Tlazolteotl (pronounced [t͡ɬaˈsoːlteːot͡ɬ]) is an Aztec goddess who presided over purification, healing, and midwifery. She is often depicted as a fat, naked woman with a skeletal face, symbolizing her role in both life and death. Her name is derived from the Nahuatl words tlazolli ("filth") and teotl ("divinity"), reflecting her association with cleansing and purification. In Hebrew, her name can be translated as טלאזולטאוטל. In Spanish, she is sometimes referred to as Tlazolteotl or Diosa de la Purificación (Goddess of Purification). Tlazolteotl was also associated with fertility, childbirth, and sexual misdeeds, embodying the duality of creation and destruction. She was often invoked for confession and absolution, acting as a spiritual guide for those seeking redemption. Her roles and attributes highlight the complex interplay between purity and sin, life and death, in Aztec cosmology.
Aztec deity
In Aztec mythology, Tlazōlteōtl is a deity of sex, sexuality, lust, carnality, sin, vice, impurity, temptation, fertility, purification, absolution, steam baths, and a patroness of adulterers. She is known by three names, Tlahēlcuāni and Tlazolmiquiztli, and Ixcuina or Ixcuinan, the latter of which refers to a quadripartite association of four sister deities.