Mayahuel
Mayahuel
is the goddess of the maguey plant and of fertility. Protector of mature wombs that turn into life.
From the milky sap of the maguey plant, aguamiel, the alcoholic drink pulque (octli in Nahuatl) was brewn.
Mayahuel is often depicted with many breasts to feed her many children, the
Centzon Totochtin (Four Hundred Rabbits),
the divine rabbits, causes of drunkenness, the gods of drunkenness.
.
Mayahuel is the wife of
Patecatl,
who is also a pulque god.
The deity
Ometochtli (Two Rabbit)
represents all pulque gods.
The spines of the maguey were used by ancient priests and nobles for autosacrifice.
According to myth
Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl
took Mayahuel from her grandmother and
the fearsom star daemons, the
Tzitzimime
. The Tzitzimime caught her and tore her to pieces.
Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl buried her remains from which the first maguey grew.
Mayahuel is both the ruler of the eighth day, Tochtli (rabbit), and the eighth trecena, 1-Malinalli (grass).