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.