Thread 18150537

>religion centered on sun worship
>didn't burn people entire body like other sun-centered religions with human sacrifice, only the heart
What was their problem?

I wouldn't say aztec religion eas centered in the sun "Tonatiuh".
Mesoamerican religions were polytheistic and therefore they had many gods.
I would say the main aztec god was either Huitzilopchtli or quetzalcoatl.

>>18150537 (OP)
Agreed, really wish they burned more, it would be much more in line with the apolonian spirit they almost possessed.

>>18150600
It was only one “human” and it was God cosplaying as a human, and He still came back to life so no one really died at all.

>>18150600
Is this man saying that crucifixion was a religious ritual for the Romans? Some sort of sacrifice to the gods? Because it definitely was not.

>>18150537 (OP)
The more specific sarifices were more representing the sacrifice of the gods than about offering things to the gods.
In normal human sacrifice, the blood was what was important. The vital essence. They also did other less flashy sacrifices. Like bloodletting, normal offerings.
>>18150584
Tlaloc was pretty important. Had half of the Templo Mayor to himself.

>>18150537 (OP)
Huitzilopochtli was a tribal patron deity of the Mexica ethnic group first, a fire deity second, and a sun deity a distant third, he wasn't even really "The Sun", just the guy who defended the sun, which wasn't even really the center of their religion the way most seem to think

Heart extraction was by far the standard practice of sacrifice all over the region for nearly everything, since shedding blood was the important mystical part

Cremation was already a part of Nahua culture as a funerary rite, not a sacrifice method

>>18150605
"God" did not want this to happen. It was just a recreation of when Uranus or Osiris, etc got knocked or torn apart.

I mostly agree with the other responses so far, but...

>>18150537 (OP)
>>18150584
>>18150627
There's no inherent "main" Aztec god, in part because "Aztec" can mean a dozen different things, and in part because even if you mean Mexica, there's no clear answer:

>Huitzliopotchli
+ Was the Mexica patron god
+ Had a shrine in the Great Temple
+ / - Not in most myths, though the myths he was in were very important to the Mexica
+ / - Has an average amount of festivals
- Wasn't depicted often in artwork

>Tlaloc
+ Had a shrine in the Great Temple
+ Featured in a ton of holidays/festivals
+ Is commonly depicted in art
- Isn't brought up much in myths of figures of speech

>Tezcatlipoca
+ Is in a lot of myths
+ Talked about as a supreme or omnipotent/present god (probably just a reflection of his associations with fate guiding all)
+ Is commonly depicted in art
- Didn't have a shrine in the Great Temple
- Only has one major festival

>Quetzalcoatl
+ Plays a major role in tons of myths
+ Extremely common in art
+ / - Has an average amount of festivals
+ / - Some of his importance may be due to post-contact revionism
- Didn't have a shrine in the Great Temple

>Ometeotl
- Probably didn't actually exist despite Portilla asserting they were a top omnipotent creator god

Personally i'd say Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were the most important, followed by Tlaloc, followed by Quetzalcoatl, Xipe Totec, and some other major deities

>>18150681
I'd say patron god first, war god second, sun/fire god third

>>18150868
Well thanks. Tezcatlipoca from what I can gather was a trickster, and a highly unpredictable god. Not the type of deity you would really spend much time venerating. Though I really like the things he is a god of. Mirrors, magic, fate.

Ometotl seems to me like an extrapolation borne out of modern readings. A pseudo-platonic god of sorts. Or perhaps a Brahman-like construct we may have imagined.
Sorry if this is wrong.

>>18150600
>>18150605
>>18150784
>>18150613
Yeah better comparison would be the burning of pagans and witches which was done in a very ritualized and religiously motivated way 90% of the time.

>>18150868
I'm far from an expert but what I had explained to me was that Ometeotl wasn't traditionally a god, but more like the universe itself or some sort of omnipresent cosmic force, that was somewhat intelligent and aware but didn't directly do much

>>18150868
wasn't Tezcatlipoca the patron deity of Tetzcoco? I'm not really even sure what patron deity means in this sense anyway, but I heard that somewhere.

I always that Tezcatlipoca was a really cool God. The lord of the near and the nigh, like a tzeentchian "changer of ways" sort of thing. Too bad the aztec batman film got tezcatlipoca totally wrong, they did everything else so well.

>>18150537 (OP)
They literally ate the meat as part of the ceremony.

"Waste not, want not.", I guess :/

>>18150613
Gladiatorial games would've been a better comparison. That was bloodshed in the name of the Gods and Their greatness. Hail Mars!

>human body is filled with shit and offal
>think the almighty sun god wants your offering of feces and intestines
You bring dishonor upon yourself. The sun has no need for poop. The sun demands the heart, the vital core, and best of all the hearts of young, strong men and women.

>>18151164
I think having a god specifically for mirrors is a very ineteresting thing. But considering how hard they must've been to make. It makes sense.
John Dee had a Meso-American Mirror he purportedly used for Occult purposes.

>>18150600
>esl reading comprehension
SAAAAAARRRRRRR please open a dictionary and look up the terms you used

>>18151338
>specifically for mirrors
Pretty sure he was more the god of magic and fate and the mirror was just his symbol, in the same way ehecatl-quetzalcoatl was a god of wind whose symbol was a conch shell, or in more familiar terms, how Poseidon was the god of the sea and not the god of tridents

>>18150901
Tezcatlipoca, to me, seems extremely commonly worshipped, so many prayers and epithets call attention to him

He is a trickster god, but that's an effect of his role as the god of fate/fortune/misfortune: Fate is fickle and capricious, so a conniving and whimsical but immensely dangerous deity is a representation of that

It's probably because of that that he was so commonly called upon, because there are dozens of times a day you might wish for good luck, fortune, to avoid tragedy, etc.

>>18151164
>>18151338
Yes, apparently Texcoco/Tetzcoco's main temple originally had shrines to Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc, but then the Tezcatlipoca shrine was replaced by a Huitzliopotchli one, IIRC, as Mexica influence grew

>>18151012
I think that's still what Portilla proposes but is largerly discarded now, but I admit I haven't looked into it a ton.

>>18151002
I NEED to burn innocent people over the sacral status of wafers, Coatelitzun

>>18151164
tezcatlipoca was a very prominent pan-nahua deity

>>18151164
>Too bad the aztec batman film got tezcatlipoca totally wrong, they did everything else so well.
Wait really? I just assumed it would be a collection of retarded stereotypes and ignored it, is it actually good and semi authentic?

>>18152862
Not that anon, but while I haven't watched it yet, the architecture in the environments seems legitimately excellent. Most of the character designs and their outfits are pretty authentic too, though with a not insignificant amount of notable exceptions

t. Mesoanon