What symbol is Huitzilopochtli?

What symbol is Huitzilopochtli?

Huītzilōpōchtli

What symbol did Huitzilopochtli tell the Aztecs to find?

an eagle
In another story, Huitzilopochtli led the Aztecs from their legendary homeland in the north, Aztlán, to the Valley of Mexico. There he instructed them to find an eagle eating a snake. Once they spotted the eagle, the Aztecs built their capital, Tenochtitlán, on that site.

What does Huitzilopochtli mean?

Huitzilopochtli (pron. Huit-zi-lo-pocht-li) or ‘Hummingbird of the South’ or ‘Blue Hummingbird on the Left’ was one of the most important deities in the Aztec pantheon and for the Méxica he was the supreme god.

Who is the most powerful Aztec god?

Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli, without doubt, was the most feared and powerful god. As the god of war, the sun, and sacrifice, he was the god to be reckoned with. Whenever the Aztecs were at war, he would be revered for helping them win, or a sacrifice would be made to him should they be defeated.

What were Huitzilopochtli’s powers?

Powers: According to Sahagún, Huitzilopochtli was robust, strong, warlike and a great destroyer of towns and men. In wars he was like “live fire”, and fearsome to his adversaries. His emblem was of a “dragon’s head that spewed fire from its mouth” (xiuhcoatl).

What does a hummingbird symbolize in Mexican culture?

Mexican elders say Huitzilopochtli guided the Aztec’s long migration to the Valley of Mexico, and thus the hummingbird is the symbol of strength in life’s struggle to elevate consciousness—to follow your dreams.

How did the Aztecs honor Huitzilopochtli?

Worship and Symbols of Huitzilopochtli He was connected with gold, war, and rulership, so the Aztecs thought it was important to keep him happy. To appease him, the Aztecs performed human sacrifices, usually of prisoners of war.

What is the legend of Huitzilopochtli?

Huitzilopochtli is considered a creator god, but not for a simple or passive creation, like you might find in other religions. This god fought with his sister, then decapitated and dismembered her. He threw her torso down to the base of the mountain and threw her head into the sky, which became the moon.

What is the name of the Mexican god?

Huitzilopochtli, also spelled Uitzilopochtli, also called Xiuhpilli (“Turquoise Prince”) and Totec (“Our Lord”), Aztec sun and war god, one of the two principal deities of Aztec religion, often represented in art as either a hummingbird or an eagle.

What does Huitzilopochtli symbolize?

As a dweller of land, Huitzilopochtli was the sun eagle that devoured a snake’s tail, emblem of darkness. He was sometimes a hummingbird, the soul of a dead warrior, and he could be a snake, symbol of a people settling in its promised land.

Who is Huitzilopochtli in the Codex Telleriano?

Huitzilopochtli – Codex Telleriano-Remensis. PD. Both a sun god and a war god, Huitzilopochtli was the main deity in most of the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec tribes. As these tribes varied quite a bit between each other, there were different myths told about Huitzilopochtli among them.

What did Huitzilopochtli wear on his head?

Hummingbird feathers covered the body of his statue at the great temple, along with cloth and jewels. In painted images, Huitzilopochtli wears the head of a hummingbird attached to the back of his head or as a helmet; and he carries a shield of turquoise mosaic or clusters of white eagle feathers.

What is the significance of the temple of Tenochtitlan?

The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (or Templo Mayor) is the most important shrine dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, and its shape symbolized a replica of Coatepec. At the foot of the temple, on the Huitzilopochtli side, lay a massive sculpture portraying the dismembered body of Coyolxauhqui, found during excavations for electric utility works in 1978.