Chicomecoatl

The Goddess of Maize and Sustenance

Domain: Maize, Harvest & Sustenance
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Double Sacred Cobs

Speak with Chicomecoatl

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Aztecs (Mexica)

Region

Central Mexico

Period

14th – 16th c.

The Aztec gods were worshipped by the Mexica people from their capital, Tenochtitlan, in central Mexico. They believed the sun would only move if fed with blood, which led to the famous sacrifices atop pyramid-temples. Their world was cut short by the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

The 18-month ritual calendar brought festivals such as Toxcatl, in which a youth lived for a year as the embodiment of Tezcatlipoca. Every 52 years, the New Fire Ceremony extinguished every flame in the empire, rekindled from a single bonfire to prevent the end of the world.

At a glance

Chicomecóatl (in classical Nahuatl spelling Chicōmēcōātl, literally 'Seven Serpent', the calendrical name of the day propitious for maize) was the supreme Mexica deity of agriculture, of mature stored grain, and of all plant foods that sustained life in the Mesoamerican highlands. As attested by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in Book 1 of the Florentine Codex and by Fray Diego Durán in his Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (1579), Chicomecóatl governed both the abundance of the granaries and the scarcity of years of drought or destructive frost. In her manifestation as the ripe, dry ear, she formed a conceptual and theological pair with Xilonen, the maiden of tender, green maize. During the fourth solar month of the Mexica calendar, Huey Tozoztli ('The Great Vigil'), noblewomen and peasant women joined solemn processions to her temple carrying bundles of ears of maize tied in red cloths, to be blessed as seed for the next planting. In the eleventh month, Ochpaniztli ('The Cleansing of the Roads'), a young woman acted as ixiptla (living embodiment) of the goddess and was sacrificed at dusk so that her blood would fertilize the soil and her sacred grains of four colours would be scattered to the four corners of the world.

6 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The maize cobs, the sun-shield, the seed vessel and the color red

Family

Siblings

CenteotlXilonen

Chicomecoatl

Genealogy according to Códice Florentino (Livro 1, cap. 8; Livro 2, caps. 23 e 30); Diego Durán (Historia de las Indias, 1579, cap. XIII); Códice Borbónico; Códice Magliabechiano

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: Book 1 (Chapter 8) and Book 2 (Agricultural Festivals). translation: Arthur J. O. Anderson e Charles E. Dibble, Florentine Codex: Book 1 - The Gods (University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1970). read
Fray Diego Durán (Critical edition by Ángel María Garibay), Libro de los Ritos y Ceremonias en las Fiestas de los Dioses (cap. XIII). translation: Ed. by Ángel María Garibay K., Editorial Porrúa (Biblioteca Porrúa, Mexico, 1967/1984, vol. I). read
Native tlacuilos of the Central Highlands, Codex Borbonicus (Pages 29 and 30: Huey Tozoztli rites). translation: Ferdinand Anders and Maarten Jansen, Códice Borbónico: Libro del Ciuacoatl (Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1991). read
Nahua scribes of Tepeapulco, Primeros Memoriales of Sahagún (Folio 261r: Attire of Chicomecoatl). translation: Thelma D. Sullivan, Primeros Memoriales: Paleography and English Translation (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1997). read

Studies

Doris Heyden, Chicomecoatl: Ensayos sobre la diosa del maíz y la cosmovisión agraria nahua. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), México, 1983. open
Eduard Seler, Las imágenes de los dioses en el Códice Borbónico (commentary on the agricultural festivals). Fondo de Cultura Económica, Cidade do México, 1963. open
Johanna Broda, Templo Mayor: Ritos agrícolas y cosmovisión mexica (study of Huey Tozoztli). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), México, 1991. open
Leonardo López Luján e Guilhem Olivier, El sacrificio humano en la tradición religiosa mesoamericana (chapter on Ochpaniztli). INAH e UNAM, Cidade do México, 2010. open

Name and epithets

The theonym Chicōmēcōātl derives from the numeral chicōme ('seven') and the noun cōātl ('serpent'), and translates faithfully as 'Seven Serpent'.

In the ancient sources

Florentine Codex (Fray Bernardino de Sahagún), 1575–1577 AD. Documents the description and attire of the goddess, the procession of the seed ears and the liturgical songs sung before her altar.

The myths

The Blessing of the Grains at Huey Tozoztli and the Awakening of the Sap. As described in detail by Sahagún in Book 2 of the Florentine Codex, during the festival of Huey Tozoztli the farmers took from their household g…

Worship and archaeology

The cult of Chicomecóatl was universal at every level of Mexica society, from the humblest peasants of the calpolli to the imperial palace of the tlatoque.

How the god was depicted

The iconography of Chicomecóatl is unmistakable in Mexica art and in the volcanic stone reliefs preserved in the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico and in the Templo Mayor Museum.

What scholars debate

The Triple Relationship: Chicomecóatl, Xilonen and Centéotl. Anthropologists and specialists in Nahuatl religion, such as Eduard Seler and Alfredo López Austin, discuss the theological boundary between the maize deities…

After antiquity

In contemporary Mexican culture, Chicomecóatl is celebrated as the supreme symbol of food sovereignty, of the biodiversity of native varieties of creole maize (maíz criollo), and of the millennial dignity of the Indigen…

Did you know?

The aerial roots that sprout from the first node of the stalk of ripe maize were compared by the Aztecs to the protective claws and legs of Chicomecóatl, anchoring the plant firmly in the soil against winds and storms.

Codex relic

Double Sacred Cobs. The maize cobs she holds aloft in each hand, symbol of the abundance that feeds all the people.

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