Editing Xōchipilli

{{Short description|Aztec god}}
{{Cleanup lang |date=January 2025 }}
{{Infobox deity
| type         = Aztec
| name         = Xochipilli
| deity_of     = God of Beauty, Youth, Love, Sexuality, Fertility, Arts, and Flowers 
| image        = Xochipilli 1.jpg 
| other_names  = Macuilxōchitl, Chicōmexōchitl
| caption      = Xochipilli as depicted in the [[Codex Borgia|Borgia Codex]]
| abode        = [[Tamoanchan]] (Codex Ríos)<ref name="dicc">{{cite book|author=Cecilio A. Robelo|title=Diccionario de Mitología Nahoa|url=|date=1905|publisher=Editorial Porrúa|isbn=970-07-3149-9|lang=spanish|page=808}}</ref>
| consort      = None
| parents     = [[Xochitlicue|Xōchitlīcuē]] (Codex Ramírez)<ref>{{cite book|author=Susan D. Gillespie|title=Los Reyes Aztecas: La Construcción del Gobierno en la Historia Mexica|date=1989|publisher=Siglo XXI Editores|isbn=968-23-1874-2|lang=spanish}}</ref>
| siblings     = [[Xochiquetzal|Xōchiquetzal]]
| children     = 
| gender       = [[Male]]
| region       = [[Mesoamerica]]
| ethnic_group = [[Aztec]], [[Tlaxcaltec]], [[Toltec]] (Nahua)
| maya_equivalent = 
| equivalent1_type =
| equivalent1 =
| equivalent2_type =
| equivalent2 =
| festivals    = Tlaxochimaco, Miccailhuitontli
}}
'''{{lang|nci|Xōchipilli|italic=no}}''' {{IPA|nah|ʃoːt͡ʃiˈpilːi|}} is the god of beauty, youth, love, passion, sex, sexuality, fertility, arts, song, music, dance, painting, writing, games, playfulness, nature, vegetation and flowers in [[Aztec mythology]]. His name contains the [[Nahuatl]] words {{wikt-lang|nci|xōchitl}} ("flower") and {{wikt-lang|nci|pilli}} (either "prince" or "child") and hence means "flower prince".

==Associations==
As the patron of writing and painting, he was called '''{{lang|nci|Chicomexōchitl|italic=no}}''' the "Seven-flower", but he could also be referred to as '''{{lang|nci|Macuilxōchitl|italic=no}}''' "Five-flower". He was the patron of the game [[patolli]]. He is frequently paired with [[Xochiquetzal]], who is seen as his female counterpart.<ref name="Thompson1932">{{cite journal |last1=Thompson |first1=J. Eric |title=The Humming Bird and the Flower |journal=The Maya Society Quarterly |date=1932 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=120–122}}</ref> {{lang|nci|Xōchipilli|italic=no}} has also been interpreted as the patron of both [[homosexuality|homosexuals]] and [[male prostitution|male prostitutes]], a role possibly resulting from his being absorbed from the [[Toltec]] civilization.<ref name = "Castillo"> Diaz del Castillo, Bernal. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Library Reprints, 2008. ISBN 1-4227-8345-6; Trexler, Richard C. Sex and Conquest: Gendered Violence, Political Order, and the European Conquest of the Americas. Paperback ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8014-8482-0; [[Keen, Benjamin]]. The Aztec Image in Western Thought. Paperback ed. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8135-1572-6; Idell, Albert. The Bernal Diaz Chronicles. New York: Doubleday, 1956. </ref><ref name="Mendelssohn">Mendelssohn, Kurt. ''Riddle of the Pyramids.'' Paperback ed. New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1986. ISBN 0-500-27388-X; Estrada, Gabriel S. "An Aztec Two-Spirit Cosmology: Re-sounding Nahuatl Masculinities, Elders, Femininities, and Youth." ''Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.'' 24:2 & 3 (2003).</ref><ref name="Taylor">Taylor, Clark L. "Legends, Syncretism, and Continuing Echoes of Homosexuality from Pre-Columbian and Colonial Mexico." In ''Male Homosexuality in Central and South America.'' Paperback ed. Stephen O. Murray, ed. San Francisco: Instituto Obregon, 1987. ISBN 0-942777-58-1</ref><ref name="Greenberg1990p165">{{cite book |last=Greenberg |first=David |title=The Construction of Homosexuality. |page=[https://archive.org/details/constructionofho00gree_0/page/165 165] |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1990 |isbn=0-226-30628-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/constructionofho00gree_0/page/165 }}</ref>

