Xiuhcoatl

What it is

Xiuhcoatl belongs to Aztec religion as a serpent of myth. It is treated as the nahual, or spirit form, of Xiuhtecuhtli, the fire god, and it also serves as a weapon carried by Huitzilopochtli; some depictions give it the shape of an atlatl, a spear-thrower. Art from across the Aztec world shows it, in codices and on sculpture, and it appears as a back ornament on figures of both gods. Writers link it with the dry season and with the sun's fighting power. Its name in Classical Nahuatl means turquoise serpent and is also read as fire serpent.

Where it comes from

The serpent can be followed back with fair ease to Tula in the Early Postclassic, but where it began is not settled. A serpent shown at Teotihuacan in the Classic Period, called the War Serpent, is thought a likely ancestor: it too carries the grass sign, flames and the trapeze-and-ray year sign. In the Postclassic the creature gathered three linked ideas, turquoise, grass and the solar year, each of which was tied to fire in central Mexico, where dry grass and the turning year were bound up with heat and flame.

How it is done

What is recorded of ritual use centres on one ceremony. At Panquetzaliztli a serpent was made of paper, and red feathers came out of its open mouth to stand for flames. Torches burning during the rite also stood for the creature, and a serpent dance was performed.

Tools and materials

Depictions give the serpent a snout that turns sharply back and a body divided into segments. Its tail looks like the trapeze-and-ray year sign and often carries the Aztec mark for grass; one Nahuatl word, xihuitl, covers year, turquoise and grass. Knotted strips of paper wrap the body, a detail that ties the creature to bloodletting and sacrifice. Turquoise-rimmed mirrors form another setting: four fire serpents ring such mirrors in a Maya example from Chichen Itza and on warrior columns at Tula. The emperor's pointed diadem, the xiuhuitzolli, stood for the serpent's tail.

What it is for

Several jobs are given to the serpent. As the sun's weapon it drives back darkness, and in the story of Huitzilopochtli's birth it pierces Coyolxauhqui and defeats the Centzon Huitznahua. As a back ornament on the two gods it marks their fire. Worn as the royal diadem it signals the ruler's authority, since the pointed crown is read as its tail. It is also taken to stand for the dry season. Because paper bindings link it to bloodletting and offering, it belongs with acts of giving up blood.

Peoples and places

The serpent is chiefly an Aztec subject, found in central Mexican art and in the codices, and its mythology belongs to the Aztec pantheon. Related images reach further afield. At Chichen Itza, a Maya city, a mirror with a turquoise rim carries four fire serpents around its edge, and at Tula warrior columns on Mound B have mirrors on their backs with the same four serpents about them. The Teotihuacan War Serpent is offered as an earlier relative.

What people believe

Behind the serpent sits a world of fire. Xiuhtecuhtli is the fire deity whose spirit form it is said to be, and Huitzilopochtli carries it as a weapon that works like lightning. Tonatiuh, the sun, is said to travel the sky under its guidance and to use it against enemies beneath the earth, named as the stars and the moon. The killing of Coyolxauhqui, shown on a broken stone disk from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan with the serpent passing through her chest, is read as light driving out the powers of dark.

When it is done

Time is built into the creature. Its tail takes the shape of the year sign, and the ideas gathered in that sign, turquoise, grass and the solar year, were all linked to fire in Postclassic central Mexico. Dry grass and the turning year were felt to be close to fire and to the heat of the sun, and the serpent stands for the dry season. The ceremony recorded for it, Panquetzaliztli, includes torches, a paper serpent and a serpent dance.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Study of the serpent turns on reading signs rather than on texts. Its tail is thought probably to show the trapeze-and-ray year sign, and the mark on the tail is read as grass. The Teotihuacan War Serpent is proposed as a forerunner on the strength of shared details: the grass sign, flames and the year sign. The four serpents around mirrors at Chichen Itza and Tula are compared with the four smoking serpents drawn around a burning turquoise mirror on page 46 of the Codex Borgia, a pre-Columbian manuscript.

Compare and confuse

The name covers two readings, turquoise serpent and fire serpent, and writers use both. The creature is close to the War Serpent of Teotihuacan, its probable ancestor, and to the four serpents that ring mirrors at Tula and Chichen Itza, a pattern also drawn in the Codex Borgia. The word xihuitl joins year, turquoise and grass in Nahuatl, so the serpent's tail and its colours carry more than one meaning at once.

Questions people ask about Xiuhcoatl

Good reading and sources

• Xiuhcōātl on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data