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Basic Aztec facts: AZTEC GODS

A pantheon of pre-Hispanic gods

The Spanish said ‘over 2,000’. Most say ‘over 100’. Some say ‘around 20’. A few say ‘just 4 key ones’. One or two say ‘Actually, only two’. If you asked a Mexica, how many gods would (s)he say the Aztecs worshipped? (Written by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Well, that’s where the fun starts! ‘Your average Aztec’ might well have said ‘Ah, well, there’s a spirit, a life force - teotl - in everything, from the smallest ant to the biggest star in the sky, from a single stone to a giant mountain’. You see, they believed the gods were and are with us at every level, from the stars down to the underworld...

‘That’s why, before we kill an animal or cut down a tree, we ask the spirit inside to forgive us; and once a year we bless and give thanks to the spirit inside every tool and object in our house, for giving us good service. We all worship the gods every day: every Mexica house has a little shrine to the oldest god of all, Huehueteotl, the fire god.’

‘Because we’ve always been farmers, we worship the rain god Tlaloc - especially in the wet season, as our lives depend on him; and because in the dry season we’re warriors, we worship our very own war god Huitzilopochtli.’ Actually, you could say that Huitzilopochtli was a) quite a ‘new’ god, and b) the only really AZTEC god: basically all the rest were borrowed from other tribes!

Like the Romans, the Mexica were quite happy for all the tribes they conquered to go on worshipping their own, local gods. In a way, the more the merrier! And ‘local’ says it all: every town, neighbourhood, clan, district, guild, worshipped their own patron deity: so, one for merchants, another for fisher folk, another for priests... ‘All our children go to school; if you go to posh school you worship Quetzalcóatl. If you go to the commoners’ school, you follow his rival, Tezcatlipoca.’

Q and T were definitely two HEAVIES - and great rivals. To put it crudely Q had introduced all the gentle, good, settled things in life: your ‘culture’ like arts, writing, the calendar, schools, plus agriculture and several goodies like chocolate. Big T, however, was the patron of warriors, sorcerers, the night sky, sin, misery and fate in general...

Q and T were two of the four great creator gods, alongside Xipe Totec (an example of a ‘foreign’ god, borrowed from the Zapotecs) and Huitzilopochtli - all sons of Top God and Goddess Ometeotl (Two Deity), that is Ometecuhtli (Lord Two) and Omecíhuatl (Lady Two), the supreme deity couple, with, like most Aztec gods, MANY different names. Rather remote and little known, they were the original, eternal mother and father.

GENERAL POINTS:-
• All gods had good and bad sides or faces to them
• The gods created and controlled the world and kept the sun moving
• The gods sacrificed themselves to get our world and life going
• The Aztecs had to pay the gods back through human sacrifices
• Aztec religion was part of EVERYTHING, in public and private life
• The Mexica had stacks of myths about their gods
• Gods, like people, could die and return to life - more than once!
• Roughly 2/3 of the gods were male, 1/3 were female.

Final point, talking of POINTS: the Divine Couple, Ometeotl, represented the fifth and central direction in the world - up and down or heaven and earth, and each of their four sons looked after one of the four cardinal points, North, South, East and West; this ancient idea is in the 260-day sacred calendar: it was divided into four quarters of 65 days - and a different god - each.

Because the Spanish made them become Christian, the Nahuas (descendants of the Aztecs) carried on worshipping their old Sun God (Tonatiuh) in the form of Jesus. Neat: they just called him the Son God!

So where are the Aztec gods now...?

Comments (10)

leoluna

15th Nov 2024

this is a great website I highly recommend it

Mexicolore

Thanks for writing in and for positive feedback!

Taytay

6th Jun 2023

Oh wow! I had no idea Huitzilopotchli was called the blue tezcatlipoca but in hindsight it’s super obvious. It’s interesting that Quetzalcoatl is the odd one out in this respect. Thank you for answering my question! :D

Mexicolore

You’re welcome!

Taytay

2nd Jun 2023

Hello! I have heard the four creator gods (Huitzilopotchli, Tezcatlipoca, Xipe-totec, and Quetzalcoatl) called collectively, ‘the tezcatlipocas.’ Is this an accurate name for them all?

Mexicolore

‘Not in our book’! Two Tezcatlipocas, or at most three, but not four. Tezcatlipoca himself is the Black T. Xipe is sometimes referred to as the Red T. Huitzilopochtli is sometimes referred to as the Blue T. But Quetzalcóatl is never confused or aligned with T.

Cole

19th Jan 2018

I want to know how many gods are there exactly

Mexicolore

Sorry, mate, but nobody knows for sure! Certainly quite a few...

Loic

29th Mar 2017

Sorry if I sounded angry. Didn’t want too (caps lock was on :P)! Also, I understand now (I was learning English back then :P)!

Mexicolore

No ill feelings! Thanks for your friendly feedback...

Loïc Imbeau

14th May 2014

but the rest is great guys! nice job!

adnan

11th May 2014

I don’t understand what the gods are for?
are they for fake worshipping

Mexicolore

Gods are for explaining those great unpredictable forces in nature - floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, lightning, droughts, plagues - that have always badly affected a country like Mexico...

Loïc Imbeau

29th Apr 2014

I DO NOT GET THE FIRST PART BECAUSE IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE!

Mexicolore

Sorry about that! We do our best. What do others think?

alissa

29th Oct 2012

what does huitzilopochtli’s name mean?

Mexicolore

Some say it means ‘Hummingbird of the South’, others say ‘Hummingbird of the Left’ - meaning ‘to the left of the sun’s path’.

Alexis

20th Oct 2012

im curious... is there more to be said about the “5th” direction? Center....

Mexicolore

You’re right, Alexis. We did say (above) ‘fifth and central direction’, but of course we could write a lot more about this. Tenochtitlan was seen by the Mexica as the centre of the world, etc... But this is just a short intro for youngsters...

A pantheon of pre-Hispanic gods