The Ancient Aztecs

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The Ancient Aztecs
Presentation created by Andrew Clark, Nikhil
Sekher, and Joshua Reitan
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Polytheism
Polytheism - the doctrine of or belief in more
than one god or in many gods.
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Aztec Gods

• The Aztecs mental image of Gods were
  anthropomorphic- meaning that natural forces they
  believed in were personified.
• The Aztecs were exteremely open minded when it
  came to religion. They took gods from different
  regions and different peoples constonatly.
• As society grows complex, so do the Gods.

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The Manifestation of Aztec Gods

• Pantheon - the gods of a particular mythology
  considered collectively.
• As society grew more intelligent, the Pantheon
  grew larger and larger.
• It was the priests job to keep track of the ever
  growing Pantheon- there were so many Gods that
  the ordinary man was not expected to know them
  all.

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The Role of Priests
All these earth gods were their life. The
complicated religious pattern they left to the
priests, who told them when to weep, when to get
drunk, when to rejoice, when to die. The people
seemed content to resign themselves to those who
spoke of the unknowable with so great a
certainty. (Von Hagen 160)
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The Role of Priests

• Priests were the most trusted of men.
• Since they were the ones whose job was to keep
  track of the Gods and know them, they were
  trusted.
• Complicated matters regarding complicated Gods
  were left to the priests.
• These complicated matters will be discussed in
  further detail later.

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Blood - The fluid that circulates in the
principal vascular system of human beings and
other vertebrates, in humans consisting of plasma
in which the red blood cells, white blood cells,
and platelets are suspended.
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Blood The drink of the Gods.
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Huitzilopochtli, the Hummingbird Wizard,
was the Aztecs' own. They were his children, the
"chosen people." He it was who led them out of
the dry misery of the north into the promised
land of Mexico-Tenochtitlán he took his place
among all the other gods, from the ancient past
and from other cultures.
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He was the sun, the ever-youthful warrior who
fought battles with the other gods for man's
survival. Each day he rose, fought the night, the
stars, the moon, and, armed with sunbolts,
brought on the new day.
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Since he fought these battles for them, the
Aztecs could only repay him by nourishing him for
his eternal wars. The proffered food could be
neither the watered-down intoxicant pulque, nor
corncakes such as mortal man ate--the god must be
nourished on the stuff of life blood.
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It was the sacred duty of every Aztec--for all
were part of an agrarian militia--to take
prisoners for sacrifice in order to obtain for
Huitzilopochtli the nectar of the gods--human
hearts and blood. (Von Hagen 160)
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for if the beneficent gods were not nourished
they would cease to protect man from the other
gods, and this might lead to the total
destruction of the world. (Von Hagen 161) How
could so many new hearts and blood be provided
for the gods so that they may be pleased? War.
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Militant Religion

• What did peace mean to the Aztecs?
• Peace was dangerous.
• How could new hearts and blood be provided and
  sacrificed to the Gods if there was peace?
• Militant Religion - War and Religion are tied
  together.
• War could be considered the Aztecs natural
  condition.

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Sacrificial Rituals
When the great temple pyramid to
Huitzilopochtli was dedicated in Mexico in 1486,
"king" Ahuitzotl, after a two years' war campaign
in Oaxaca, amassed more than twenty thousand
prisoner victims. These were lined up in rows
waiting to be spread-eagled over the sacrificial
stone. Their hearts were cut out and held briefly
to the sun, then, still pulsating, deposited in
the heart urn of the recumbent Chac-Mool figure.
(Van Hagen 161)
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Rituals

• 2 main calenders
• Ritualistic (Not astronomical)
• 20 periods of 13 days
• 20 x 13 260
• The origin of this calendar is not known. It is
  said to even be more than 1,500 years old!
• Solar (Astronomical)
• 18 20-day months
• 18 x 20 360 5 empty days (explained later)
• 52-year cycles
• 365(days) x 52(years) 18,980-day period

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The Role of Priests

• Know the pantheon of the gods.
• Calculate Rituals
• Understand the exact interconnection between each
  particular god and time according to the
  calender.
• For example, sacrifices had to be made at exact
  moments in time in order to please the god they
  wanted to appeal to.

