Teotihuacan's unique goddess appears nowhere else in Mesoamerica. A female deity appears repeatedly in Teotihuacan's murals and pottery, depicted in green, red, and yellow colors The goddess wears a bird headdress and a nose piece with a bar and protruding fangs She is shown with arms outstretched, with water or seeds pouring from her hands
Teotihuacan had a goddess unlike any other in Mesoamerica. Depicted with a bird headdress, fanged nose piece, and arms pouring water or seeds, Karl Taube nicknamed her "Spiderwoman" since some murals show her covered in tiny spiders. Unlike Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl, she didn't survive beyond Teotihuacan's collapse.
Key Facts
- A female deity appears repeatedly in Teotihuacan's murals and pottery, depicted in green, red, and yellow colors
- The goddess wears a bird headdress and a nose piece with a bar and protruding fangs
- She is shown with arms outstretched, with water or seeds pouring from her hands
- Karl Taube called her the "Spiderwoman" because some murals show her covered in tiny spiders
- The goddess is unique to Teotihuacan and does not appear in any other Mesoamerican civilization's pantheon
- Unlike Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl, which also first appear at Teotihuacan but live on in central Mexican religion, this goddess did not survive beyond Teotihuacan
- Unlike aggressive Aztec female deities she has been compared to, she is depicted as a beneficent figure associated with abundance and fertility
Related site: Teotihuacan — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: Exploring the Greatest Mysteries of Teotihuacan by Archaeologist Ed Barnhart