The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses , Devil and Demons
(‘she who wears a skirt of snakes’) Aztec goddess of earth and fire; she also appears as mother of the gods.
Her statue in Mexico City shows, apart from the skirt of snakes, a head with two snakes and a necklace consisting of human hands and hearts: the latter in evidence of the need for human sacrifice if cosmic order is to be upheld. On her back hang 13 leather cords decorated with snails, symbolizing the mythical heaven. The goddess was made pregnant by a ball of down or an emerald, and gave birth to → Quetzalcoatl.
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