Rabbit

Rabbit, Mexica (Aztec), stone, c. 1500 CE, 33 x 22 x 24 cms., National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.

Among Nahuatl-speakers the rabbit (tochtli) was closely associated with the moon and with the intoxicating effects of pulque [alcoholic drink made from cactus juice]. Ome Tochtli (‘2-Rabbit’) was god of drunkenness and commander of the Centzon Totochtin (‘400 rabbits’), i.e. the countless attitudes that drunkards adopt as they run the gamut from happiness to sadness and from lechery to madness. This remarkably naturalistic sculpture depicts a graceful creature, hunched up with its front paws raised, alert to danger.

From Aztecs, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2002, p. 417.

Photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.