Skip to content
Tlazolteotl, a MythSource painting
Mesoamerican

Tlazolteotl

Eater of Filth · Our Grandmother · Goddess of Purification

01Identity

Tlazolteotl in Mesoamerican tradition

Purification, confession, and absolution fall within the sphere of Tlazolteotl, an Aztec goddess also associated with sexuality, adultery, childbirth, midwifery, and steam baths. Known as the Eater of Filth and Our Grandmother, she embodies the power to confront and cleanse moral pollution. In one tradition, she gives birth to Centeotl, who is identified as a maize deity and her son.

Top questions

The quick answers

  • Who is Tlazolteotl?

    Tlazolteotl is a Mesoamerican deity associated with purification, confession and absolution, sexuality and adultery, childbirth and midwifery, steam baths.
    Source

    Source

    • The Oxford Companion to World Mythology
    • Dictionary of Mythology
    • Aztec Mythology
    • Essential Visual History of World Mythology

  • What is Tlazolteotl the god of?

    purification, confession and absolution, sexuality and adultery, childbirth and midwifery, steam baths
    Source

    Source

    • The Oxford Companion to World Mythology
    • Dictionary of Mythology
    • Aztec Mythology

  • What family links are recorded for Tlazolteotl?

    2 children.
02Family

Tlazolteotl’s family, at a glance

Parents above, children below, and the figure’s consorts named in between, the same family data as the fact box, laid out as a chart instead of a field list.

Tlazolteotl
CenteotlXochiquetzal
03The names

The names Tlazolteotl answers to

Tlaelcuani

Eater of Filth

SourceDictionary of Mythology

Toci

Our Grandmother

SourceEssential Visual History of World Mythology

Ixcuina

Cotton-associated goddess

SourceDictionary of Mythology

Temazcalteci

Grandmother of the Bathhouse

SourceDictionary of Mythology

04The myths

The myths of Tlazolteotl

1 myth, each traced to its primary text and corpus sources.

Tlazolteotl Gives Birth to Centeotl

Tlazolteotl gave birth to Centeotl. Centeotl was identified as a maize deity, and he was her son. The place and time of the birth remained unstated. No cause or circumstance led into it. No speech, omen, attendant, or action accompanied the birth. The event consisted of Tlazolteotl giving birth and Centeotl being identified as her child and as a maize deity.

In one telling, Tlazolteotl was identified with Toci, an earth mother. In another, Toci was given as a name of Coatlicue. Coatlicue was associated with birth and death. She gave birth to Huitzilopochtli, who was identified as a god of war and the sun, and she also gave birth to the 400 gods of the stars.

Those births belonged to Coatlicue's story and did not become further events in Centeotl's birth. Tlazolteotl, or Toci in the telling that identified them, remained Centeotl's mother. Nothing further happened to Centeotl in this telling. No childhood, deed, consort, or later relation with another god followed his birth. The tradition left the maternal identity attached to him, but it did not establish which version came first or which one took precedence.

Tlazolteotl Gives Birth to Centeotl, a MythSource painting of the scene

In the modern world

No modern rework confirmed yet.

2 sources· checked 2026-08-19

  1. 1Aztec MythologyT1
  2. 2the ancient sourcesT1

    Quote

    “Tlazolteotl bears Centeotl, who is identified as a maize deity and her son.”

    the ancient sources

The film

The Underdrawing video on Tlazolteotl embeds here once it publishes.