Huitzilopochtli



Sketch based on a drawing from the Florentine Codex, a sixteenth-century colonial manuscript compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun.
Click on image for full size (667K GIF)
Huitzilopochtli, was the Aztec god of the Sun and the war. He was a blue man fully armed with hummingbird feathers on his head. His mother Coatlicue.

Aztecs used to offer human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli. The victims were usually prisoners captured in the frequent wars that Aztecs were fighting against their neighbors.

The sacrifices were intended to secure rain, harvests and success in war.

Huitzilopochtli



Sketch based on a drawing from the Florentine Codex, a sixteenth-century colonial manuscript compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun.
Click on image for full size (667K GIF)
Huitzilopochtli, whose name means "Blue Hummingbird on the Left," was the Aztec god of the Sun and the war. He was shown as a blue man fully armed with hummingbird feathers on his head. His mother Coatlicue became pregnant with Huitzilopochtli when a ball of feathers fell from the heaven and touched her. Huitzilopochtli's siblings thought that their mother Coatlicue had dishonored them with her mysterious pregnancy.

One sister of Huitzilopochtli, Coyolxauhqui, encouraged her star sisters and brothers to kill their mother Coatlicue. However, Huitzilopochtli sprang out of his mother and saved her. Coatlicue regretted such violence. Thus, Huitzilopochtli cut off Coyolxauhqui's head and threw it in the sky to become the Moon.

Aztecs used to offer human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli. The victims were usually prisoners captured in the frequent wars that Aztecs were fighting against their neighbors. The sacrifices were intended to secure rain, harvests and success in war.The most common form of sacrifice practiced by Aztecs was to tear out the heart of a living body and offer it to the Sun.

Huitzilopochtli



Sketch based on a drawing from the Florentine Codex, a sixteenth-century colonial manuscript compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun.
Click on image for full size (667K GIF)
Huitzilopochtli was the patron deity in Aztec mythology. The Aztecs were an ancient civilization living in Mexico when the Spaniards arrived in 1519 to conquer Central America. Huitzilopochtli, whose name means "Blue Hummingbird on the Left", was the Aztec god of the Sun and the war. Huitzilopochtli was depicted as a blue man fully armed and with his head decorated with hummingbird feathers.

His mother Coatlicue was magically impregnated when a ball of feathers fell into the temple where she was sweeping and came into contact with her breast. This mysterious pregnancy greatly distressed her existing four hundred star children who thought she had disgraced them. One sister of Huitzilopochtli, Coyolxauhqui, instigated her star sisters and brothers to kill their mother, Coatlicue.

However, Huitzilopochtli sprang out of his mother as an adult fully armed and slew Coyolxauhqui and his other star brothers and sisters. Thus, Huitzilopochtli cut off Coyolxauhqui's head and threw it in the sky to become the Moon. Huitzilopochtli was the god who was supposed to guide Aztecs towards a promised land in the South. He incited Aztec people to fight without mercy, to form an empire, and to gather prisoners to sacrifice to the gods.

Aztecs used to offer frequent and numerous human sacrifices to their gods in order to secure rain, harvests and success in war. The victims were usually prisoners captured in the frequent wars that Aztecs were fighting against their neighbors. The most common form of sacrifice was to tear out the heart of a living adult or child and offer it to the Sun.


Last modified March 18, 1997 by the Windows Team

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