Xochipilli Statue
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Xochipilli was the god of the Aztec music, poetry and dance. Xochipilli is related to social Aztec characteristics due to the flowers that bear around his overall body skin. The flowers on his body have mind-altering qualities. The Aztec nobles, priests and warriors used this flowers to achieve visionary experiences in spiritual rituals. Furthermore, the Aztec civilization had a social and political meritocracy, therefore the Aztecs tend to ate the seeds of a type of flower that is on Xochipilli’s left leg in order to acquire knowledge. Good fighters or intelligent people who achieved great things were considered as social pyramid climbers. The five-petaled tobacco flower that is on Xochipilli’s right thigh represents how economically important this plant was for them. The Aztecs traded with either a local or long distance commerce in order to get the products they needed, for example: maize, beans, chile, etc. As the god of the royal Aztec palace, Xochipilli’s culture influence was very strong. As said in the first sentence he was the presiding god over poetry, music and dance. Xochipilli strongly represents Aztec religion and culture because he was a god. It is said that due to all the flowers and mushrooms on Xochipilli’s skin and the platform above he is seated, he could give the ability to communicate with gods and spirits of dead ancestors.
As the Aztecs were, many other Mesoamerican civilizations also were polytheists. Some gods that the Aztecs had were: Quetzalcoatl (god of intelligence and life), Tláloc (god of the rain), Huitzilopochtli (god of sun and war), Xochipilli (god of music, poetry and dance) and between many others. Many cultural and religious idealisms were developed because of the gods. Therefore I can compare this artifact at the left to the Toltec’s Atlantes. The Atlantes were statues made of a specific kind of rock that portrayed cultural and religious symbolism about their gods, such as the statue of Xochipilli do. Although the Atlantes were a lot bigger and important to the Toltecs than Xochipilli was to the Aztecs, he (Xochipilli) does have important similarities with the famous Toltec Atlantes. |
Tláloc was one of the three main gods of the Aztec civilization, he definitely represents Aztec religion. The Aztecs thought that the rain was originated by the mountains due to Tláloc’s power. They (the Aztecs) sacrificed people in order to “ask” Tláloc for rain, however —there were good rains and bad rains. The water vessel of Tláloc —in Spanish hoya— is decorated with a great amount of blue color due to the sky and clouds in the sky. The great pyramid of Tenochtitlán (El Templo Mayor) was were Tláloc’s shrine was located; the pyramid of Tenochtitlán represented in a big way the Aztec culture. Without Tláloc the Aztec economical commerce would definitely be completely different, because they kind of depended on beans, squash, maize and chile. In order to trade and make such crops grow, they needed rain and rain. Tláloc had a social and political impact in the Aztec civilization due to the fact that their (the Aztecs) agriculture depended on “Tláloc’s rain” and such rain maintained the children going to the calmecac or telpochcallis. Tláloc was from the greatest gods of all the Mesoamerican civilizations, therefore the Aztec political idealism needed of his tribute.
I can compare the water vessel of Tláloc to how the Teotihuacan civilization depended on obsidian. Without enough and punctual rain, the Aztec’s local and long distance commerce would have not been efficient due to the lack of trade items. The Teotihuacan's huge trading system depended only on their obsidian monopoly. If the Teotihuacans would not have been the only ones with so much obsidian their trade novel would have been totally another story. |
Water Vessel of Tlaloc (hoya de Tlaloc)
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Images and Information retrieved from: "The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire (Getty Villa Exhibitions)." The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire (Getty Villa Exhibitions). Web. 28 Oct. 2014.