Aztec Religion
In their religion, the Aztecs recognized the existence of a supreme being of sublime attributes, to whom was added thirteen principal deities, and some two hundred inferior, each with a…
From: Unknown To: 1514 C.E.
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From History of Mexico and Its Wars by John Frost, 1882.
In their religion, the Aztecs recognized the existence of a supreme being of sublime attributes, to whom was added thirteen principal deities, and some two hundred inferior, each with a particular function. At the head of all was the war-god, Huitzilopotchli, the patron deity of the nation, whose altars reeked with the blood of hecatombs of human victims in every city. Quetzalcoatl was the god of the air, who taught them the use of metals, and agriculture, and the art of government, whose terrestrial residence in fact formed the golden age of Anahuac. He incurred the anger of one of the principal deities, and was banished the country. On his way, he stopped at Cholula, where are still found the interesting ruins of a temple dedicated to his worship. When he embarked from the shores of the gulf, in his boat made of serpents' skins, he bade his followers farewell, promising to return to them at some future day with his descendants. This remarkable tradition was universally known, and the promised return was constantly expected ; a circumstance which proved of considerable advantage to the Spaniards.*
In their ideas of a future state, the Mexicans evinced a degree of progress that seems to be attributable to the Tezcucans, so incongruous is it with the other parts of their religious creed.
The wicked were consigned after death to a place of everlasting darkness; those who died of certain diseases, were subjected to an existence of indolent contentment; while those who fell in battle or died on the sacrificial stone, were transported at once to the presence of the sun, whom they accompanied for some years in his course through the heavens, and then went to animate the clouds and singing birds of beautiful plumage, and to revel amidst the rich blossoms and odours of the gardens of paradise. At death, the corpse of a person was clothed in habiliments peculiar to his tutelar deity, strewed with pieces of paper, to preserve him from the dangers of the road he had to travel. Slaves, if he were rich, were sacrificed at his obsequies; his body was burned, and the ashes collected into a vase, and preserved in his house.
Frost, John. History of Mexico and Its Wars. Armand Hawkins, 1882.
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