Meet Coatlicue, Mother of Aztec Gods, represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws and her breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from pregnancy. Her face is formed by two facing serpents.

Statue of Coatlicue displayed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City By Luidger , CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9584715

Coatlicue had already birthed 401 children when, one day she was sleeping in a temple, she was impregnated when a ball of feathers (?!) fell on her. Her only daughter, Coyolxauhqui , was outraged as her mother was not married at the time and proceeded to decapitate and quarter Coatlicue with the help of her brother. As she died, the Mother of Gods gave birth in extremis to the God of War Huitzilopochtli who was already dressed for battle and killed many of his brothers and drove the rest of them away. He cut Coyolxauhqui’s head and threw it in the sky where it still is, as the Moon.

Coyolxauhqui means Painted With Bells. Huitzilopochtli means Left-Handed Hummingbird. Coatlicue means Snake Skirt.

Two Stones that were Discovered in Mexico City’s Main Plaza, 1792. Antonio de León y Gama.
General Research Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. NYC, USA.