Beauty and... |
Beauty and... |
Xochiquetzal was the Aztec goddess of love. She had several other names including Ixquina and Tlaelquani. She had a beautiful garden and was an unparalleled beauty herself. Anyone who touched a flower from her garden became a passionate lover. The Aztecs, who had a passionate love of flowers, associated them with poetry, art, symbolism. music, sport, love and sexuality.
Xochiquetzal had been married to Tlaloc, the god of Rain , but Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Smoking Mirror, kidnapped her and brought her to the Nine Heavens where he made her the Goddess of Love.
There
was an Aztec ascetic named Yappan. He, being a pious man, went
to live as a hermit in the desert where he hoped to win the praise
of the gods He climbed a giant rock called Tehuehuetl where he
sat doing his penance. The gods were watching all of this but doubted
his resolve and so sent Yaotl, his enemy to watch him. Many women
were also sent to tempt him but he sent them away and did not yield
to his desires. His chasteness 
and resolve were admired by the
gods who began to think about transforming him into a more elevated
lifeform. Xochiquetzal was angry with him because she felt rejected
and determined to successfully tempt Yappan. She left her beautiful
flower garden and
appeared before Yappan as the most beautiful of women. She asked
him to help her climb up the rock to where he was. He descended,
she tempted him, he succumbed to her temptations. After she left
he was killed by Yaotl. The gods transformed him into a scorpion.
Yaotl then went to find Yappan's wife, Tlahuitzin. He brought
her to the place where Yappan had succumbed to the temptations
of Xochiquetzal and murdered her. She, too, became a scorpion and
crawled under a rock to find her husband.
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