30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for older students
Find out moreWas Xochiquetzal a female Aztec warrior?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Gloria Valerio: Someone told me that in the codex cospi they mentioned that Xochiquetzal was a female aztec warrior? Is this true? How can I research this. Are there any history books, articles, internet websites that I can research for more information? Are there any books that reference female aztec warriors? (Answered/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Xochiquetzal (‘Precious Flower’) IS shown in the Codex Cospi bearing arms (arrows and a shield) (see pic 1), though this is the ONLY depiction of her in the codices carrying weapons. As the goddess of love, flowers and arts and crafts we certainly wouldn’t expect to see her depicted as a warrior, so what are we to make of this image?
We asked Davide Domenici, Assistant Professor at the Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna (Italy) (where the Codex Cospi is housed) and a world expert on the Codex, to comment. He writes:-
’As for Xochiquetzal, I think that the fact that the goddess is represented with weapons doesn’t mean at all that in the Aztec world there were female warriors. The representation of a god (or a goddess) as a warrior was meant to allude to his/her potentially destructive powers or negative influences, that is, precisely what the offering rituals were aimed at controlling. Nevertheless, there are images of “Warrior queens” in Maya art, but I think it is probably more a metaphor of their power than an actual representation of female military activity.’
As for sources on the subject of Aztec female warriors, we’re not aware of a single one specifically on this subject, but several works on the general theme of Mexica warriors contain brief sections on the role of women in Aztec warfare. One good example is Guerreros Aztecas by Marco Antonio Cervera Obregón (Nowtilus, Madrid, 2011) - see ‘La Mujer en la Actividad Militar Mexica’, pp 87-89.
We hope this helps a little...
Picture sources:-
• Pic 1: Image from the Codex Cospi scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1968
• Pic 2: Image scanned from our own copy of Los Dioses Supremos by Salvador Mateos Higuera, Enciclopedia Gráfica del México Antiguo, Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Mexico, 1992, p. 285.
Comments (3)
Taytay
21st May 2023
Oh wow, that is super interesting! Thank you!!!
Mexicolore
You’re always welcome.
Taytay
20th May 2023
Oh wow, I’ve never seen this image of Xochiquetzal before! This is so cool! :D
By the way, I’ve read that when Xochiquetzal was kidnapped by Tezcatlipoca, he only agreed to free her if she was banished from heaven. Is this true?
Mexicolore
The myths about this are rather confusing. Xochiquetzal is seduced by Tezcatlipoca in Tamoanchan (the only heaven that existed to start with), in one version in front of her first husband Tlaloc, and then ‘introduced in the cell of the virtuous Topiltzin [Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca’s great rival] by Tezcatlipoca and thus appears as the Master of Tollan’s instrument of sin’ (Guilhem Olivier, ‘Enemy Brothers or Divine Twins?’). Olivier suggests that moral transgressions such as this ‘were at the source of extraordinary changes that can assume a cosmic dimension, such as the end of an era or the expulsion from Tamoanchan’. So Xochiquetzal’s role appears to be something of an augury - of downfalls of all kinds, including the fall of the Toltecs, of humanity itself, conceivably even of the later arrival of the Spaniards...
Gloria J. Valerio
9th Nov 2014
I am extremely pleased that my question regarding Xochiquetzal as a female aztec warrior was responded to. I also give thanks to the Assistant Professor Domenici... I would like to read the book he mentioned in the passage of Mexicolore. I love this website it’s very informative. Thank you very much.
Mexicolore
You’re welcome! Thanks for taking time to write in.
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