THE AZTEC RELIGION

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THE AZTEC RELIGION

• AMERICAN LITERATURE I

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AZTECS 900-1521 A.D.

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Pyramid of Kukulkan
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• The preceding slide, Pyramid of Kukulkan, was one
  of the Aztec sacred places of worship.

• Also named El Castillo, the Pyramid of Kukulkan,
  is the pyramid of the plumed serpent known in
  Mayan as Kukulkan, and in Nahuatl as Quetzalcoatl.

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Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, a few miles
out of Mexico City.
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Largest prehistoric city of theAmericas

• Teotihuacan, the largest Mesoamerican city during
  the Classic period, developed a complex urban
  civilization.

• However, no written histories of Teotihuacan are
  known, and no true writing system is apparent.

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A ground level view
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AZTEC RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

• The Aztecs were polytheistica belief in many
  gods.

• The Aztec pantheon was quite large and varied.
• There were gods related to the creation of the
  cosmos,

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• to fertility,
• regeneration,
• death,
• war,
• and the sacrificial nourishment of the sun.

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• The gods had different roles and were also
  represented in different ways.
• The two gods to whom the two most important
  temples in the Aztec world were dedicated were
  Huitzilopochtli (the supreme deity of the Aztecs
  associated with sun and fire)

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• and Tatloc, the rain god, that among other things
  was associated with fertility.

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THE AZTEC SUN GOD HUITZILOPCHTLI
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• HUITZILOPOCHTLI was the Aztec's main god.
• He told the Aztecs where to build their city.
• He was the Sun god whom they fed with human
  sacrifice.
• He was the god of waran important god!

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Tatloc, the rain god
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QUETZALCOATL

• Quetzalcoatl was another important god.
• He was the plumed, or feathered, serpent.

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Temple of Quetzalcoatl

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• He is the creator sky-god and wise legislator.
• He organized the original cosmos and participated
  in the creation and destruction of various world
  periods.

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• Quetzalcoatl ruled the fifth world cycle.
• He created the humans of that cycle.
• The story goes that he descended to Mictlan, the
  underworld, and gathered the bones of the human
  beings of the previous epochs.

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• Upon his return, he sprinkled his own blood upon
  these bones and fashioned thus the humans of the
  new era.
• He is also a god of the wind as well as a
  water-god and fertility-god.

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• He is regarded as a son of the virgin goddess
  Coatlicue and as the twin brother of Xolotl.
• The bringer of culture, he introduced agriculture
  (maize) and the calendar and is the patron of the
  arts and the crafts.

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• There are several different versions of his
  death.
• What is interesting is that he is described as
  light-skinned and bearded, and will return in a
  certain year.
• This is the return of the Messiah archetype.

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• The Aztecs later made him a symbol of death and
  resurrection and a patron of priests.
• All cultures have dying and resurrected gods.

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Leon Underwood Quetzalcoatl1939
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A More Traditional RenderingOf The Feathered God
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Postmodern Depiction
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XOLOTL

• In Aztec and Toltec mythology, Xolotl is the god
  of lightning who guides the dead to the Mictlan.
  The Aztec regard him as the twin brother of
  Quetzalcoatl.
• As lord of the evening star and personification
  of Venus,

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• he pushes the sun at sunset towards the ocean and
  guards her during the night on her dangerous
  journey through the underworld.
• Xolotl is represented as a skeleton, or as a man
  with the head of a dog.

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XOLOTL
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A MODERN RENDERING

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COATLICUE
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• Coatlicue, whose name means
• "Serpent Skirt, was the Earth goddess of life
  and death in the Aztec mythology.
• Coatlicue had a horrible appearance. She was
  depicted as a woman wearing a skirt of snakes and
  a necklace of hearts torn from victims.

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• She was the mother of Quetzalcoatl.
• Quetzalcoatl was born of a virgin.
• Virgin birthanother archetype common to many
  cultures.

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• The Aztec goddess of earth and fire, and mother
  of the gods and stars of the southern sky.

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• She represented the type of the devouring mother
  where both the womb and the grave were combined.
• A serpent goddess, she is depicted wearing a
  skirt of snakes, and a string of sacrificial
  hearts around her throat.

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Minoan goddess holding snakes
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COATLICUE STATUE
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• The preceding slide is of the Hindu mother
  goddess, Kali.
• She is similar to Coatlicue in that she is life
  and deathanother universal archetype.