Solar Warfare, and the Meaning of the Myth of His Birth

In Mexica theology Huitzilopochtli was identified with the sun at the height of its strength and with war, and his myth of birth set the pattern. Born fully armed from the earth-goddess Coatlicue on the hill of Coatepec, he defended his mother against the assault of his sister Coyolxauhqui, the moon, and his brothers the Centzon Huitznahua, the countless stars of the southern sky, striking Coyolxauhqui down and dismembering her, a cosmic battle of day against night that the sources report was re-enacted at the Templo Mayor, at whose foot a great carved disc of the dismembered Coyolxauhqui was uncovered in 1978.

The Mexica understood the sun's daily course as needing to be sustained, and the Florentine Codex and related accounts describe the offerings, including human sacrifice, made to him. These descriptions, compiled after the conquest by Spanish friars from indigenous informants, remain a principal and much-debated source for Mexica religion and must be read with that colonial filter in mind.