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Kokopelli

Hopi Deities
Kokopelli Flute Player

Kokopelli is a fertility deity venerated by several Native American cultures of the southwestern United States, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player. He presides over childbirth and agriculture, and also functions as a trickster figure and a spirit of music. Among the Hopi specifically, Kokopelli is said to carry unborn children on his back and distribute them to women, and he appears in rituals connected with marriage, sometimes alongside a female consort called Kokopelmimi. The Hopi were the people through whom Spanish explorers first learned of this figure, which is why the Hopi name became the one most widely used for him in English.

Facts
Attestation
Era of AttestationSourced to the subject's own account
from 750 3
Veneration Today
Actively venerated in a living tradition 1
Historicity
Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1
Identity
Gender
Male 2
Iconography
SymbolSourced to the subject's own account
Kokopelli is usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player, often shown with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head. 3
Function
Domain / Function
Fertility and generation 1
Belief
Theology
Polytheistic: many gods 1
Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. Kokopelli, Structured Record (Wikidata Q)
WikidataWikidata property P21 (sex or gender)View the Source
3. Kokopelli (Wikipedia)
  • Lead section
    usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who is venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States.
  • Lead or body text
    The first known images of him appear on Hohokam pottery dated to sometime between 750 and 850
View the Source
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