He, among other gods, is depicted wearing a talisman known as an {{lang|nci|oyohualli}}, which was a teardrop-shaped pendant crafted out of mother-of-pearl.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/personified-knives |title=Personified knives |last1=Aguirre |first1=Alejandra |last2=Chávez |first2=Ximena |publisher=mexicolore.co.uk |date=27 March 2011 |access-date=29 January 2017}}</ref>

==Xochipilli statue==
[[File:Xochiquetzal-Xochipilli.jpg|thumb|Xochiquetzal, left, and Xochipilli. [[Codex Fejérváry-Mayer]]]]
[[File:Statue of Xochipilli (From the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City).jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Xochipilli (From the [[National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)|National Museum of Anthropology]], Mexico City)]]
In the mid-19th century, a 16th-century {{citation needed|date=August 2016}} Aztec statue of Xochipilli was unearthed on the side of the volcano [[Popocatépetl]] near [[Tlalmanalco]]. The statue is of a single figure seated upon a temple-like base. Both the statue and the base upon which it sits are covered in carvings of sacred and [[Psychoactive drug|psychoactive]] organisms including mushrooms (''[[Psilocybe aztecorum]]''), [[tobacco]] (''[[Nicotiana tabacum]]''), ''Ololiúqui'' (''[[Turbina corymbosa]]''), ''sinicuichi'' (''[[Heimia salicifolia]]''), possibly ''cacahuaxochitl'' (''[[Quararibea funebris]]''), and one unidentified flower.

[[Laurette Séjourné]] has written: "The texts always use the flower in an entirely spiritual sense, and the aim of the religious colleges was to cause the flower of the body to bloom: This flower can be no other than the soul. The association of the flower with the sun is also evident. One of the hieroglyphs for the sun is a four-petalled flower, and the feasts of the ninth month, dedicated to [[Huītzilōpōchtli|Huitzilopochtli]], were entirely given over to flower offerings."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Séjourné |first1=Laurette |title=Burning Water: Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico |date=1976 |publisher=Shambhala |location=Berkeley, Calif. |isbn=0-87773-090-3 |page=144 |chapter=Xochipilli, Lord of Souls |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/burningwaterthou00sejo/page/144/mode/1up |chapter-url-access=registration |orig-date=1956}}</ref>

The figure himself sits on the base, head tilted up, eyes open, jaw tensed, with his mouth half open and his arms opened to the heavens. The statue is currently housed in the Aztec hall of the [[Museo Nacional de Antropología]] in [[Mexico City]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2016}}

===Entheogen connection===
[[Image:Lombards Museum 163.jpg|thumb|upright|Xochipilli, Aztec terracotta<br /> ''Lombards Museum'']]

It has been suggested by [[Robert Gordon Wasson|Wasson]],<ref name="Wasson1980p58">{{cite book |last=Wasson |first=Robert Gordon |date=1980 |title=The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica |publisher=McGraw-Hill |page=58 |isbn=978-0-07-068443-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wasson |first1=R. Gordon |title=The Role of 'Flowers' in Nahuatl Culture: A Suggested Interpretation |journal=Journal of Psychedelic Drugs |date=1974 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=351–360 |doi=10.1080/02791072.1974.10471987|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/168563 }}</ref> [[Richard Evans Schultes|Schultes]],{{Full citation needed|date=October 2016}} and [[Albert Hofmann|Hofmann]]{{Full citation needed|date=October 2016}} that the statue of Xochipilli represents a figure in the throes of [[entheogen]]ic ecstasy. The position and expression of the body, in combination with the very clear representations of [[Psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants|hallucinogenic]] [[List of psychedelic plants|plants]] which are known to have been used in sacred contexts by the Aztec support this interpretation. The statue appears to have hugely dilated pupils, suggesting an effect of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Wasson says that in the statue's depiction Xochipilli "is absorbed by ''temicxoch'', 'dream flowers', as the Nahua say describing the awesome experience that follows the ingestion of an entheogen. I can think of nothing like it in the long and rich history of European art: Xochipilli absorbed in ''temicxoch''".<ref name="Wasson1980p58"/>

==See also==
*[[Quiabelagayo]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/aztec/interactive/index.html J. Paul Getty Museum's in-depth interactive exploring the Museo Nacional de Antropología's 15th-century basalt figure of ''Xochipilli''.] Includes a detailed exploration of psychotropic plants depicted.
*[http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/xochi/xochi.shtml Erowid's Xochipilli Vault]

{{Aztec mythology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xochipilli}}
[[Category:Aztec gods]]
[[Category:Arts gods]]
[[Category:Dance gods]]
[[Category:Fertility gods]]
[[Category:LGBTQ themes in mythology]]
[[Category:Love and lust gods]]
[[Category:Music and singing gods]]
[[Category:Nature gods]]