30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for older students
Find out moreWhat significance did heron feathers have?
Aztec Master of Youths sporting heron feathers; Codex Mendoza fol. 57r (detail)
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Taytay: What was the significance of heron feathers? I’ve read that they are associated with warriors, is this true? (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore).
Yes. The heron (garza in Spanish, aztatl in Nahuatl) was associated with Aztec mythology (Aztlan is often translated as Place of the White-feathered Heron) and also with the attire of the ‘masters of youth’ (seasoned warriors who were chosen to teach in the Telpochcalli warriors’ school): ‘The masters of youth wore a forked, white heron feather ornament [called aztaxelli in Nahuatl] in their hair, an attribute repeatedly found in the Aztec pictorials in association with Tezcatlipoca’ (The Codex Mendoza vol. 2 by Frances Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt p. 150). Gordon Whittaker adds that the aztaxelli was ‘emblematic of courage in the face of death’ (Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, p. 88).
In the picture (left) the Tenochca (Aztec) ruler seated bottom right - possibly Nezahualcoyotl - wears the warrior’s forked heron-feather ornament on his head.
Sources of text and images:-
• The Codex Mendoza vol. 2 Description by Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt, University of California Press, 1992
• Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs: a Guide to Nahuatl Writing by Gordon Whittaker, University of California Press, 2021
• Codex Telleriano-Remensis by Eloise Quiñones Keber, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995.
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Aztec Master of Youths sporting heron feathers; Codex Mendoza fol. 57r (detail)
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