Tlazolteotl

The Eater of Filth

Domain: Purification, Lust & Forgiveness
Alignment: True Neutral
Element: Earth
Relics of Power: Broom of Purification

Speak with Tlazolteotl

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

Tlazolteotl is the Aztec goddess tied to moral filth, sexual transgression and confession. Fray Bernardino de Sahagun gives her chapter 12 of Book 1 of the Florentine Codex, under three names: Tlazolteotl, Ixcuina and Tlaelcuani, 'she who eats filth'. According to the text, she inspired disordered desire and also forgave: before her, through a seer-priest, the penitent laid out all his faults and received a penance of blood, fasting or offerings. The confession counted only once; whoever relapsed no longer obtained mercy. The account comes from indigenous informants filtered by a friar, and Sahagun himself condemns the cult in an appendix. This study uses only what was read in the open texts, and the iconography is almost entirely left out.

10 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The broom, the spun cotton, the crescent nose-ornament and the devoured filth

Family

Siblings

Tiacapan (eldest sister, Ixcuina)Teicu (younger sister, Ixcuina)Tlaco (middle sister, Ixcuina)Xocutzin (youngest sister, Ixcuina)

Tlazolteotl

Genealogy according to Sahagún, Códice Florentino, Livro 1, cap. 12: as quatro mulheres são as quatro Ixcuina, não irmãs de outros deuses; as fontes lidas não dão pais, consortes nem filhos. Seler a identifica com Teteo innan/Toci (leitura dele).

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, General History of the Things of New Spain, Book 1 (The Gods), ch. 12 and Appendix. translation: Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, School of American Research and University of Utah, Santa Fe. read
Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Tomo 1, ed. Carlos María de Bustamante, México, 1829. read
Anonymous, Codex Telleriano-Remensis: manuscrit mexicain (edition and commentary by E.-T. Hamy). read

Studies

Eduard Seler, The Tonalamatl of the Aubin Collection. Duque de Loubat. open
Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson, Notes 53 to 63 to Book 1 of the Florentine Codex. School of American Research and University of Utah. open

Name and epithets

The name joins teotl, 'god', to the term tlazolli, which the sources read here render as dirt, garbage or perversity.

In the ancient sources

Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain), Book 1, 'The Gods', written in the 16th century; English translation by Anderson and Dibble, Santa Fe. Nahuatl text with an English version.

The myths

The four sisters and the three names. Chapter 12 tells no creation myth; it explains names. Tlazolteotl, says the text, was so called because filth, perverseness and lustful living belonged to her, and she ruled and was…

Worship and archaeology

What the sources read here describe is a rite, not a temple. Confession was a matter of consulting the calendar: the tlapouhqui chose the day in the sacred almanac, and the penitent brought a new mat, copal and wood.

How the god was depicted

No direct description of the goddess's dress was read in Sahagun. What was read is indirect. Dibble notes, from Seler, that in the fifth week of the Aubin Tonalamatl the water goddess holds the head of Tlacolteotl, and…

What scholars debate

One goddess or four. Chapter 12 gives three names and treats four women, each a goddess. Seler observes that under the name Ixcuina she was thought of in the plural.

After antiquity

The reception that the sources read allow to record is short. In the 16th century, Sahagun included her in the Books and then condemned her in the Appendix, where he lists her among those who 'are not gods'.

Did you know?

The Appendix says the girls of the time took names from the four goddesses: some were called Tiacapan, others Teicui, others Tlaco, others Xocotzin. It is the reason Sahagun gives for ordering these names abandoned.

Codex relic

Broom of Purification. The ritual broom with which she sweeps up and devours sins, cleansing the soul of the burdens of transgression.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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