| At Coatepec, the goddess COATLICUE kept and swept, she tucked a tuft of feathers in her breast, but when she had completed her task, the feathers were gone and she had become pregnant. Already the mother of 400 sons (known as the Centzon Huitznahua) and a daughter COYOLXAUHQUI, Coatlicue and her pregnancy became a source of humiliation to her children, and they plotted to kill her. But from within the womb, HUITZILOPOCHTLI, comforted her. The Centzon Huitznahua and Coyolxauhqui charged at Coatepec, slicing off Coatlicue’s head. Out of her truncated body leapt Huitzilopochtli, fully formed and dressed, brandishing his Xiuhcoatl, with which he in turn dismembered his sister Coyolxauhqui, whose body parts tumbled to the foot of Coatepec. Huitzilopochtli then attacked his half-brothers, only a few of whom managed to flee. |
