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weapon
Xiuhcoatl
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Description
Fire-serpent weapon at Coatepec
Florentine Codex Book 3: on Coatepec, Coatlicue conceives Huitzilopochtli; he is born armed and slays his sister Coyolxauhqui with the xiuhcoatl, the turquoise fire serpent, then drives off the Centzon Huitznahua. In Mexica art the xiuhcoatl is a weapon — atlatl, fire-dart, turquoise-mosaic snake of drought-sun — carried by Huitzilopochtli and tied to Xiuhtecuhtli's fire. A living serpent-form of that same mythic fire appears among creatures; the two are not rivals. One is the god's thrown weapon at birth, the other the serpent-body of celestial fire. Sahagún's Book 3 is colonial Nahuatl and Spanish; Templo Mayor sculpture is the Mexica-period image of the killing.
Primary Sources
“At Coatepec, Huitzilopochtli was born fully armed and with the xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, he struck Coyolxauhqui and cut her to pieces, then routed the four hundred southerners.”
Powers & Abilities
Fire SerpentSolar FlameEnemy Destruction