May 19, 2013

"Hummingbird on the Left."

"Huitzilopochtli, Aztec God of Sun and War."
Huitzilopochtli's name is a combination of two Nahuatl (or Aztecan) words, huitzilin, meaning hummingbird, and opochtli, which means left — the god's name translates literally as "Hummingbird on the Left." This resulted in Huitzilopochtli often being depicted as a blue- or green-colored hummingbird or as a warrior whose armor and helmet were made of hummingbird features....
More here:
Huitzilopochtli's mother was Coatlicue, and his father was a ball of feathers....

His sister, Coyolxauhqui, tried to kill their mother because she became pregnant in a shameful way (by a ball of feathers). Her offspring, Huitzilopochtli, learned of this plan while still in the womb, and before it was put into action, sprang from his mother's womb fully grown and fully armed. He then killed his sister Coyolxauhqui and many of his 400 brothers. He tossed his sister's head into the sky, where it became the moon, so that his mother would be comforted in seeing her daughter in the sky every night. He threw his other brothers and sisters into the sky, where they became the stars.

11 comments:

Bryan Townsend said...

I think I'm detecting a theme here! Delighted with this one because where I live, in Mexico, we actually have a street with this name. And it took me a week to learn how to pronounce it. Nahuatl names are hard...

David said...

It's Greek to me.

Robert J. said...

> a combination of two Nahuatl words...

The native executive sec
Of a fund at Nahuatl Toltec
Has denied that his needs
Are for Mexican beads.
Huatl please him? Nahuatl?
A chec!

(By the late clever David McCord.)

madAsHell said...

....by a ball of feathers...?!?!?!

And I thought the virgin birth story was a tough sell.

Gahrie said...

Good old Hummingbird on the Left was a right bastard. He required ritual human sacrifice on a regular basis.

Personally, I prefer a god that sacrifices himself for me instead......

Anonymous said...

All men are balls of feathers.





JK

Unknown said...

How many birds can claim to be fathered by a ball of feathers?
Feather father. Father feathers.

dc said...

So how many lives were sacrificed to appease a vengeful hummingbird?

edutcher said...

This sounds a lot like the spiritual foundations of the ball game played at Chichen Itza at the Spring and Autumn solstices (which also ended in human sacrifice).

Clearly, the Aztecs borrowed a lot from the Mayans.

James Pawlak said...

What! No mention of the mass human offerings to that "god"? Of course, "waste not wont not" was applied and the People ate the victims.

ampersand said...

Let's do Huitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli, Huitzilopochtli, bo-Buitzilopochtli,
Banana-fana fo-Fuitzilopochtli
Fee-Fi-mo-Muitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli!