The idea that people were servants of the gods was a theme that ran through Aztec mythology. Humans had the responsibility ofkeeping the gods fed, otherwise, disaster could strike at any time. The food of the gods was a precious substance found in human blood. The need to satisfy the gods, especially the sun god, gave rise to the related theme ofhuman sacrifice.
Priests conducted ceremonies at the temples, often with crowds in attendance. Masked performers acted out myths using song and dance, and priests offered human sacrifices. To prepare for the ceremonies, the priests performed a ritual called bloodletting, which involved pulling barbed cords across their tongues or other parts of their bodies to draw Blood. Bloodletting was similar to a Mayan ceremony known as the Vision Quest. Peoples before the Aztecs had practiced human sacrifice, but the Aztecs made it the centerpiece of their rituals. Spanish explorers reported witnessing ceremonies in which hundreds of people met their deaths on sacrificial altars. The Aztecs sacrificed prisoners, which contributed to their drive to conquer their neighbors.
Sacrifice was linked to another theme, that of death and rebirth. The Aztecs believed that the world had died and been reborn several times and that the gods had also died and been reborn. Sometimes the gods even sacrificed themselves for the good of the world. Though death loomed large in Aztec mythology, it was always balanced by fertility and the celebration of life and growth.
Another important idea in Aztec mythology was that the outcome of a person’s life was already determined by the gods. The Aztec ball game, about which historians know little, may have been related to this theme. Aztec temples, like those belonging to other cultural groups throughout Mexico and Central America, had walled courts where teams of players struck a rubber ball with their hips, elbows, and knees, trying to drive it through a stone ring. Some historians believe that the game represented the human struggle to control their destiny, or future path in life. It was a religious ritual, not simply a sport, and players may have been sacrificed after the game.
The theme of fate was also reflected in the Aztecs’ use of the calendar. Both the Aztecs and the Maya developed elaborate systems of recording dates. They used two calendars: a 365-day solar calendar based on the position of the sun, and a 260-day ritual calendar used for divination, or predicting the future through supernatural means. Each day of the ritual calendar was influenced by a unique combination of gods and goddesses. Divination involved interpreting the positive or negative meanings of these influences, which determined an individual’s fate. Priests also used the ritual calendar to choose the most favorable days for such activities as erecting buildings, planting crops, and waging war.
The 365-day and 260-day cycles meshed, like a smaller wheel within a larger one, to create a fifty-two-year cycle called the Calendar Round. At the end of a Calendar Round, the Aztecs put out all their fires. To begin a new Calendar Round, priests oversaw a ceremony in which new fires were lit from flames burning in a sacrificial victim’s chest.
A third key theme of Aztec myth was that of duality, a balance between two equal and opposing forces. Many of the Aztec gods and goddesses were dualistic, which meant they had two sides, or roles. Deities often functioned in pairs or opposites. Further, the same god could appear under multiple names or identities, perhaps because Aztec mythology drew elements from a variety of sources.
World History