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Rituals
All the developed intellect of the Aztec was
turned toward this one thing how to propitiate
the right god at the right time. So sacrifice was
not mere butchery, it was a parade of elaborately
conceived ritual with only one object in view to
preserve human existence. (Van Hagen 165)
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Rituals

• Sacrifice was not meaningless butchery.
• To the Aztecs, sacrifice was they key to
  preserving human existence.
• The Aztecs understood that if they did not offer
  the gods their drink, the gods would not be
  pleased the gods would in turn, cease to protect
  the human race, and instead, destroy the human
  race.

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Nemontemi

• Nemontemi the five empty days
• Occurs at the end of every 52-year cycle. (After
  the 360 days).
• These are the unlucky days.
• Nemontemi was announced by the priests
• All fires were extinguished.
• Fasting was general.
• Sexual intercourse ceased.
• Artists were to remain idle.
• Businesses were to remain idle.

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Nemontemi

• After the priests calculate the end of Nemontemi,
  and if the world had not ended, they would
  perform the first ritual of the new cycle

Sacrifice.
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Nemontemi

• First sacrifice of the new cycle
• A sacrificial victim was chosen.
• His chest was cut open and the heart pulled out.
• All the fires would than be rekindled in the
  temples and throughout the land.

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Festivals and Holidays

• THE FESTIVAL was almost continuous in ancient
  Mexico. It is not easy to separate festive and
  ceremonial, sacred and secular, since everything
  was bound up together. (Von Hagen 97)

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Festivals and Holidays

• There are 18 months in the solar calender.
• Each of these months contained some forms of
  celebration to the gods.

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• Ceremonies, parades, sacrifice.
• Priests dance in the skin of sacrificial victims.
• Fasting, skin dancing, children sacrifices.
• Worship of the new corn, god impersonation
  ceremonies, altars created in houses with
  cornstalks, children sacrifices.
• Dances of workers.
• Aztecs feast on corn.
• Feasts that lasted for days.
• Prisoners of war held captive by the Aztecs
  danced with the Aztecs themselves.

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The Afterlife
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An Aztec Funeral Chant
Where shall I go?Where shall I go?The road of
the god of duality.Is your house perchance in
the place of the fleshless?Perchance inside
heaven?or here on earth onlyis the place of the
fleshless?
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The Afterlife

• Occupation, rather than conduct or how one acted
  in life, was the key to where one would go in the
  afterlife.
• Warriors and certain women (who were considered
  equal to men in some cases) went to paradise in
  the land of Tlaloc, the god of water and rain.
• This land was filled with flowers.

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The Afterlife

• Women who died during childbirth also went to
  paradise in another area.
• They also haunted children and other women on
  earth.
• Aztecs who were unclassified journeyed to the
  land of the Lord of the Dead through rivers,
  mountains, and deserts. When they reached the
  realm of the Lord of the Dead, he assigned them
  to one of nine hells.

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Key Gods and Myths
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Huitzilopochtlis Myth

• Huitzilopochtli was the son of the goddess
  Coatlicue, she had 400 other sons and one
  daughter.
• When no one could figure out who the father ( he
  was actually born from a ball of humming bird
  feathers) Huitzilopochtlis siblings attempted to
  kill him to prevent embarrasing the family name

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Huitzilopochtlis Myth (cont.)

