TYPE: Vegetation god
ORIGIN: Aztec (Classical Mesoamerican) [Mexico]
KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP: circa 750 CE to 1500 CE, but probably much earlier
SYNONYMS: Red Tezcatlipoca
CENTER(S) OF CULT: Teotihuacan, Tenochtitlan
ART REFERENCES: Stone sculptures, murals and codex illustrations
LITERARY SOURCES: Pre-Columbian codices.
INFORMATION: A major deity of the Mesoamerican pantheons. The red avatara of the sun god Tezcatlipoca (see also Mixcoatl-camaxtli). God of spring and a symbol of the annual renewal of vegetation. Often represented in ritual by a priest wearing the flayed skin of a human sacrifice, seen to be the new vegetation of the earth that emerges after the rains. The skin was worn for twenty one days. Xipe Totec is also the tutelary god of precious metallurgists, including goldsmiths.