Deities
Huitzilopochtli
wee-tsee-loh-POHCH-tlee
Aztec Deities
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As the Aztec face of Mars, Huitzilopochtli embodies war, the sun, and fierce courage. Huitzilopochtli, whose name means hummingbird of the south, is the Aztec god of the sun and of war and the patron deity of the Mexica people. Born fully grown and armed from the earth goddess Coatlicue to defend her, he struck down his sister the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui and scattered his star-brothers, an eternal victory of the sun over the night reenacted each day. He waged the endless battle to keep the sun moving and demanded the nourishment of sacrifice, and it was he who led the wandering Mexica to found their city Tenochtitlan. He embodies war, the burning sun, and fierce, unrelenting courage.
Facts
Attestation
Era of Attestation Veneration TodayHistorically attested; no continuous cult 1 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 3 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 4 Cult
Principal Cult CentreThe southern shrine of the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan 1 Attributes and IconographyAztec art depicts Huitzilopochtli either directly as a hummingbird or as a warrior wearing hummingbird feathers on his left leg, his body painted blue, and wielding the fire serpent Xiuhcoatl as a weapon, iconography tied to the myth of his birth already armed and ready for battle. 5 Worship and PracticeThe festival Panquetzaliztli reenacted his mythic victory over Coyolxauhqui and the star brothers each year, and included a huge effigy of the god made from amaranth seed dough, tzoalli, that was ritually broken apart and eaten by participants after the ceremony. 2 Function
Domain / Function Domain / Function Domain / FunctionTutelary of a place or community 1 Attributions
Mythic AssociationThe Florentine Codex recounts Huitzilopochtli springing fully armed from his mother Coatlicue's womb to defend her against his sister Coyolxauhqui and their four hundred siblings, killing Coyolxauhqui and scattering the rest, a myth read as a founding charter for Mexica warfare. 2 Position Profile
Key TextThe Florentine Codex recounts that Huitzilopochtli was born fully armed from his mother Coatlicue after she was mysteriously impregnated by a ball of down, springing forth to defend her by slaying his sister Coyolxauhqui and the Centzon Huitznahua, his four hundred siblings, who had conspired to kill their mother for the shame of her pregnancy. 2 History
Historical NoteAztec historical tradition credits Huitzilopochtli with guiding the Mexica to the site of Tenochtitlan, promising them a sign, an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a serpent, that later became the emblem of Mexico itself. 1 Origins
Origin of the NameThe name combines the Nahuatl huitzilin, hummingbird, with opochtli, left or south, and is usually translated hummingbird of the left. 3 Practice
LineageThe Florentine Codex tells that Huitzilopochtli was conceived when his mother Coatlicue, already the mother of the moon goddess Coyolxauhqui and four hundred star gods, tucked a ball of feathers into her bosom while sweeping a temple, and that he sprang forth fully armed to defend her against his enraged siblings. 2 Sources
Textual NoteThe Florentine Codex, compiled under the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun in the decades after the conquest, is the single richest surviving source for Huitzilopochtli's mythology, recorded from Nahua informants in the Nahuatl language alongside a Spanish translation, making it both an invaluable and a mediated post-conquest witness to Mexica religion. 2 Learn More
Hummingbird of the South: The God of the Mexica
Much of what is known about Huitzilopochtli's cult became concrete only in 1978, when electrical workers in Mexico City struck a massive carved stone disc showing a dismembered female figure, later identified as Coyolxauhqui, the moon goddess whom myth says Huitzilopochtli defeated at the moment of his birth. The find, lying close to where the myth places her fallen body at the foot of his temple, triggered the major excavation of the Templo Mayor that has since recovered thousands of offerings and confirmed how closely Mexica religious architecture was built to stage the god's own origin story in stone.
His principal festival, Panquetzaliztli, the raising of banners, fell in the Mexica solar calendar and re-enacted his birth and victory with processions, banner-raising, ritual races and sacrifice, as described in colonial-era accounts gathered by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun from Nahua informants after the conquest. Spanish chroniclers who saw the god's cult in person, including the conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, described his image atop the Templo Mayor as covered in gold, pearls and precious stones; the temple and its idols were destroyed in 1521, so that the archaeological record recovered since 1978 is now the primary surviving evidence for a cult otherwise known mainly through conquest-era description rather than surviving objects.
