Today’s A to Z Challenge post is going to be a little different. I’m making a 24 hour temporary theme change from “Ladies I Love” to “Lady I’ve Barely Heard Of” because let’s face it – X is a freakin’ hard letter to deal with. And they throw it at us right near the end of the challenge? That’s pretty effed up, in my opinion. In fact, my friend Mich over at Sick B*tch (who is also doing the A to Z Challenge and who’s theme is “I am going to complain now”) says that X is a useless letter and I’m beginning to agree with her (in fact, Mich is not even writing posts for Q and X because they are that irrelevant). Think about it – you can pretty much make up all the X sounds with other letters. 26 is such a dumb number of letters to have in an alphabet anyway, so I’m petitioning to lower the number to a nice 25 (all the letters who will be included, please step forward…hold on there, not so fast, letter X!). But for the sake of not backing down from a challenge, here is today’s X post anyway.
A stylized version of Xochiquetzal from http://www.gothambynight.com/scion/xochiquetzal.htm
I’ll bet you thought I was going to write about Xena, Warrior Princess, right? HA! WRONG!!! I’ve never even seen an episode of Xena, so I’m certainly not going to write about her. So today’s Lady I Love Lady I’ve Barely Heard of is Xochiquetzal (pronounced “so chee ket zul”). Her name means “flower precious feathers”, and she is always followed by birds and butterflies (the Aztec version of the birds and the bees, maybe???). Xochiquetzal, a mythological Aztec goddess, is always depicted by a young, alluring woman richly garbed in flowers. She represents female beauty, fertility and sexual power, and is a protector of pregnant women, young mothers, and is the patroness of lovers and prostitutes (whew, that’s a lot). She was also one tough cookie – according to MexicoLore, she seduced a priest and turned him into a scorpion, just to show off her powers. She was celebrated in festivals every eight years…and hey…she sounds like a Lady that many people have Loved!
Below are a couple of depictions of Xochiquetzal from historic codex, which are drawings done on sheets of animal skins and folded up, accordion-style. These codices are thought to have been written before the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
Xochiquetzal (left) from the Codex Borgia, seducing a priest (middle).
Xochiquetzal from the Codex Fejérváray-Mayer. http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/gods/goddess-of-the-month-xochiquetzal
Fuzzy Undertones 
I guess she’d be on my list of “Ladies I’ve NEVER Heard Of.”
Ha! If I’m being honest, she’d be on that list for me, too. BUT, I needed an X post, so there you have it. Thanks for stopping by, Wendy! 😀
Oh c’mon! You’re not seriously going to suggest we nix X right after writing such an intriguing post about Xochiquetzal ?!?! How would we have ever found out about her, and how would we have ever seen that remarkable drawing where he’s (gasp) grabbing her tit?!?
You caught that, eh??? That cracked me up too – and she doesn’t look all that happy about the boob grab! So funny! Next stop…bemuzin’ 😀
xquisite and xhilerating! This lady I’ve barely heard of is so xciting!
Ha! I think that’s what a lot of her worshipers might have also said – apparently, the festivals were quite…xplicit??? (blushes) Thanks for stopping by! 😀
Way to persevere and get an X!! And she’s interesting too. Way to go!
Ha! I think I cheated a little bit by just googling around and seeing who I could find, but there it is. At least I got there in the end! By the way, I still have an entirely too disturbing image of Fred Rogers stick in my head, no thanks to you! (shiver) I think my childhood is ruined, ruined I tell you! 😀
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Hehehe.. love this post! As for the priest grabbing her tit… well what can I say! Thanks to Sammy for directing me this way. Well worth it 🙂
Jude (a survivor of the A-Z challenge)
Thanks for stopping by, Jude, and for surviving the A to Z Challenge! I will stop by your blog and see what you wrote about 😉 Sammy is great – I met her during the Challenge and she’s been a great blogging friend since. See you around the blogosphere! 😀
I so agree with you about the letter X. I created an animals in the alphabet photo book for my 2 year old nephew and had to cheat — X became ‘eXtra photos of favorite animals.
I was thinking about starting a white house petition to ban the letter X, but then I thought about all the exit signs that would have to be replaced, and decided the national debt was high enough already.
Lol, Shelley! Yes, that would be a lot of exit signs! And a lot of “crossing” road signs that use the abbreviation “X-ING”. It’s a tough letter, especially since the x sound can simply be replaced by cks! Thanks for stopping by! 😀