30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above
Find out moreDid Mictecacihuatl have temples dedicated to her?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Nate: Did Mictecacihuatl have any ancient temples dedicated to worshiping or working with her? If yes, what were the temples called? Where can I find out more about those temples, priests, etc.? Thanks. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
She did, but there’s virtually no information out there on her! The Appendix of Book 2 of the Florentine Codex mentions her temple - called Tlalxicco, which means ‘In the Navel of the Earth’ - but only as part of a directory of temple buildings, titled ‘Behold here a true [relation] of all the [buildings] which were the Mexicans’ temples’. No image is provided.
The names of the minor deities who served (under) her are given in the superb Enciclopedia gráfica del México antiguo by Salvador Mateos Higuera (1993), in the volume titled ‘Los Dioses Creados’. They are:-
• Ixpuxtecqui
• Nexoxocho
• Miccapetlacalli
• Chalmécatl or Tzontémoc
• Chalmecacíhuatl.
Image of Mictecacihuatl (kneeling, left) and her consort Mictlantecuhtli (seated, right) scanned from the ADEVA facsimile edition (1971) of the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.
Comments (1)
N
Nate
19th May 2023
Thank you so much for this answer. Did Santa Muerte also have Ancient temples dedicated to her as well?
M
Mexicolore
No, because Santa Muerte is a relatively new cult figure that is quite ‘young’ in historical terms - people only started following her we think around a century ago...
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