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Aztec Worldview: Huitzilopochtli Summary

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Aztec Worldview - Huitzilopochtli By: Prabhav 8C The painting is depicting the Aztec God of Sun and War, Huitzilopochtli. The sun god was also the patron god of the Aztecs and the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was built to honour Huitzilopochtli. The most famous of all Aztec rituals was the human sacrifice and most of the hearts were offered to Huitzilopochtli to make sure he kept humans alive by continuing his journey through the sky as the Sun. Huitzilopochtli was the most important deity of the Aztecs and was worshipped by over a million people during the peak of the Aztec Empire. Huitzilopochtli was the God of the Sun and War. He was thought to fight the dark forces of the night to keep humans alive. The legend of Huitzilopochtli’s …show more content…

He is usually painted blue as his biggest symbol is a blue hummingbird. The war god usually carries a snake shaped spear (the fire serpent) to show his strength as snakes are very powerful attackers. He carries a shield and feathered arrows which the Aztecs believe are for protection against the forces of the night when the sun is gone. His most popular symbol for us is an eagle perched on a cactus holding a snake on its mouth.This is the symbol which the Aztecs saw and built Tenochtitlan. Today the symbol is shown on the Mexican …show more content…

The largest temple was on a huge hill and was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and the rain god Tlaloc. The Aztecs believed that sacrifices were needed to help the sun make its trip. They offered human hearts, the most prized offering, to Huitzilopochtli to give him enough energy to fight the forces of night and keep the world functioning. They captured warriors they defeated in war and gave their hearts to the sun god. Other times, warriors and citizens from the Aztec Empire went willingly to get sacrificed, it was seen as a death even honorable than getting killed in war. The Aztecs made many other offerings such as food, rubber, feathers, jewels and animal blood but human blood was the most prized by the gods. At the peak of the Aztec Empire, more than one million people were worshipping Huitzilopochtli as the Mexica required the citizens of defeated city-states to worship their gods. Huitzilopochtli affected the worldview of the Mexica in terms of their knowledge. The ritual of sacrificing people for Huitzilopochtli gave the Aztecs knowledge about the human body and surgical skills. They kept medicine bundles of the sun god from which they gained the understanding of medicine and became master healers. Codices and manuscripts were created to keep track of their history and valuable information. Through this, reading and writing became a part of the education and made the Aztecs

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