View source for Cocijo

{{Short description|Pre-Columbian Zapotec deity}}
[[Image:Dios Cocijo.jpg|thumb|right|300px| An Early Classic representation of Cocijo found at [[Monte Albán]] and now in the [[Museo Nacional de Antropología]] in [[Mexico City]].]]
'''Cocijo''' ({{langx|zap|Cocijo}} {{IPA|zap|kosijo|}};<ref name="Paddock 1983">Paddock 1983</ref><ref name="Lind 2015, p.34">Lind 2015, p.34.</ref> occasionally spelt '''Cociyo''', otherwise known as '''Guziu''' in the Zapotec language) is a lightning deity of the [[pre-Columbian]] [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]] civilization of southern [[Mexico]]. He has attributes characteristic of similar [[Mesoamerica]]n deities associated with rain, thunder and lightning, such as [[Tlaloc]] of central Mexico, and [[Chaac]] (or ''Chaak'') of the [[Maya civilization]].<ref name="Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64">Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64.</ref> In the [[Zapotec language]], the word ''cocijo'' means "[[lightning]]", as well as referring to the deity.<ref name="Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64"/>

Cocijo was the most important deity among the pre-Columbian Zapotecs because of his association with rainfall.<ref>Avila Aldapa 2002, p.97.</ref><ref name="SourceBMA">{{cite book | last1 = Birmingham Museum of Art | author-link1 = Birmingham Museum of Art | title = Birmingham Museum of Art: Guide to the Collection | publisher = GILES | year = 2010 | location = London, UK | pages = 82 | url = http://www.birminghammuseumstore.org/gutoco.html | access-date = 2011-06-30 | isbn = 978-1-904832-77-5 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110910171202/http://www.birminghammuseumstore.org/gutoco.html | archive-date = 2011-09-10 }}</ref>  He is commonly represented on ceramics from the Zapotec area, from the [[Mesoamerican chronology|Middle Preclassic]] right through to the [[Mesoamerican chronology|Terminal Classic]].<ref name="Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64"/> Cocijo was said to be the great lightning god and creator of the world.<ref name="Read & González 2000, p.248">Read & González 2000, p.248.</ref> In Zapotec myth, he made the sun, moon, stars, seasons, land, mountains, rivers, plants and animals, and day and night by exhaling and creating everything from his breath.<ref name="Read & González 2000, p.248"/>

==Appearance==
In Zapotec art Cocijo is represented with a [[Zoomorphism|zoomorphic]] face with a wide, blunt snout and a long forked serpentine tongue.<ref name="Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64"/> Cocijo often bears the [[Mesoamerican writing systems#Zapotec writing|Zapotec glyph]] C in his headdress. A similar glyph is used in [[Mixtec civilization|Mixtec]] codices as the day sign Water and it is likely that its meaning in Zapotec is identical, therefore being the appropriate glyph for the rain and storm god.<ref name="Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64"/>

Representations of Cocijo combine elements earth-jaguar and sky-serpent, which are associated with fertility. His eyebrows depict the heavens, his lower lids represent clouds,  and his forked serpent's tongue represents a bolt of lightning.<ref name="SourceBMA"/>

[[Image:Cocijo.jpg|thumb|left|200px| Urn representing Cocijo held at the [[Birmingham Museum of Art]].]]

==Classic Period==
At the [[Mesoamerican chronology|Late Classic]] Zapotec archaeological site of [[Lambityeco]] in [[Oaxaca]], the [[stucco]] busts of Cocijo are depicted holding a jar spilling water in one hand and bolts of lightning in the other.<ref>Urcid, 2005 p.138.</ref> During the Classic Period the [[Jaguars in Mesoamerican cultures|jaguar]] was associated, at least partly, with Cocijo.<ref>Adams 1996, p.249.</ref>