• Huitzilopochtli was born battle ready and
  defeated all of his brothers using a shield and
  his weapon called the turquoise snake staff. He
  cut out his sisters heart and kicked her body
  off a cliff because she convinced
  Huitzilopochtlis brothers to fight him in the
  first place
• From then on sacrifices were conducted by cutting
  out a victims heart and tossing the body off a
  cliff

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Huitzilopochtlis role in Aztec Religion

• He was God of War, the Sun, lord of the South,
  and also known as the hummingbird, and I
  represented by the color blue
• He is a warrior in armor covered by hummingbird
  feathers, and he is usually represented by
  hummingbirds and sometimes eagles
• Huitzilopochtli is one of the main gods of the
  Aztecs, at the top of the pantheon of Gods as God
  of the sun

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Myth of Quetzalcoatl

• Known as the feathered serpent, god of life,
  breath, and the wind
• He fell to land of the dead Mictlantecuhtli
• where he gathered bones and returned to the world
  of the living where he sprinkled blood on them
  and created humans
• He was king and god of the sun at one point and
  afterward sailed East. It was believed that he
  would return one day for his kingdom

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Quetzalcoatls symbols

• He was white in his human form and said to glow
  as well
• He represented priesthood, knowledge and the arts
  and crafts
• He was represented by snakes and butterflies
  which symbolized perfection
• He has the most compassion for humans and asks
  for only and one sacrifice
• He was a main god of the Aztecs, but not as
  important as Huitzilopochtli

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Tlaloc

• He was one of the 3 Major Gods of the Aztecs
• God of rain, thunder, lightning, floods,
  droughts, and fertility
• He has jaguar fangs, a cloud cape, foam sandals,
  a rattle to make thunder, and a crown of heron
  feathers
• He was known for being both kind and wrathful
• In a myth similar to the greek myth of winter
  Tlaloc married the goddess of flowers
  Xochiquetzal, but she was kiddnapped by the god
  of night Tezcatlipoca

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Tlaloc ( cont.)

• He asked for children as sacrifices
• Tlaloc is represented by the alligator,lightning
  bolts, storms and disaster
• He carried rain in jars and poured them on the
  world one caused life, the second blight, the
  third brought frost, and the fourth complete
  destruction
• With Huitzilopochtli he was a god honored in the
  temple Teotihuacan

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Aztec Sacrifice

• Every Aztec god asked for sacrifice though some
  less than others. The ritual follows a similar
  pattern that was established by Huitzilopochtli.

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Aztec Sacrifice (cont.)

• Priests took the hearts of war prisoners or the
  hearts of brave warriors. Their heart was cut out
  while still beating and offered to the sun. Their
  body would then be thrown off a cliff or carried
  if it was a respected warrior. Aztecs offered the
  heart and blood of their enemies because they
  believed that the gods needed blood to survive

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Quetzalcoatl and Cortes

• Quetzalcoatl was a god believe to have fled his
  kingdom and went East because he lost his place
  as the second sun and ruler of the world.
• When Cortes the Conquistador arrived in the New
  World the Aztecs believed he was Quetzalcoatl
  because like Quetzalcoatl he had light skin.
  Unfortunately they learned the truth too late

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The Creation Story

• The father of the gods Ometeotl gave birth to
  four gods Tezcatlipoca (Quetzalcoatls
  archrival), Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and
  Chalchiuhtlicue ( she would be Tlalocs wife
  after Tezcatlipoca kiddnapped his first wife)

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Creation Story (cont.)

• Tezcatlipoca, the jaguar, became the sun and
  claimed to be ruler of the world
• Quetzalcoatl did not like that and hit
  Tezcatlipoca into the ocean and turned himself
  into the sun
• Tezcatlipoca feeling angrier now knocked
  Quetzalcoatl out of the sky, this created a
  powerful gale killed almost all of the humans on
  the planet only a few survived but became monkeys

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Creation Story ( cont. 2)

• Tlaloc took the opportunity while Quetzalcoatl
  and Tezcatlipoca were fighting and became the
  third sun and repopulated the planet.
  Quetzalcoatl then rained fire on humans killing
  them all again this time a few escaped but became
  birds
• Chalchiuhtlicue then established herself as the
  fourth sun while her brothers were squabbling and
  repopulated the earth once more

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Creation Story (cont. 3)

