Xipe Totec

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Xipe Totec in Codex Borgia , Aztec Codex , 15th century

Xipe Totec ( "our battered Lord" ) is the god of vegetation of the Aztecs and the same god of spring, the nascent seed and the seasons .

He also personifies the necessary suffering and struggle in nature. Furthermore, he was god of the west, patron god of goldsmiths and the fifteenth day of the month.

Xipe Totec is depicted as a red painted figure clad in a human skin. In the spring a festival was celebrated in his honor, the Tlacaxipenaliztli , which was associated with human sacrifice . As a symbol for the cycle of life and death in nature, a prisoner of war was sacrificed - the Xipe Totec . This was pierced with arrows or killed in a gladiatorial fight with an experienced warrior. The skin that the sacrificial priest clothed himself with for 20 days was then peeled off .

Presumably the Danza del Volador took place to appease Xipe Totec.

See also

Web links

Commons : Xipe Totec  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Süddeutsche Zeitung: Archaeologists find the temple of the skinning god Xipe Tótec. Retrieved July 27, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Aztec representation of Xipe Totecs
  3. ↑ Aztec representation of Xipe Totecs
  4. ↑ Berthold Seewald: Human sacrifice of the Aztecs: For the god they skin their sacrifices . In: THE WORLD . January 3, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed July 27, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart Germany: Archeology: Bloody cult: deity in Mexico was honored with skins. Retrieved July 27, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Where priests slipped into the skin of their killed victims - derStandard.de. Retrieved July 27, 2020 (Austrian German).
  7. ↑ In the skin of someone else - in the truest sense of the word! In: Secrets of Archeology. February 11, 2019, accessed on July 27, 2020 (German).