^{(Also Witzilopochtli)}

Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird on the Left)¹⁾ is a solar and war Deity of sacrifice and fire. He was also patron of the Aztecs and their capital city, Tenochtitlan.

In art and iconography, Huitzilopochtli could be represented either as a hummingbird or as an anthropomorphic figure with feathers on his head and left leg, a black and yellow face, and holding a scepter shaped like a snake and a mirror. According to the Florentine Codex, Huitzilopochtli's body was painted blue, and another variation lists Him having a face that is marked with yellow and blue stripes, while he carries the fire serpent Xiuhcoatl as a weapon. The black and yellow face paint is said to be reminiscent of the birthing fluids from His swift and violent birth, after which He immediately leapt into battle.

In the great temple His statue was decorated with cloth, feathers, gold, and jewels, and was hidden behind a curtain in reverence. [35] According to legend, the statue was supposed to be destroyed by the soldier Gil González de Benavides, but it was rescued by a man called Tlatolatl. The statue appeared some years later during an investigation by Bishop Zummáraga in the 1530s, only to be lost again. There is speculation that the statue still exists in a cave somewhere in the Anahuac Valley.

He wears a blue-green hummingbird helmet in most depictions found. In fact, His hummingbird helmet isthe one item that consistently defines Him as Huitzilopochtli, the sun God, in artistic renderings. He is usually depicted as holding a shield adorned with balls of eagle feathers, an homage to his Coatlicue and the story of His birth (more below.)

Huitzilopochtli. From the Tovar Codex

Huitzilopochtli. From Codex Borgia

Huitzilopochtli was the patron God of the Mexica tribe. Originally He was of little importance to the Nahuas, but after the rise of the Aztecs, Tlacaelel reformed the religion and put Huitzilopochtli at the same level as Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca, making Him a solar God. Through this, Huitzilopochtli replaced Nanahuatzin/Tonatiuh, the solar God from the Nahua legend. Huitzilopochtli was said to be in a constant struggle with the darkness and required nourishment in the form of sacrifices to ensure the sun would survive the cycle of 52 years, which was the basis of many Mesoamerican myths.

It is thought that Huitzilopochtli was not the original blue Tezcatlipoca, and at some point replaced Tlaloc in that role.

Huiztilopochtli's myths are inseparable from the Mexica's own history as a tribal people; not only was He their patron and guide through the desert exodus from their mythic homeland in Aztlan, He was said to have physically accompanied the wandering tribe in the form of a tlaquimilloli or sacred bundle, and was able to speak to His priests through it.

In one of the final episodes from the mythic history of the founding of Tenochtitlan, legend says that Huitzilopochtli demanded a sacrificial wife, which the Mexica people found in a princess of the Colhua people. In 1325 CE, the Mexica returned to the Basin of Mexico after a hostile reception by the peoples already settled in the area, and were then threatened by the Tepanecs of Atzcapotzalco and the Colhua people of Colhuacan, who saw them as “dangerous squatters”. Eventually, the Mexica refugees were able to meet with the rulers of Colhuacan to beg for protection. The Colhua council decided to give the Mexica non-arable land to live on, which they took, and adapted themselves to. Over the years trust between the two peoples grew, and the Mexica began calling themselves the Colhua-Mexica. Eventually, they also began to see themselves as the descendants of the legendary Toltecs.

Tensions arose again, however. Through His priests, Huitzilopochtli asked for a wife, and the Mexica approached the Colhua lord Achiometl for his daughter, who they promised to make a “sovereign”. Achiometl didn't fully grasp the implications, and acceded. She was sent to Tizaapan, where she was arrayed in royal finery, sacrificed, and flayed. During a ceremony in which a priest wore the skin of the princess, the attending Achiometl recognized his daughter's skin and a battle ensued. Eventually, the Mexica were chased to the uninhabited islands in the middle of Lake Texcoco, where Tenochtitlan was founded.

Although this episode reads as a single event in the migration, it is also a stylized way of expressing the tribe’s intention to become a settled agricultural people by ceremonial marriage with a female who was the symbolic personification of an “earth mother” deity.²⁾

There are a handful of origin mythologies describing the deity's beginnings. One story tells of the cosmic creation and Huitzilopochtli's role in it. According to this legend, He was the smallest son of four — His parents being the creator couple Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl while his brothers were Quetzalcoatl, Xipe Totec, and Tezcatlipoca. His Mother and Father instructed him and Quetzalcoatl to bring order to the world. Together, Huitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl created fire, the first male and female humans, the Earth, and the Sun.

Another origin story tells of an Earth goddess, Coatlicue, being impregnated by a ball of feathers on Mount Coatepec as she was sweeping a temple. Her other children, who were already fully grown, were the four hundred male Centzonuitznaua and the moon Deity Coyolxauhqui. These children, offended by the mysterious manner in which Their Mother became impregnated, conspired to kill Her. Huitzilopochtli burst forth from His Mother's womb in full armor and fully grown, or in other versions of the story, burst forth from the womb and immediately put on His gear. He attacked His older Brothers and Sister, defending His Mother by beheading His Sister and casting Her body from the mountain top. He also chased after His Brothers, who fled from him and became scattered all over the sky.

Huitzilopochtli is seen as the sun in mythology, while His many male Siblings are perceived as the stars and His Sister as the moon. In the Aztec worldview, this is the reason why the Sun is constantly chasing the Moon and stars. It is also why it was so important to provide tribute for Huitzilopochtli as sustenance for the Sun: if Huitzilopochtli did not have enough strength to battle His siblings, They would destroy Their Mother and thus the world.

According to the Aubin Codex, the Aztecs originally came from a place called Aztlan. They lived under the ruling of a powerful elite called the “Azteca Chicomoztoca”. Huitzilopochtli ordered them to abandon Aztlán and find a new home. He also ordered them never to call themselves Aztec; instead they should be called “Mexica.” Huitzilopochtli guided them through the journey. For a time, Huitzilopochtli left them in the charge of his sister, Malinalxochitl, who, according to legend, founded Malinalco, but the Aztecs resented her ruling and called back Huitzilopochtli. He put His Sister to sleep and ordered the Aztecs to leave the place. When she woke up and realized She was alone, She became angry and desired revenge. She gave birth to a son called Copil. When he grew up, he confronted Huitzilopochtli, who had to kill him. Huitzilopochtli then took his heart out and threw it in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Many years later, Huitzilopochtli ordered the Aztecs to search for Copil's heart and build their city over it. The sign would be an eagle perched on a cactus, and the place would become their permanent home. After much traveling, they arrived at the area which would eventually be Tenochtitlan on an island in the Lago Texcoco of the Valley of Mexico.

Many practitioners now associate Huitzilopochtli with fitness, exercise, and self-defense.