Xochiquetzal, the Aztec goddess of flowers, beauty and love

In the Mexica world, which Europeans called Aztec, love, beauty and the pleasures of life had a protector with a radiant name: Xochiquetzal, which in the Nahuatl language joins the words xochitl, flower, and quetzalli, the precious feather of the quetzal bird. What we know of her comes mainly from the chronicles and codices produced after the Spanish conquest of 1521, often with the collaboration of indigenous informants.

Flowers, feathers and arts

Xochiquetzal was the goddess of flowers and lush vegetation, of female beauty, love and sexuality. She was also the patroness of the most refined crafts: weavers, embroiderers, painters, goldsmiths and sculptors were devoted to her. In the images of the codices she appears young and elegant, with a headdress adorned with green quetzal feathers and often with flowers in her hands or around her.

Her link with weaving was no accident. In Mexica culture spinning and weaving were female activities par excellence, charged with meanings linked to fertility and creation. By protecting these arts, the goddess united the beauty of things made by human hands with that of flowering nature, in a single idea of grace and abundance.

The paradise of Tamoanchan

According to several traditions, Xochiquetzal's dwelling was in Tamoanchan, a paradise of flowering trees and waters, sometimes described as the land of origin of gods and humans. Some colonial sources mention a flowering tree of Tamoanchan and a fault committed by the gods, punished with exile from paradise; the versions, however, are fragmentary and their interpretation is debated.

The chronicles also record tales of her divine loves. According to some versions she was the wife of Tlaloc, the rain god, and was abducted by Tezcatlipoca, the powerful god of the smoking mirror, who took her away with him. In others she is associated with Xochipilli, the flower prince, god of music, dance and games, whom some scholars regard as her twin or companion.

The colonial sources

Much of what we know is owed to the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún, who in the second half of the sixteenth century gathered, with indigenous collaborators, the testimonies that went into the Florentine Codex, and to the Dominican Diego Durán, author of works on the history and rites of the Mexica. These texts, written by missionaries who wanted to know the native religion in order to fight it, must be read with caution, but they remain irreplaceable.

As with many Mexica deities, during the festivals dedicated to Xochiquetzal a person could embody her figure, dressed in her ornaments. The sources also describe dances and offerings of flowers. For women the goddess was a close presence, invoked in youth and in daily activities, while craftsmen honoured her as the one who gives beauty to the work of the hands.

Today the name of Xochiquetzal reappears in Mexican poetry and art as a symbol of beauty and love. Her figure reminds us that in Mexica religion, often associated only with war and sacrifice, there was also a sacred space devoted to flowers, to dance and to what the Nahua called flower and song, that is, poetry.