==Postclassic Period==
Among the Zapotecs of the [[Mesoamerican chronology|Postclassic]] period, the four 65-day divisions of the [[Mesoamerican calendars|260-day calendar]] were named ''cocijos'', which implies that there was a different Cocijo associated with each cardinal direction. Religious rites, including [[Bloodletting in Mesoamerica|bloodletting]], were performed to each of these four Cocijos.<ref name="Miller & Taube 1993, 2003, p.64"/> As payment for bringing rain Cocijo frequently received [[human sacrifice]], mostly in the form of [[Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures|children]] but also, less frequently, adults.<ref>Marcus 1978, p.175.</ref>

==Colonial Period==
The worship of Cocijo continued into early Colonial times. In the late 1540s, three community leaders of [[Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán|Yanhuitlán]] were accused of making sacrifices to the deity, including human sacrifices, by the inhabitants of hostile neighbouring villages and were tried by the [[Spanish Inquisition|inquisitor]] Francisco Tello de Sandoval.<ref>Greenleaf 1994, p.364.</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
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{{refbegin|indent=yes}}<!--BEGIN biblio format. -->
* {{cite book |author=Adams, Richard E.W. |year=1996 |title=Prehistoric Mesoamerica |edition=Revised|location=Norman |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=0-8061-2834-8 |oclc=22593466}}
* {{cite book |author=Avila Aldapa, Rosa Mayra |year=2002 |title=Los pueblos mesoamericanos |url=http://www.publicaciones.ipn.mx/PDF/1525.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090612020035/http://www.publicaciones.ipn.mx/PDF/1525.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-06-12 |publisher=[[Instituto Politécnico Nacional]] |access-date=2009-02-18 |isbn=970-36-0007-7 |oclc=57024647 |language=es }}
* {{cite journal |author=Greenleaf, Richard E. |title=Persistence of Native Values: The Inquisition and the Indians of Colonial Mexico |journal=The Americas |volume=50 |issue=3 |date=January 1994 |pages=351–376 |publisher=[[Catholic University of America Press]] on behalf of Academy of American Franciscan History |doi=10.2307/1007165|jstor=1007165 |s2cid=147422898 }}
* {{cite book |author=Lind, Michael|title=Ancient Zapotec Religion|date=2015|publisher=[[University Press of Colorado]]|isbn=1457193663}}
* {{cite journal |author=Marcus, Joyce |title=Archaeology and Religion: A Comparison of the Zapotec and Maya |journal=World Archaeology |volume=10 |issue=2 |date=October 1978 |pages=172–191 |publisher=Taylor & Francis, Ltd. |doi=10.1080/00438243.1978.9979729}}
* {{cite book |author=Miller, Mary |author-link=Mary Miller (art historian) |author2=Karl Taube |author2-link=Karl Taube |year=1993 |title=An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya |publisher=[[Thames & Hudson]] |location=London |isbn=0-500-27928-4 |oclc=28801551 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780500279281 }} 
* {{cite book |author=Paddock, John|title=Lord 5 Flower's Family: Rulers of Zaachila and Cuilapan|date=1983|publisher=[[Vanderbilt University Press]]|isbn=0935462201}}
* {{cite book |author=Read, Kay Almere |author2=Jason González |year=2000 |title=Handbook of Mesoamerican Mythology |location=Oxford |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=1-85109-340-0 |oclc=43879188}}
* {{cite web |author=Urcid, Javier |year=2005 |title=Zapotec Writing: Knowledge, power, and memory in ancient Oaxaca |url=http://www.famsi.org/zapotecwriting/zapotec_text.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060224122530/http://www.famsi.org/zapotecwriting/zapotec_text.pdf |archive-date=2006-02-24 |url-status=live |publisher=[[Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.|Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI)]] |access-date=2009-02-18}}
{{refend}}<!-- END biblio format style -->

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[[Category:Zapotec deities]]
[[Category:Thunder gods]]
[[Category:Sky and weather gods]]
[[Category:Creator gods]]
[[Category:Rain deities]]