Page 28 - All About History - Issue 54-17

AZTECS

Hall of Fame

AZTEC DEITIES

While the Aztecs had over 200 gods and goddesses, you could not forget
this top ten who were as blood-thirsty as they were benevolent

Quetzalcoatl was worshipped
Huitzilopochtli is throughout Mesoamerica for QUETZALCOATL PATRON OF: KNOWLEDGE AND WIND
1,200 years
often represented as a
hummingbird or eagle With a name that roughly translates as ‘feathered serpent’,
Quetzalcoatl was important to the Aztecs as he was said to have given
them life. The Aztecs believed that there had been four previous
versions of Earth and its people and that they were now living in
the Fifth Sun. When the Fourth Sun ended with
the drowning of humanity, Quetzalcoatl was
the one to steal humanity’s bones back
Huitzilopochtli
from the underworld and carry them to
told the Aztecs to paradise. There, the bones were ground
build their capital on up and Quetzalcoatl and a few other
gods shed their blood over them,
the spot where an eagle bringing them to life.
perched on a cactus, an
image now depicted
TLALOC on the Mexican

PATRON OF: RAIN AND FARMING flag
Next to the shrine of Huitzilopochtli,
the Aztecs constructed another for their rain god,
Tlaloc. As their culture relied heavily on agriculture,
Tlaloc’s ability to bring floods and drought meant
HUITZILOPOCHTLI that he was greatly feared by the Aztecs, who took
drastic measures to honour him. This included
PATRON OF: SUN AND WAR the sacrificing of children, whose tears were
Of the hundreds of gods and goddesses in the thought to please Tlaloc and therefore bring rain.
Aztec pantheon, Huitzilopochtli is considered one Other less gruesome offerings were also made,
of the most important. He is said to have guided including dough statues of the god that were later
the Aztecs from their traditional home in Aztlan dismembered and eaten, and objects linked to Xipe Totec is often
to the Valley of Mexico and water like jade and sea shells. depicted wearing the skin
signalled where to build XIPE TOTEC of a sacrificial victim
their capital city of PATRON OF: FERTILITY,
Tenochtitlán. There The worship THE WEST AND GOLDSMITHS
they constructed of Tlaloc predates With a name meaning ‘the flayed one’, it’s
the Templo the Aztec Empire and no surprise that celebrations of Xipe Totec
Mayor, a shrine to were quite gruesome. As a god of fertility, he
Huitzilopochtli, can be traced back to is said to have flayed himself to give food to
which became the Teotihuacan and humanity, symbolising the way maize sheds
the site of many its external covering to germinate. Therefore,
human sacrifices. As Olmec civilisations of to honour him, human sacrifices were also
a sun god, he required Mesoamerica flayed and their skin was dyed and worn by
regular sustenance
priests for 20 days to ensure a good harvest.
in order to win his daily
Xipe Totec was also honoured with gladiator
battles against darkness, so
sacrifices, which involved captives having to
thousands were killed to nourish him with blood Tlaloc was depicted with fight Aztec warriors while tied to a circular
in the belief that they would rise again to fight large goggle eyes, fangs
and a lightning sceptre stone and armed with just a feather on a stick.
alongside him.
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