The gods of the Aztecs

This group holds the deities of the Aztec (Mexica) civilisation of central Mexico, known from indigenous and Spanish colonial sources compiled around and after the conquest of 1521. Aztec religion set human life within a fragile cosmos of successive world-ages sustained, in the tradition's account, by ritual offering including human sacrifice.

The browser will find the war and sun god Huitzilopochtli, patron of Tenochtitlan; the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl; the smoking-mirror god Tezcatlipoca; the rain-god Tlaloc; and earth and fertility deities such as Coatlicue and Xipe Totec. The entries flag that the principal sources were written under colonial conditions and must be read critically.