Aztec Religion: Did you mean...?

The Sun Stone (or The Calendar Stone), Aztec, reign of Moctezuma II (1502-20), discovered in 1790 at the southeastern edge of the Plaza Mayor (Zocalo) in Mexico City, stone (unfinished), 358 cm diameter x 98 cm depth (Museo Nacional de...

Mictlantecuhtli (pron. Mict-lan-te-cuht-li) or 'Lord of the Land of the Dead' was the Aztec god of death. He ruled the underworld (Mictlán) with his wife Mictecacíhuatl. Mictlantecuhtli was worshipped and feared across Mesoamerica. The god...

Maya religion and culture is among the most advanced and sophisticated of the Pre-Colombian Americas as evidenced by the ruins of their great cities and what remains of their writings after most were burned by the Spanish in 1562. The Maya...

Government and religion in ancient Egypt were fully integrated beginning with the First Dynasty of Egypt (c. 3150 to c. 2890 BCE). The king was understood as a representative of a god, the specific deity sometimes changing with different...

Join the Aztec midwife Xoquauhtli as she tends to her patients and honors the warrior goddess Teteoinnan at a festival ushering in the season of warfare. — The midwife Xoquauhtli has a difficult choice to make. She owes a debt to her...

European explorers began to probe the Western Hemisphere in the early 1500s, and they found to their utter amazement not only a huge landmass but also a world filled with several diverse and populous indigenous cultures. Among their most...

Tlaltecuhtli, 'Earth Lord/Lady,' was a Mesoamerican earth goddess associated with fertility. Envisioned as a terrible toad monster, her dismembered body gave rise to the world in the Aztec creation myth of the 5th and final cosmos. As a source...

Tonatiuh, 'Turquoise Lord,' was the 5th and present sun in the Aztec view of the cosmos and the fierce sun god of several other Postclassic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Toltecs. It was thought that only the regular offering of hearts...

Quetzalcóatl (pron. Quet-zal-co-at) or 'Plumed Serpent' was one of the most important gods in ancient Mesoamerica. Quetzalcóatl was the god of winds and rain, and the creator of the world and humanity. A mix of bird and rattlesnake, his name...

An illustration from the Florentine Codex depicting Aztecs storing maize.