‘For it is I Who Makes the Sun Appear
An Aztec Myth
Retold by Rohini Chowdhury
Huitzilopochtli was the chief god of the Aztecs. He was the sun god as well as the war god. The Aztecs believed that it was he who had created their ancestors, given them their language, customs, and characteristics, and assigned them the tasks of fishing and hunting.
Huitzilopochtli’s name is derived from the Nahuatl huitzlin, which means ‘hummingbird’, and opochtli, which means ‘left’. The Aztecs believed that dead warriors were reborn as hummingbirds, and that the south was the left side of the world. So Huitzilopochtli’s name can be interpreted to mean ‘reborn warrior of the south’.
It was believed that Huitzilopochtli was born of the earth-goddess Coatlicue on Coatepec, the Serpent Mountain, near the city of Tula. He was usually shown as a hummingbird or as a warrior wearing an elaborate headdress of hummingbird feathers. His arms, legs and the lower part of his face were blue; the upper half of his face was black. He carried a round shield and a turquoise snake, the Fire Serpent or xiuhcoat. His nahual, or animal disguise, was the eagle.
The Aztecs believed Huitzilopochtli had to be provided with daily nourishment in the form of human hearts and blood. Prisoners captured in battle and slaves were regularly sacrificed in ceremonial rituals, their hearts torn out of their living bodies and offered to the sun. Warriors who were sacrificed thus to the god or who died in battle were called quauhxicalli, ‘the eagle’s people’. It was believed that after their death the warriors became part of the sun’s retinue for four years, and then went to live forever in the bodies of hummingbirds.
The title of this story comes from an Aztec hymn to the god, where he says:
Not in vain did I take the raiment of yellow plumage
For it is I who makes the sun appear.
‘For it is I Who Makes the Sun Appear’
Once, under the shadow of Coatepec the Serpent Mountain, near the Toltec city of Tula, there lived a woman called Coatlicue the Serpent-Skirted. Coatlicue had four hundred sons, who were called the Centzon Huitznahua, which means ‘four hundred southerners’ in Nahuatl. Coatlicue also had one daughter, Coyolxauhqui.
One day, Coatlicue went deep into the mountains to pray. As she prayed, a ball of shining hummingbird feathers fell from the sky into her lap. Fascinated by the brilliant, multi-coloured feathers, Coatlicue picked up the ball and tucked it into her bosom for safekeeping. ‘Perhaps I should offer these wonderful feathers to the Sun,’ she thought.
This was no ordinary ball of feathers, but the soul of a brave warrior who had been killed in battle, and so, sometime later, Coatlicue found that she was going to have another baby. When Coatlicue’s sons, the Four Hundred, and her daughter Coyolxauhqui heard this they were furious. ‘This new baby must die!’ declared Coyolxauhqui, and she urged her brothers to kill the unborn child and their mother.
Coatlicue heard of her children’s plans, and she was worried and afraid. But her unborn child reassured her, ‘Do not worry, do not fear. They cannot harm us.’
Now Coyolxauhqui and the Four Hundred were determined to kill their mother and the unborn child. They put on their armour and took up their weapons, and with Coyolxauhqui at their head marched to Coatepec, where Coatlicue waited in fear and anxiety.
But Quauitlicac, one of the Four Hundred, changed his mind. He did not want to kill his mother or her unborn baby. So he left his sister and brothers, and ran ahead to warn Coatlicue.
‘Do not be afraid, brother,’ said Coatlicue’s unborn baby to Quauitlicac. ‘I know exactly what my sister and other brothers plan to do, and I am prepared.’
Quauitlicac, though comforted by the baby’s words, could not help worrying. He climbed up to the very top of the mountain to keep watch on the advancing army.
‘Brother, keep watch for me, and tell me exactly where the others are,’ called out the unborn baby to Quauitlicac.
‘They are at Tzompantitlan,’ replied Quauitlicac.
A little while later, the baby called out again, ‘Brother, now tell me, where are the others?’
‘They are at Coaxalco,’ said Quauitlicac.
Once more the baby called out, ‘Tell me brother, where are the others now?’
‘They are at Petlac,’ said Quauitlicac.
After that the baby and Coatlicue waited in silence, till Quauitlicac called out, ‘They are here! Coyolxauhqui and the Centzon Huitznahua! They are on Coatepec!’
And in that instant, Coatlicue’s baby sprang out of her womb, fully grown. He was none other than Huitzilopochtli, the Sun God in all his glory. He wore hummingbird feathers on his head and his limbs were painted in stripes of blue and black. In his left hand he held his shield of blue, while in his right hand he brandished his special weapon the xiuhcoatl, or Fire-Serpent. His face, black above and blue below, was terrifying to look at.
With a single blow of the Fire Serpent, Huitzilopochtli shattered Coyolxauhqui into a hundred pieces, which fell far down the mountainside to land on the spot where later Huitzilopochtli’s people built his temple. As for the Centzon Huitznahua, they didn’t wait for their turn. Instead they turned as one and ran as fast as they could to get away from Huitzilopochtli’s fearsome weapon. But Huitzilopochtli ran after them, and chased them round Coatepec four times. Most of the Four Hundred fell into a nearby lake and were drowned. Huitzilopochtli killed all the others with his Fire Serpent, except the few who managed to escape to a place called Uitzlampa where they gave up their weapons and pleaded with Huitzilopochtli for their lives.
Thus was born Huitzilopochtli, the young warrior, the one who makes the sun appear. He created the Aztecs and gave them his secret name, so that they would be his forever, the people of the Sun.
Huitzilopochtli symbolises the sun. His mother, Coatlicue, is the earth, while his sister Coyolxauhqui is the moon and the Centzon Huitznahua are the four hundred stars of the south.
Huitzilopochtli’s birth symbolises the daily battle of light against darkness, as the sun rises and ‘kills’ the moon and the innumerable stars of the sky. In Huitzilopochtli’s struggle against the Centzon Huitznahua the Aztecs perhaps recounted their own struggle for supremacy against the other, older and more advanced cultures of Central America.
This story was first published in The Three Princes of Persia,
by Rohini Chowdhury, Penguin Books India, 2005.
Copyright © Rohini Chowdhury 2005. All rights reserved.
