Comparing Aztec Mythology And Religion

Aztec Mythology and Religion

The Aztecs were a group of indigenous people who established an extensive empire in Mexico. An important part of Aztec culture revolved around their spiritual and mythological beliefs. They provided a rich and creative background for their religion. In one myth, the goddess Coatilcue becomes impregnated by putting a feather into her shirt, in another, two gods jumped into a fire and turned into suns. These myths established how creative the Aztecs could be in creating their gods’ origins.
At the beginning of creation, there was a high God Ometeotl and a female form, Omecihuatl. Two of the four sons that they produced were Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli. They were given the task of creating the earth, other gods, and people. With the birth of these Gods, a pattern of creation and destruction began that continues to the present day.
There have been four previous ages or “suns,” each controlled by a particular god and each with a distinctive race. Each sun was destroyed by a different catastrophe. The god Tezcatlipoca presided over the first sun, when a race of giants roamed the earth. He is often described as the Aztec high god. In his
Separate stairways emphasized this duality. Tlaloc was the principal rain god among the Aztecs and his main purpose was to send rain to nourish maize and other crops. He had four or five versions or transformations called the Tlaloque, who assisted him. They brewed the rain in huge vats in caves on mountaintops, from whence they also sent out thunder and lightning. Tlaloc was a priestly god, Huitzilopochtli, on the other hand, was a sorcerer and a tribal god. He could even be identified with the creator and sustainer of all life, a high god, though this was probably unusual. The juxtaposition of their two shrines symbolized the equilibrium of two traditions that made up Aztec