Cocijo - WikiHQ

thumb|right|300px| An Early Classic representation of Cocijo found at [[Monte Albán and now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City.]]

Cocijo ( ; occasionally spelt Cociyo, otherwise known as Guziu in the Zapotec language) is a lightning deity of the pre-Columbian Zapotec civilization of southern Mexico. He has attributes characteristic of similar Mesoamerican deities associated with rain, thunder and lightning, such as Tlaloc of central Mexico, and Chaac (or Chaak) of the Maya civilization. In the Zapotec language, the word cocijo means "lightning", as well as referring to the deity. He is commonly represented on ceramics from the Zapotec area, from the Middle Preclassic right through to the Terminal Classic. In Zapotec myth, he made the sun, moon, stars, seasons, land, mountains, rivers, plants and animals, and day and night by exhaling and creating everything from his breath. During the Classic Period the jaguar was associated, at least partly, with Cocijo.

Postclassic Period

Among the Zapotecs of the Postclassic period, the four 65-day divisions of the 260-day calendar were named cocijos, which implies that there was a different Cocijo associated with each cardinal direction. Religious rites, including bloodletting, were performed to each of these four Cocijos.

Colonial Period

The worship of Cocijo continued into early Colonial times. In the late 1540s, three community leaders of Yanhuitlán were accused of making sacrifices to the deity, including human sacrifices, by the inhabitants of hostile neighbouring villages and were tried by the inquisitor Francisco Tello de Sandoval.

Notes

References