• It is unsurprising what happened next but
  Tezcatlipoca then caused floods to eradicate
  mankind once more and the only ones to survive
  became fish
• The entire world was engulfed by flooding and
  there was no more land

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Creation Story (cont. 4)

• Tezcatlopoca and Quetzalcoatl stopped fighting to
  lift the world out of the ocean, and Quetzalcoatl
  created Aztecs by traveling to the underworld
  gathering their bones and giving drops of his
  blood
• Quetzalcoatl was from then respected as the one
  who gave the Aztecs life. Also, none of the four
  gods became god of the sun, Huitzilopochtli
  became the fifth sun and remained so however many
  mayan and Aztecs refer the end of the world with
  the coming of the 6th sun

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Fun With Aztecs
1) There will be 4 groups. Each round each team
will send up a representative to answer the
question. 2) The person that hits the buzzer
first will have 15 seconds to ask their group for
an answer. When the 15 seconds is up, there can
be no more communication between the group and
the Rep., then the question must me answered. 3)
If the answer is not right, the question will
move on to the next group 4) Picture questions
are worth 2 points, one for the question and one
for the pronunciation of the Aztec God's
name. 5) NO HITTING. You will be ejected from
the game.
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The roles of the priests involved all these
EXCEPT

• Observe, calculate, and keep track of the days of
  the ritual and solar calendars.
• Keep track and study all the gods of the
  pantheon.
• Oversee sacrificial rituals.
• Accompany the undead through their journey to the
  underworld.

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Tlaloc
A) God of Birth and Babies B) God of Rain C)
Goddess of Love D) Goddess of Hate
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What is a Pantheon?

1. A type of obelisk.
2. The gods of a particular mythology considered
   collectively.
3. A certain Aztec statue created and dedicated to
   the gods.
4. The house of the priests.

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http//library.thinkquest.org/27981/god.html
Xipe Totec
A) God of Spring and New Life B) God of
Destruction C) Goddess of Food and Water D)
This isn't Aztec, it's just a drawing.
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What is the drink of the gods?

1. Water
2. Specific river water
3. Blood
4. Orange juice

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All the following are reasons for sacrificial
rituals EXCEPT

• The gods must be given blood in order to be
  pleased and provide protection to the Aztecs.
• The gods will not destroy the human race if given
  blood.
• The amount of blood given to the gods by the
  Aztecs equals to the amount of Aztecs that are
  allowed in heaven.

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Huitzilopochtli
A) God of Vegetation B) God of the Sun C) God of
Serpents D) Goddess of Fire
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How many days were in the Ritualistic calender?

1. 260
2. 360
3. 180
4. 5

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When did Nemontemi occur?

1. When natural disasters began to occur frequently.
2. After every 52-year cycle.
3. When there was an eclipse.
4. Whenever the Aztecs lost a battle.

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What does the term militant religion mean?

1. It describes a society that only goes to war in
   order to preserve peace and non violence
   throughout the land.
2. It describes a society that attempts to create
   the largest army in the world.
3. It describes a society that rules its people with
   military force and unbalanced power.
4. It describes a society in which war and religion
   are tied together.

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Mictlantecuhtl
A) God of Hats and Robes B) God of the Dead C)
God of the Living D) God of Difficult names
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This is what determined where people went in the
afterlife.

1. Integrity
2. Faithfulness
3. Intelligence
4. Occupation

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Quetzalcoatl
A) God of Music B) God of Warfare C) God of
Knowledge and Creation D) Goddess of Animals
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Works Cited

• http//library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00875/text/Azt
  ecC.htm
• http//library.thinkquest.org/27981/god.html
• http//www.aztec-indians.com/aztec-gods.html
• http//www.crystalinks.com/aztecgods.html
• Vaillant, George C. Aztecs of Mexico Origin,
  Rise, and Fall of the Aztec Nation. Garden City,
  NY Doubleday, 1962. Questia. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.
• Von Hagen, Victor Wolfgang. The Ancient Sun
  Kingdoms of the Americas. Cleveland, OH World,
  1961. Questia. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.