30 May 2025 / 10 House
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Find out moreDid spiders have any symbolism to the Aztecs?
Spider women; Codex Fejérváry-Mayer pl. 25
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Ricardo: Did/do spiders have any symbolism to the aztec/nahua besides as medicine? I’ve heard of spiders being associated with mictlan and death (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore).
The use of spiders in Mexica medicine is, we feel, somewhat ambiguous. Alongside owls, scorpions and centipedes they were considered personified spirits of the dead, sent as messengers from the underworld as bad omens and forecasters of disease (Ortiz de Montellano 1990: 66, 133). On the other hand, ‘the spider, centipede and scorpion that appear in one relief in Cihuacoatl’s tousled hair served as helpers to practitioners of the magical arts in ancient Mexico (pic 1); ointments and potions made from these insects were used by Aztec curers and midwives to induce visions, solve problems and cure diseases, including those of children’ (Klein 2000: 47).
Scholars - starting with Eduard Seler over a century ago - have long indicated that spiders were symbols of Aztec tzitzimime, frightening - and usually female - star demons that may attack humans in the darkness of the night. A spider appears several times in the Codex Borbonicus alongside deities linked to the night, to stars and the moon, including Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (pic 2), Itzpapalotl, Mictlantecuhtli, Tlazolteotl and Xochiquetzal. The main picture, above, shows a spider atop a human skull, being manipulated by two old goddesses, who could well represent tzitzimime.
There are also some indications that a) celestial deities descended to earth by means of supernatural spiders’ webs, and b) that a stylised spider, as a tzitzimitl depicted on certain Mexica stone monuments, alluded to the end of the Fifth Sun era (Olivier 2003: 178).
Sources:-
• Klein, Cecelia F. (2000) ‘The Devil and the Skirt: An iconographic inquiry into the pre-Hispanic nature of the tzitzimime’, Ancient Mesoamerica vol. 11, i, Jan. 2000, pp. 1-16
• Olivier, Guilhem (2003) Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God, University Press of Colorado
• Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard (1990) Aztec Medicine, Health and Nutrition, Rutgers University Press
• Seler, Eduard (2004 - original in German, 1909-10) Las imágenes de animales en los manuscritos mexicanos y mayas, Casa Juan Pablos, Mexico.
Picture sources:-
• Main: image scanned from our copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition of the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, Graz, Austria, 1971
• Pic 1: image downloaded and adapted from Klein (2000) op cit
• Pic 2: image scanned from our own copy of the Codex Borbonicus (ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1974).
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Spider women; Codex Fejérváry-Mayer pl. 25
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