Solar Warfare, and the Meaning of the Myth of His Birth
In Mexica theology Huitzilopochtli was identified with the sun at the height of its strength and with war, and his myth of birth set the pattern. Born fully armed from the earth-goddess Coatlicue on the hill of Coatepec, he defended his mother against the assault of his sister Coyolxauhqui, the moon, and his brothers the Centzon Huitznahua, the countless stars of the southern sky, striking Coyolxauhqui down and dismembering her, a cosmic battle of day against night that the sources report was re-enacted at the Templo Mayor, at whose foot a great carved disc of the dismembered Coyolxauhqui was uncovered in 1978.
The Mexica understood the sun's daily course as needing to be sustained, and the Florentine Codex and related accounts describe the offerings, including human sacrifice, made to him. These descriptions, compiled after the conquest by Spanish friars from indigenous informants, remain a principal and much-debated source for Mexica religion and must be read with that colonial filter in mind.
Correspondences & Relations
Archetypes
Pantheons
Planetary Faces
Huitzilopochtli is the Mexica war god and tribal patron who led the migration to Tenochtitlan, so the Mars pairing suits his character. Mesoamerican astronomy concentrated on Venus and the moon, and the planetary link here is modern.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Addressed By
Explicitly addressed to Huitzilopochtli.
Associated With
Huitzilopochtli led the Mexica from Aztlan, chose the site of Tenochtitlan, and held the war and sun half of the Great Temple.
Coatlicue conceives Huitzilopochtli from a ball of feathers while sweeping; born fully armed, he defends her and destroys her attackers.
Set at the foot of the Huitzilopochtli shrine on the Templo Mayor, enacting his defeat of Coyolxauhqui.
This source names Huitzilopochtli directly: "shop record for its jadeite figure of Huitzilopochtli, confirming the object's material as jadeite, its Mexica origin, and its dating to 1350 to 1521, corroborating the figure's identity and holding..."
This source names Huitzilopochtli directly: "object page on the greenstone Huitzilopochtli figure, adapting its iconographic description directly from the British Museum's own 2009 exhibition catalogue "Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler," page 159..."
This source names Huitzilopochtli directly: "Florentine Codex alongside the Hymn to Huitzilopochtli, which this atlas also covers."
This source names Huitzilopochtli directly: "academic analysis of the imagery of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec patron deity of Tenochtitlan, in both indigenous and later European sources, including the Coatepec birth narrative in which he slays..."
This source names Huitzilopochtli directly: "Aztec priesthood, serving the cult of Huitzilopochtli, while his counterpart bearing the same title served Tlaloc; Sahagun's informants describe the two as chosen for learning and lineage and equal..."
Child Of
Aztec myth holds that Coatlicue conceived Huitzilopochtli after a ball of feathers fell into her bosom while she was sweeping at Coatepec, a conception her other children read as a disgrace and conspired to punish.
Depicted In
Held to Be the Same As
Why this is disputed. In the fourfold color-and-direction Tezcatlipoca scheme recorded in colonial sources including the Codex Rios and Sahagun, Huitzilopochtli occupies the southern position, the Blue Tezcatlipoca, identified with the Mexica tribal war god.
Patron Of
Panquetzaliztli's ruling deity is recorded as Huitzilopochtli.
Tlaxochimaco's ruling deity is recorded as Huitzilopochtli.
Principal Cult Centres
The southern shrine on the twin summit belonged to Huitzilopochtli, tutelary god of the Mexica.
Sacred to This Deity
One of the twin shrines of the Templo Mayor was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli.
Worshipped In
Huitzilopochtli, patron of Tenochtitlan, presided over the Mexica war and solar cult.
Sources
1. Religions of Mesoamerica, 2nd edition
David Carrasco, Waveland Press, 2013
2. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain
Bernardino de Sahagun; translated by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, School of American Research and University of Utah Press, 1950Florentine Codex, Bk 3View the Source 3. Incarnations of the Aztec Supernatural: The Image of Huitzilopochtli in Mexico and Europe
4. Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
5. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya
Mary Miller and Karl Taube, Thames and Hudson, 1993s.v. HuitzilopochtliView the Source Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source The Great Temple of the Aztecs
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