30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above
Find out moreWhat is the round green/red object in Xochipilli’s hand?
Stylised image of Xochipilli
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Jonathan Fahima: Thank you for your amazing site! I’m trying to find out what the round green/red object in Xochipilli’s hand is I enjoyed detouring more and more into aztec culture on your site. But a definite answer I haven’t found... do you have any idea what it might be? Thank you very much and greetings from Berlin (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
We’re convinced it’s the symbol for his calendrical name! Xochipilli’s name is ‘Prince of Flowers’ and like most deities he has a calendrical name consisting of a number and a daysign; in his case it’s One Flower. In the image you sent (shown here, above - but note, it’s very much a stylised creation!) he’s holding a large circular ‘one’ symbol with a flower icon emerging from it. It’s unrealistically large.
The best example to show you from pre-Hispanic Mexican codices we’ve come across is the one we’ve added here (left), from the Codex Borgia, where he’s depicted as guardian of the fifth period in the Venus cycle (as the Morning Star). Clearly shown top left is his name glyph, this time with the flower sign hanging downwards.
Picture sources:-
• Main pic: image supplied by the questioner
• Codex Borgia image scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1976.
POSTSCRIPT:-
Thanks to Erica (see Feedback below) we’ve been in contact with the creator of the artwork above, and he has kindly given permission for the image to be used on the Mexicolore website. He is Mi Corazón Mexica (on Twitter and Instagram). And he tells us that the object is a jade glyph. Our thanks to him!
Comments (1)
Erica St. Amanze
31st Aug 2023
The image shown here is from an artist who created it as a part of the ‘Tarot Yohualli Ehecatl’ Card Deck. You may want to contact the artist for clarification about this Artwork
Mexicolore
Thank you for pointing this out. We wish the questioner had told us this when first approaching us...! We will try to make contact with the artist...
Stylised image of Xochipilli
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