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Mythology

Chalchiuitlicue is the goddess of lakes, rivers, seas, streams, horizontal waters, and storms. She was also the goddess of baptisms. For the Aztecs, Chalchiuitlicue was the water goddess who was a personification of youthful beauty and ardor. She was represented as a river from which grew a prickly pear tree laden with fruit, symbolizing the human heart.

Chalchiuitlicue’s association with both water and the birth of fertility is due to the Aztec’s common association of the womb with waters. This dual role gave Chalchiuitlicue both life-giving and a life-ending role in Aztec mythology It is said that she caused the flood that destroyed the fourth world of Aztecs belief which, in turn, turned its inhabitants into fish.

Chalchiuitlicue means “She Who Wears a Jade Skirt.” She was also called Matlalcueye which means “She Who Wears a Green Skirt.” This goddess was the wife (in some myths, sister) of the rain god, Tlaloc. In Aztec cosmology, she was the fourth of the previous suns; in her reign, maize (corn) was first used. Like other water deities, she was often associated with serpents.

She was the mother of Tecciztecat who was an Aztec moon god who represented the male form on the planet, even its rising from the ocean. He was called "he who comes from the land of the sea-slug shell" because of the similarity between the moon and the slug. Tecciztecatl portrayed as an old man who carries a large white seashell on his back.

In Chalchiuitlicue aquatic aspect, she was known as Acuecucyoticihuati, goddess of oceans, as well as the patron of women in labor. She was also said to be the wife of Xiuhtecuhtli, also called Huehueteotl "old god," the senior deity of the Aztec pantheon. He was the personification of light in the darkness, warmth in coldness, and life in death. A god of light and fire, he is often depicted with a red or yellow face, with a censer on his head.

The mythology of Chalchiuitlicue says that she helped Tlaloc rule the paradise kingdom of Tlalocan.