Cihuateteo
Cihuateteo (singular: Cihuateotl ) are in Aztec mythology the spirits of those women who died giving birth to their first child.
Because of this, they enjoyed the same reputation as male warriors who had died or been sacrificed in battle. Cihuateteo live in the west and accompany the sun from its zenith to its position on the western horizon. They are the servants of the gods Tezcatlipoca and Tlazolteotl . They are also associated with the earth goddess Cihuacoatl and are sometimes viewed as emissaries from the Mictlan underworld . Their appearance at night is correspondingly dark and ominous: They haunt crossroads, kidnap children, bring illnesses such as febrile seizures or madness or seduce men into fornication.
Cihuateteo are depicted as terrifying female figures in an aggressive posture with bared teeth and clawed fists. Such sculptures were often put up to appease their wandering spirits, as they - even childless - were seen as a danger to small children and unborn babies in the mother's womb.
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- Royal Academy of Arts (ed.): Aztecs . Cologne 2003, p. 435 f.
- Caecilie Seler-Sachs : Women's Life in the Aztec Empire . Berlin 1984.
