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The Aztec Religion

By Kirk Reynolds Page 1

The Aztecs were a very powerful and very devoted religious society ruled over by 20 gods.

The main gods

  Tezcatlipoca - means "Smoking Mirror", a shaman God, omnipotent universal power.

  Q uetzalcoatl - means "Feathered Serpent", a god of life, the wind and the morningstar  Tlaloc - a god of rain, storm, water and thunder

  Mixcoatl - means "Cloud Serpent", the tribal God of many of the Nahua people such as

the Tlaxcalteca, god of war, sacrifice and hunting

  Huitzilopochtli - means "Left-handed Hummingbird", the tribal God of the Mexica of 

Tenochtitlan, god of war and sacrifice

The gods of nature

  Tonatiuh - The Sun

 Metztli - The Moon

  Tlaltecuhtli - means "Earth Lord", Goddess of the Earth

  Chalchiuhtlicue - means "Jade Her Skirt", goddess of springs

  Centzon Huitznahua - means "The 400 Southerners", Gods of the stars

  Ehecatl the Wind, often conflated with Q uetzalcoatl and called "Q uetzalcoatl-Ehecatl"

The gods of creation

  Ometeotl/Ometecutli/Omecihuatl/Tonacatecutli/Tonacacihuatl - The double-gendered creator

god

 Huehueteotl/Xiuhtecutli - means "Old God" and "Turquoise Lord", god of origin, time, fire andold age

  Coatlicue/Toci/Teteo Innan/Tonantzin - female goddesses

The gods of excess

  Tlazolteotl - Goddess of filth and guilt and of cleansing

  Tepoztecatl - God of Pulque worshipped at Tepoztlan

  Xochiquetzal - Goddess of pleasure and indulgence

  Mayahuel - Goddess of Pulque and Maguey

 Centzon Totochtin - "the 400 Rabbits", god of drunkenness  Ometochtli - means "Two Rabbit", leader of the Centzon Totochtin, god of fertility, and

drunkenness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_religion  

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Th t R i i

 

Kir R s P 2

 

The Aztecs s  

c¡ 

¢ 

£  

¢ 

ce¤  

blood to these gods bec  

¥  se blood is the most precious thing to you so it is the 

best thing you c  

n off er the gods¦ They took the still be

  

ting he  

rts of the s  

crifices (most of witch

were from the conquered civilis  

tions¦ ) They then put the he

  

rt into a fire and off ered the smoke to

the gods¦ the sacrifice would then be pushed down the steps of the temple but if the were very 

brave or noble they would be carried down the steps instead.

Aztec sacrifices also helped keep the empire together because the Aztec empire was just the Aztecs 

and a lot of sub states. These sub states would have to pay money or faced being attacked. The 

Aztecs would pave there roads and build better houses or docks. This generally increased their

productivity. Though they outnumbered the Aztec city Tenochtitlan (they only had 1) if they joined

forces and attacked at once. The Aztecs countered this by demanding sacrifices from each sub city 

forcing the other cities in the empire to raid each other. This is said to be one of the most unique 

ways of controlling another city ever invented.

Aztec religion also included bloodletting which means withdrawing blood from yourself and giving it

to the gods. The higher up in the religion you where the more blood you were e§  

pected to pay. The 

common peasant had to sacrifice about 500ml of blood while the leader of the religion was e§  

pected

to give as much as 2.5l of blood each year.

Another way the Aztecs sacrificed someone to the god ̈ 

uehueteotl was by putting someone into

the fire and then pulling them out with hooks. After this they cut out the heart and placed it back in

the fire and threw the body into a river.

Warriors were also highly thought of in Aztec religion because they went out and found victims to

sacrifice to the gods. so the Aztecs came up with a god Camaxtli who was the god of war hunting

fire and fate. ̈ 

e was supposed to of made the earth and invented fire.

The Aztecs also practiced a form of cannibalism every 52 years 

(the Aztecs century). In which they would eat sacrifices after

removing their heart supposedly in sacrifice to the gods. This 

ceremony was called the new fire ceremony.

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The Aztec Religion

By Kirk Reynolds Page 3

Source C

In this picture, it shows a jaguar warrior, circa 1550© 

s by a Spanish artist, to be included in the

Ramirez codex. This is a primary source due to the fact that there isn© 

t much detail, which shows

that it was drawn around circa 1550© 

s. The jaguar warrior used a club instead of a sword, because

they could smash through wooden shields.

Source D

This source is a secondary source, because it tells you who wrote it and the date. This was published

after the event was happened. This source tells you how the Aztec treated their main god,

Huitzilopochtli, and what he was worshipped for. This also tells us it will become one of the most

worshipped gods in all of Mexico.

Source E

This source is a primary source, because it was carved using what looks like primitive told. Thissource also tells us that it was used to hold the heart of sacrifices before they were thrown in the

fire and the smoke was offered to the gods. Due to the fact that jaguars are one of the most holy

animals in the Aztec empire this would of been found in most temples around Mexico e.g.

Tenochtitlan.

Source F

This is a secondary source telling us that the Aztecs used sociological weapons to maintain the tribes

that they conquered. They demanded money from these tribes and would have been easily

outnumbered if the tribes had conquered joined forces and attacked. The Aztecs stopped this by

demanding the prisoners. This would force tribes to attack each other and thus the relationsbetween tribes were kept to a hostile relationship, and strengthen the Aztec presence amongst

tribes.