Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli (blue hummingbird on the left) In Aztec mythology, a war god associated with the sun. Ritual human sacrifices of prisoners were made to him. Huitzilopochtli was the brother of Quetzalcoatl. His mother, Coatlicue, one day picked up a ball of bright feathers on her way to the temple of the sun god. She placed them in her bosom, and as a result she became pregnant.
When her family discovered her pregnancy they wanted to kill her, but Huitzilopochtli was born fully armed and killed them instead. In a variant myth Huitzilopochtli was a man who was the leader of the Aztecs during their wanderings from home. On his death, or when he returned to heaven, his skull became an oracle and told them what to do.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in his Verdadera historia de la conquista de la Nueva España, which gives an eyewitness account of the Spanish conquest, describes the shrine of Huitzilopochtli, in which “the walls of the oratory were black and dripping with gouts of blood” and the floor “stank horribly.” D. H. Lawrence, in his novel The Plumed Serpent, which tells of the reintroduction of Aztec gods to modern Mexico to replace Christ, includes a series of poems in honor of Huitzilopochtli.
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SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
