Editing Ixchel (section)

==Mythology==
Ixchel figures in a Verapaz myth related by Las Casas, according to which she, together with her spouse, [[Itzamna]], had thirteen sons, two of whom created heaven and earth and all that belongs to it.<ref>Coe 1977: 329</ref> No other myth figuring Ixchel has been preserved. However, her mythology may once have focused on the sweatbath, the place where Maya mothers were to go before and after birthgiving.<ref>For a full background, see Groark 1997</ref> As stated above, the Aztec counterpart to Ixchel as a patron of midwifery, Toci, was also the Goddess of the sweatbath. In myths from [[Oaxaca]], the aged adoptive mother of the Sun and Moon siblings is finally imprisoned in a sweatbath to become its [[patron deity]].<ref>cf. Thompson 1970:358-359</ref> Several Maya myths have aged goddesses end up in the same place, in particular the Cakchiquel and Tzʼutujil grandmother of Sun and Moon, called ''Bʼatzbʼal'' ("Weaving Implement") in Tzʼutujil.<ref>Tarn and Prechtel 1986:177, 184n16</ref> On the other hand, in [[Qʼeqchiʼ people|Qʼeqchiʼ]] Sun and Moon myth, an aged Maya goddess (Xkitza) who would otherwise appear to correspond closely to the Oaxacan Old Adoptive Mother, does not appear to be connected to the sweatbath.<ref>Thompson 1970:355-356</ref>