Xipe–Totec priest wearing flayed human skin.
Central Mexican Highlands. Aztec, AD 1400–1521.
Painted volcanic basalt.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division (65)
Photo ©Justin Kerr, Kerr Associates
Mexican God Xipe-Totec
Xipe–Totec, “Our lord the flayed one,” is manifested first in Teotihuacan culture and continues in importance up to Aztec times. He represents a fertility cult and was said to assist the earth in making a new skin each spring. The cult required the sacrifice of human victims by removing the heart and, afterward, flaying the skin. The priests of Xipe–Totec impersonated the god by wearing a gold–dyed human skin for twenty days, or until the skin rotted away. The priest would then emerge reborn.