The Aztecs or the Mexica possessed a very fascinating history. Difficult for its lack of simple written languages matched with mixing with myths, legends, and gods. Such as the case of the Aztecs’ origins and the foundation of their capital Tenochtitlan. Here are 8 things to know about their foundational myth.
1. Different Sources, different versions
Different sources on Aztec history, most if not all, written after the fall of the Aztecs and Tenochtitlan in 1521. Numerous codices such as the Codex Chimalpahin and Codex Aubin narrated the story of the early Aztecs and also included the work of Fr. Diego Duran, the History of the Indies of New Spain written around the late 16th century Each of the codices offered several versions of the story with Diego Duran’s being the simplest to read.
2. Take the story with a pinch of salt
In studying the Aztec foundational myth as with history, take the sources with a pinch of salt. The sources for Aztec history came from after the conquest hence biases existed.
This maybe colonial biases from Spanish Christian writers. Also, the sources for this codices may even be tainted because during the reign of Tlatoani Itzcoatl and his chief adviser Tlacaelel, Tenochtitlan burned old books and forged new stories about their history. Regionalism also existed such as the History of Chichimeca focused on the history of Texcoco while the Anales de Cuauhtitlan swayed towards the city state of Cuauhtitlan.
Lastly, Spanish and Aztec descendants themselves found it difficult to translate the Nahuatl language into Spanish and the Latin language, thus there existed dangers of mistranslation.
3. The Aztecs traced their origins to a cave-ridden island called Aztlan
Despite the difference of versions in the narrative, most agreed that the Aztecs and other Nahuatl speaking tribes traced their origins from cave-ridden island called Aztlan. Location of Aztlan had been presumed to be located around the Southern United States.
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| Chicomoztoc in Diego Duran's Work |
In that island, numerous caves existed, thus it also came to be known as Chicomoztoc, and each caverns served as home for different tribes. Duran listed the tribes as:
1. Xochimilca
2. Chalca
3. Tepanecs
4. Tlalhuica
5. Texcocans
6. Tlaxcalans
On the other hand, the Codex Chimalpahin enumerated the tribes as:
1. Huexotzinca
2. Chalca
3. Xochimilca
4. Cuitlahuaca
5. Malinalca
6. Chichimeca
7. Tepaneca
8. Matlazinca
4. Their story similar to Moses
The tribes in Aztlan one by one left and established city-states on shores of Lake Texcoco. The Aztecs or Mexica left the latest some hundred years after the last tribe. They wandered for decades and even centuries along the wilderness guided by their war-god Huitzilopotchli.
Like the Israelites in search for their new homeland, the same goes to the Mexica with their god and priests, which included men like Meci, from which Mexica came from, and Tenoch, to whom the Aztecs named their city of Tenochtitlan.
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| Tenoch |
5. Faced hostility from neighbors
The Mexica arrived last in the region of Lake Texcoco and many of the tribes in that place found them repulsive for their bloodier rituals and their nomadic life. When they settled in the hills of Chapultepec, they faced a siege from a coalition of tribes including the Tepanecs and Culhuacans.
In the History of Indies of New Spain, Fr. Duran attributed the hostility to the incitement of Copil. Copil wanted to avenge his mother who also was Huitzilopotchli’s sister, Malinalxochitl. During the early times of the migration, Huitzilopotchli ordered the Mexica to abandon Malinalxochitl due to her greater brutality than his. Malinalxochitl resented the abandonment which she passed on to her son Copil.
Copil desired for a vendetta and caught up with the Aztecs in Chapultepec. He spread fake news about the barbarity of Mexica that roused anger among the locals. So much so they besieged them. Eventually, with Huitzilopotchli’s guidance, the Mexica slew Copil and threw his heart in Lake Texcoco, but they still needed to flee from Chapultepec. They found refuge in Culhuacan.
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| Chapultepec in Codex Aubin |
6. They Flayed their Host’s Daughter
In Culhuacan, the Mexica found a temporary home. The Culhuacan rulers gave them a snake-infested land called Tizapan where they made their home that amazed their host. From Tizapan they traded and married with the Culhuaca developing close ties with the tribe. They felt at home so much that they forgot their quest to Huitzilopotchli.
Huitzilopotchli wanted to remind the Mexica and so he ordered them to find a Toci or grandmother for them. For their search, they sought for the hand of a daughter of the Culhuacan ruler Achitometl, who agreed and gave one. The Culhuaca and the Mexica then held a feast to celebrate the union. As a main event, a priest danced while wearing a bloody flayed skin that widened the eyes of the Culhuacan leader. The skin belonged to her daughter.
It turned out, the Mexica offered Achitometl’s daughter to Huitzilopotchli by laying her in a sacrificial table, opening her torso, plucking her heart, then skinning her so that one of their priests may celebrate the birth of their Toci with a ritual dance. This enraged the Culhuaca and the Mexica found themselves expelled then left to wander once again.
7. Left thousands without a nose
The Codex Aubin offered another narrative during the Mexica stay in Culhuacan. Like in Duran’s story, the Mexica found a home in Tizapan which the Culhuacan leader Coxcoxtli gave. The Culhuacan leader hoped that Tizapan would kill off the Mexica which backfired and thus he searched for another way.
He then asked the Mexica to fight in his war against his neighbors to the south, the Xochimilca. He wanted to make sure the war to kill off the Mexica by not arming them. Ultimately, the Mexica, guided by their war-god Huitzilopotchli, won and handed over to Coxcoxtli 32,000 noses to prove the number of their capture.
According to Chimalpahin Codex though, instead of noses, they cut off ears to prove their success. Eventually, a sacrifice of the 4 Xochimilca prisoners offended Coxcoxtli and resulted in the Mexica being expelled from Culhuacan.
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| Image of Xochimilco prisoners in Codex Aubin |
8. Their sign for their new homeland became a national icon
After leaving Culhuacan, the Aztecs wandered once again. For the Codex Aubin, a Mexica named Axolohua drowned in Lake Texcoco then re-emerged before saying that Tlaloc, the god of water, told him that the Mexica should built a city there, the city that became Tenochtitlan.
The most commonly known story described that Huitzilopochtli told the Mexica to search for a pear cactus that had a eagle on top of it clutching or having a snake with it and on that spot they would have their new homeland. Sure enough, the Aztec found the sign and there they built Tenochtitlan.
Later on the same symbol that Huitzilopochtli gave became Mexico’s cherished emblem and donned the national flag.
See also:
Bibliography:
Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo de San Anton Muñon. Translated by Arthur J.O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder. Codex Chimalpahin (v. 1). Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.
Duran, Diego. Aztecs: The History of the Indies of New Spain. New York, New York: Orion Press, 1964.
Townsend, Camilla. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
"Codex Aubin." In From the Page. Accessed on September 8, 2024. URL: https://fromthepage.com/fordham/codex-aubin/codex-aubin/display/25000056
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