The Mesoamerican Sun/War God

Depiction of Tonatiuh from the Codex Borgia.

The image of a still beating heart being presented to the sun on an Aztec pyramid might not reflect reality (beheading was more common), but it is true that the Mexica sun god, Huitzilopochtli, was conceived as a warrior deity demanding sacrifices to keep his war against nocturnal evil gods.

At first, I thought that this sun/war combo was exclusive to the Aztec. After all, the Mexica were relatively late newcomers to Mesoamerica, so their patron god would have stand out as unique. Yet, the more I searched this rabbit hole, the more the idea of a pan-Mesoamerican war/sun deity began to form:

• Tonatiuh, the sun god of the Mixtecs, was a warrior deity associated with eagles (Catillo 2008), much like the replacing Huitzilopochtli.
• Curicaueri, the Tarascan/Purepecha sun god, was similarly a warrior god associated with eagles.(Torres 2005)
• Copijcha, the Zapotec sun god, was also a warrior deity. This in particular is noticeable given the seniority of the Zapotecs compared to these other cultures, and how their domain is located to the south of them.

Just about the only exception to this seems to be the Mayan sun god, K’inich Ahau, which was more of a healing deity. So rather than an Aztec invention, the sun/war god seems to have a deep history in Mesoamerica. Thus Huitzilopochtli’s attributes match those of a long established tradition, which makes one wonder if he changed once the Mexica became established as an empire, or if this aspect was once more widespread across the Americas and we simply haven’t detected it well enough.

Food for thought.

References

Diaz del Castillo, Bernal (2008). Carrasco, David (ed.). The History of the Conquest of New Spain. Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. p. 469. ISBN 978–0826342874.

González Torres, Yólotl (2005). Diccionario de mitología y religión de Mesoamérica (1. Aufl., 11. reimpr ed.). Madrid: Larousse. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978–970–607–802–5.