In Aztec mythology, the Cihuateteo (also Ciuteoteo or Ciuateoteo) were the spirits of human women who died in childbirth (mociuaquetzque.). Childbirth was considered a form of battle, and its victims were honored as fallen warriors. Their physical remains were thought to strengthen soldiers in battle while their spirits became the much-feared Cihuateteo who accompanied the setting sun in the west. They also haunted crossroads at night, stealing children and causing sicknesses, especially seizures and madness, and seducing men to sexual misbehavior. The Aztec civilization recognized many gods and supernatural creatures. ...

Their images appear with the beginning day signs of the five western trecena, (1 Deer, 1 Rain, 1 Monkey, 1 House, and 1 Eagle) during which they were thought to descend to the earth and cause particularly dangerous mischief. They are depicted with skeletal faces and with eagle claws for hands. A trecena is a subdivision used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars, which divides the 260-day calendar into 20 periods of 13 days each. ...

They are associated with the goddess Ciucoatl and are sometimes considered envoys of Mictlan, the world of the dead. In Aztec mythology, Cihuacoatl (snake woman; also Chihucoatl, Ciucoatl) was a fertility goddess and patron of mothers, particularly women who died in childbirth. ... In Aztec mythology, Mictlan was the lowest (ninth) level of the underworld, located far to the north. ...

Compare: Erinyes, La Llorona In Greek mythology the Erinyes or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. ... According to folklore, La Llorona (pronounced lah yoh-roh-nah, Spanish for the crying woman), sometimes called the Woman in White or the Weeping Woman is the ghost of a woman crying for her dead children, whose appearances are sometimes held to presage death. ...