Weapons of the Sun: Centipedes and Fire Serpents in the Art and Symbolism of Ancient Mesoamerica

Summary

In a myth that provided a charter for Mexica domination of Central Mexico, the deity Huitzilopochtli defeated his foes with a spear-thrower in the form of a fire serpent, or Xiuhcoatl. While Huitzilopochtli was a being unique to the Mexica, the Xiuhcoatl is generally considered to derive from an earlier entity referred to as the Teotihuacan War Serpent. Although the influence of Teotihuacan symbolism on later cultures of Central Mexico is undeniable, the portrayal of solar deities with supernatural zoomorphic weapons is more readily apparent in art of the Late Classic Maya Lowlands. Classic Maya solar deities and rulers often wield lances in the form of skeletal centipedes with protruding tongues made of flint. This paper explores the relationship between supernatural centipedes and fire serpents and argues that Maya conceptions of solar weaponry contributed to the development of the bellicose sun gods of Late Postclassic Central Mexico.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20687