It's All Greek To Me (well, mostly Aztec)!

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. We are now in our sixth round-some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "X".

"X" is pretty darned tough to do. I think I've already used them all in previous ABC posts since I'm a glutton for punishment and have a habit of posting at least 4 examples of the week's letter. Not a good startegy for letters like "X"!

So, I turned to the Aztecs for help. Man, they have a LOT of "X" words/names! The Greeks do too. I also employed the ever so handy Wikipedia in my quest for images and help with spelling and their content.

XOLOTL 

In the Aztec world, Xolotl was associated to both lightning and death. I will have to tell you that I cannot help you in pronouncing these Aztec (Nahuatl) words! They never sound the way they appear, that's all I know.
Xolotl was also the god of fire and bad luck and is the twin of Quetzacoatl. That's another story for another time.
Studying the art of the Aztecs is simply fascinating; I wish I had it in me to study it and become an expert. I have to admit that I get confused because for one, I can never spell the names and if I could master that, there is still the dilemma of learning how to pronounce them correctly.

XIPE TOTEC

Xipe Totec...the lord of the flayed one: an Aztec deity of agriculture. If you're like me, you are sitting there wondering, "What the heck? Flayed one?". How does that relate to agriculture? The flaying is "symbolic of giving food to humanity such as the maize corn looses their outer layer before germination or snakes having to shed their skin" (OK, I get it as far as the corn goes, but the snake?). A very complex and abstract kind of thinking, I think. Almost too much for me to wrap my head around! Sigh...those Aztecs. Such warriors and thinkers!

XOCHIQUETZAL

 Xochiquetzal. Say THAT one fives times real slow! I can't even say it once!

She is a "goddess associated with concepts of fertility, beauty, and female sexual power, serving as a protector of young mothers and a patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and the crafts practiced by women such as weaving and embroidery" (I haven't figured how to do footnotes here in Blogger, but this is directly from Wikipedia).

There is a bit more about her that is intriguing-visit the link to learn more!

XEROGRAPHY

Xerography, or the xerographic process.

Most of us barely remember the printing process before xerography, which is a dry printing process. What preceeded it was a process that used wet chemicals. The inventor,  Chester Carlson, originally named the process, "electrophotography" because it combined an electrostatic process with a photographic process. Doesn't really roll off the toungue, I suppose. It was later named, xerography: "xeros", from the Greek root, meaning "dry" and "graphia" (antoehr Greek root), meaning, "writing".

I always wondered why the first photocopying company was named, Xerox. This is where the saying, "it's all Greek to me" holds true!!

Happy ABC Wednesday to you all!