Xolotl and the Corn God

Zapotec Funeral Urn

          Urns were usually buried in a special areas of Zapotec tombs. All presented in the positing of the Aztlan listserve, were found as grave urns; sometimes in specially niches prepared for this purpose or with members and associates discovered in Monte Albán, in Oaxaca, Mexico. Urns are decorated with images of various deities: the god of maize, the god of rain  Cocijo  or the deity  Xipe Totec. The urn above came from the collection of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It clearly shows tlacuache  (Didelphis marsupialis), which often appears in the mythology of Mesoamerica and was associated with procreation, fire and corn. (Aztlan Listserveas an e-mail from Poland.)

         Here the dog, that at times also accompanies a dead person to the grave appears to be part skeletal; a normal aspect of death. The corn god, implied by the maize ears had another purpose however, they were indicative of a continuing life.  But not from a second life of the deceased. Instead, it may have been that the Maize god actually saved his followers from starvation with the help of Xolotl, who was part of the comet called Quetzalcoatl. Thought to be the sun, Quetzalcoatl  had carried in one hand a fan of feathers (implying fire) and in the other, a scythe. Such picrorial information told us about the ancient history of the Mexica, when many people died when he [Xolotl, as part of a blazing comet], flew over the land.

        Since a scythe is a specific Eurasian tool for cutting down the crops, and the Mesoamericans were more accustomed to the machete tool; the european version of a scythe may have been a post-conquest example of the tools brought over by the monks as their farming tools. It would have been the only way that the native scribes could date the codex without drawing attention to the fact that the codex was a fraudulent edition, even though it contains actual historic events.

        However, the scribes also left another message about the turmoil in the sky. Even though there was no mention of Xolotl in the Vaticanus 3738, Lamina 6, Xolotl was said to have fallen from the sky in order that the Sun, as Quetzalcoatl, would live to shine another day.

Quetzalcoatl over the Cave of the Mother-Father Ancestor/Survivors.

          It was a sun that Eric Thompson, commented on in his book: Maya History and Religion. The discovery of clay mines possibly used for ritual potting is recalled in a report from an ancient informnt:

Elsie McDougall's report to J. Eric Thompson of an old Kekchi woman who attributed skulls in a cave near Coban [Copan] to people living before the creation of the sun. When the sun appeared they stayed in caves, “By day they made pots; at night they came to the surface” was for the light too bright for them and they could not see. [2] 

        It was with this Sun that the Maize god gained his important status: that of a life giver. It seems that the small kerneled maize cobs were disregarded as useless for eating. They were probably at the bottom of the storage baskets and when found, it was after a time of rationing of the food and water. Such small cobs were literally tossed out of the caves as trash. But the Maize god had other plans for it. He, with the great heat of the new-born "sun," produced popcorn that prevented total starvation. He was then honored, even until today, with popcorn flowers, and other decorations. It was noted that it was he, the Maize god, that was reborn on the earth as a food provider.

       Other cave experiences around the world tells us of the rationing that was necessary to survive the long year or years after the appearance of the great blazing star, when the fifth sun was born. The Koran was one that claimed to have spent 300 years in the caves, but if that was the case they all would have died. Another religious text tells us the exact measures that were used to feed the cave dwellers. but that is story for another time.

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[1]URNS Zapotec

 Zapotec urns were set sometimes in specially prepared for this purpose niches or at the entrance to the tombs. All urns presented here come from tombs discovered in Zapotecs - Monte Albán , in the present state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Urns are decorated with images of various deities: the god of maize, the god of rain Cocijo or deity Xipe Totec . Last urn from the collection of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City shows tlacuache (Didelphis marsupialis), which often appear in the mythology of Mesoamerica and was associated with procreation, fire and corn.  (Aztlan, 2013-4)  

[2]Thompson, J. Eric S. (1970, 344) Maya History and Religion. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,

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