^{(Also Cantico)}

Chantico (She Who Dwells in the House) is a God who reigns over volcanoes and the fires in family hearths. She was associated with the town of Xochimilco, stonecutters, as well as warriorship. Chantico was described in various Pre-Columbian and colonial codices. Chantico is also said to also have been called Quaxolotl (Two Headed), possibly identifying her with Xolotl. Chantico was also known by Her calendric name, Chicunaui itzcuintli (Nine Dog). According to interpreter Pedro de Rios, Chantico was also known as “Lady of the Capsicum-Pepper” and “Yellow Woman.” Chantico was known to stonecutters as Papaloxaual (Butterfly Painting) and Tlappapalo (She of the Red Butterfly).

In Codex Borgia, Chantico is depicted as having a yellow face marked with two red lines, which designate her as a fire goddess, and a yellow body. Said red lines are placed at around the same height as black strokes seen in depiction of Xolotl. She is referred to as “mujer amarilla” (“yellow woman”). She is depicted sitting on a chair, under which a flask lies, and wearing a nose ornament known as a yacapapalotl. She is also depicted with a series of small disks that wrap around her head.

In “Ritos, sacerdotes, y atavíos de los dioses” Sahagún and his informants describe Chantico by stating:

She has a bulge of rubber on her lips, half of her face painted red, a bouquet made of dried herbs, her gold ear decorations. On her back she carries a bundle of light. Her shirt with water flowers. Her shield with mosaic of eagle feathers, She has her clothes in one hand that ends in a tip, made of inverted feathers and with paint of obsidian tips. Her white kilt, her bells, her white sandals.

Chantico is commonly depicted with markers that illustrate her association to warriorship. Chantico's headdress in the Codex Rios displays military attributes: a crown of poisonous cactus spikes, related to danger and aggression; a crest of aztaxelli, green warrior's feathers, connecting her with warfare. At the nape of her neck is a band that forms the alt-tlachinolli, or water-fire, a symbol for warfare and pestilence. The atl-tlachinolli serves as an iconographic marker of Chantico, being seen in the Codex Aubin Tonalamatl, Codex Borbonicus, Codex Telleriano Remensis, and the Codex Rios. It is depicted as a stream of blue water intertwined with red fire. The Codex Borgia depicts Chantico through an eagle foot covered in jaguar skin, a symbol of Chantico, sitting on top of a sacrificial blood-dish, alluding to warrior sacrifice. The Codex Borbonicus shows Chantico wearing a blue nose ornament known as a yacaxtuitl also worn by Xolotl.

Other iconographic markers associated with Chantico includes itzcactli (“obsidian sandals”), seen in the Codex Aubin Tonalamatl's representation of Chantico, and representations of a solar picture, seen in a golden pendant seen in the Codex Telleriano Remensis's depiction of Chantico.

Chantico. From Codex Ríos

According to the Codex Rios, during a religious festival involving fasting, Tonacatecuhtli turned Chantico into a dog when She broke Her fast by eating roasted fish and paprika, giving Her the calendric name “Nine Dogs.” It was said that those born on the ninth day of the eighteenth trecena, over which Chantico presided, would encounter misfortune.