Huitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli (Classical Nahuatl: Huītzilōpōchtli, 'Left-Handed Hummingbird' or 'Hummingbird of the South') is the supreme tutelary, solar, and martial deity of the Mexica (Aztec) people and the sacred patron of their island capital, Tenochtitlan. Originally venerated as a tribal ancestral guide during the legendary migration of nomadic Chichimec bands from Aztlan, his theological status was radically reorganized during the 15th century under the guidance of the imperial advisor Tlacaelel, who elevated him to the position of the triumphant midday Sun, co-patron of the Huey Teocalli (Great Temple), and cosmological motor of Mexica imperial expansion. The founding myth documented in Book III of the Florentine Codex recounts that Huitzilopochtli was miraculously born fully armed atop Mount Coatepec ('Serpent Mountain') from the womb of his mother Coatlicue, who had conceived after tucking a descending ball of feathers into her bosom; brandishing the fiery serpent weapon Xiuhcoatl, the newborn sun god beheaded his hostile elder sister Coyolxauhqui (the moon) and routed their four hundred rebellious brothers, the southern star gods (Centzon Huitznahua). This cosmic drama was ritually reenacted in the annual Panquetzaliztli festival and embedded directly into the urban layout of the Templo Mayor, where the southern stairway ascended to his crimson shrine above the monumental circular carving of the dismembered Coyolxauhqui. In Aztec cosmology, the daily preservation of cosmic life against nocturnal darkness required continuous sustenance through human heart and blood offerings (chalchihuatl), ensuring the survival of the Fifth Sun.

8 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

The hummingbird, the fire serpent, the sun and the eagle

Primary sources

• Bernardino de Sahagún (Franciscan friar and pioneer of Nahuatl ethnography), Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain, Books I and III). translation: Bilingual Nahuatl-Spanish edition edited by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. read
• Anonymous Mexica (traditional indigenous scribes and painters), Codex Boturini (Tira de la Peregrinación: the saga of the departure from Aztlan and the leadership of Huitzilopochtli). translation: Facsimile and commentaries archived at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia of Mexico. read
• Diego Durán (sixteenth-century Dominican historian), Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas de la Tierra Firme (Book of the Gods and Rites). translation: Annotated translation by Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas, published by the University of Oklahoma. read
• Hernando de Alvarado Tezozómoc (noble and Nahua chronicler), Crónica Mexicáyotl (Sacred Genealogy of the Mexica Kings and the Founding of Tenochtitlan). translation: Edition by Adrián León, held at the Institute of Historical Research of UNAM. read

Studies

• Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (archaeologist, director of the Templo Mayor Project), . Thames & Hudson, London, 1988. open
• Leonardo López Luján (archaeologist and researcher at the INAH), . University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1993/2005. open
• David Carrasco (historian of Mesoamerican religions at Harvard), . Beacon Press, Boston, 1999. open
• Hartley Burr Alexander (philosopher and comparative mythologist), . Marshall Jones Company, Boston / Internet Archive, 1920. open