At the foot of Coatépec hill (a mythical space), the goddess Coyolxauhqui lies dismembered and decapitated. She has died at the hands of her brother Huitzilopochtli, patron of the Mexicas. Her closed eyes show she is dead, but her severed head holds the symbols of her identity: a beautiful, ribbed fabric headdress with large, circular feathers, a symbol of the sacrifice; a melasma mustache; a labret and ear flaps with an igneous-solar element. The goddess has gold bells on her cheeks, which means she is “the one who has bells as face paint” or “the one who decorates her cheeks with bells”.
Coyolxauhqui is a goddess with lunar attributes, associated with war and sacrifice. In the myth and in documentary sources, her tension with Huitzilopochtli is common. He is the god destined to vanquish her, once he is the young Sun or as the leader of the Mexicas. Historically, both figures appear together and in front of the groups of Mexicans who migrate from Aztlán toward Tenochtitlan. She is the “big sister” and commands the Huitznahua, the southern neighborhood. One interpretation is that Coyolxauhqui wanted internal control of the groups and started a rebellion against Huitzilopochtli’s faction; however, the feat ends with the death of several Huitznahua and with the sacrifice of the goddess. Her heart was made as an offering to the Sun. Several academics suggest that this power struggle is reflected in the mythological birth of Huitzilopochtli, and with the myth of the Sun and the Moon.
In short, the story of the birth of Huitzilopochtli—narrated to Frair Bernardino de Sahagún and described in the “Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España” – says that the earthly goddess, Coatlicue, lived in the mountains of Coatépec and was the mother of the Centzohuitznahua and Coyolxauhuqui. One day, as Coatlicue was doing penitence by sweeping, a piece of feather down fell on her. She tucked it into her breast, next to her womb. When she finished sweeping, the goddess looked for the down but it had disappeared, leaving her pregnant. The Centzohuitznahua got angry when they learned their mother was pregnant, and asked: “Who got her pregnant and vilified and shamed us?” Coyolxauhuqui proposed to her older brothers that they kill their mother. When she heard such a thing, Coatlicue became very fearful, but the baby in her womb consoled her. Coyolxauhuqui encouraged her brothers to kill their mother and the Coyolxauhuqui took up arms to fight.
Nevertheless, Cuahuitlícac betrayed his brothers and told Huitzilopochtli about their advances. Coyolxauhuqui was leading her brothers, who were armed and dressed with bells and paper. Once the Centzohuitznahua got to Coatlicue, Huitzilopochtli was born armed with his shield, tehuehuelli, his blue bow and his arrows. His face was painted and he had a piece of down on his head. His left leg was thin and feathered; his thighs and arms were painted blue. This is how he faced his sister, injuring her with a xiuhcóatl. He then decapitated her and made her roll down the Coatépetl hill – in this version of the myth, the sacred hill refers to the Templo Mayor. He made his brothers come down from the summit and he chased them through the mountains. They could do nothing, and several begged and many of them died.
Among other things, the myth explains several emblems and elements related to war and sacrifices that are on the goddess. Some sculptures—like the one with a diorite stone head kept at the Museo Nacional de Antropología—have the atl-tlachinolli, “water-hearth” as a symbol of war; the aztamécatl or sacrificial cord, as well as a maquizcóatl or two-headed serpent to represent blood, sacrifice and her brother, Huitzilopochtli. As a cosmic process, the myth narrates the defeat of the Moon-Coyolxauhuqui and the stars (Centzohuitznahua, older brothers) by Huitzilopochtli, the young Sun. In the Mesoamerican cosmovision, the Moon is a star associated with the underworld and with the earthly deities, cold, fertile and humid forces that invade the world when the sun is not present. The battle between brothers allows for the alternation between day and night; dry periods and rains; life and death.