COATLICUE

Coatlicue (kō•ä•tlē•kwā) "Snake Skirt" - A Precolumbian Aztec (and Central Mexican) primordial creation deity. She is often portrayed with the head of a serpent (or double-serpent); a necklace of human hearts, hands, and skulls; a skirt of woven / intertwined snakes; and clawed hands and feet (for digging graves). She gave birth to the Aztec gods Quetzalcoatl, Xolotl, Coyolxauhqui, the four hundred Çentzon Huitznahua, and the solar hero-god Huitzilopochtli.

After the birth of her first set of children, Coatlicue became pregnant from a ball of feathers (generated while she was sweeping out a temple), and her eldest daughter Coyolxauhqui viewed this as an abomination and attempted to murder her mother (with the assistance of her four hundred other siblings, the Çentzon Huitznahua). The newborn Huitzilopochtli emerged from his mother fully grown and armed for combat. He dismembered his elder sister Coyolxauhqui for her treachery (and threw her head into the sky to become the Moon) and the Çentzon Huitznahua were cast into the southern skies to become the stars.

The above statue of Coatlicue was found in 1790, below the Zocalo (city plaza) of Mexico City.

Resources:
• The Wikipedia entry for Coatlicue.

• Mary Miller and Karl Taube's "An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya."