Huitzilli's Return

It had been four months since Quetzalcoatl let Huitzilli stay with him. He had spent his days hunting and learning the knowledge of the gods from the god of wisdom himself. Quickly he became as wise as he was skilled in battle.

One day while he was hunting, he came across a small migrating tribe. He approached them and asked them where they had come from and where they were going. They said they were the people of Antontoilco, a city in the northern part of what is now Mexico, and that they were escaping the wrath of the Aztecs. Tlacaelel, the Aztec emperor, had received a vision from Huitzilopochtli commanding him to migrate his people. They were to travel south until they reached the location where they would see an eagle with a snake between its beak perched on a cactus. As the Aztecs were migrating, they would raid each city they would come across collecting slaves for their human sacrifices. This is how the people of Antontoilco were forced out of their home and were found so far east.

Huitzilli was infuriated after hearing what had happened to these poor people. He told them to keep traveling east and that they would find refuge near the coast. He returned to the hut and told Quetzalcoatl of the news. They began to devise a plan to put an end to the senseless killing. Knowing that they were outnumbered, they resorted to the same method used against Quetzalcoatl. They would deceive Tlacaelel and get the Aztecs to turn on him.

They had traveled for four days when they came across the migrating Aztecs. They found their camp near the edge of Lake Texcoco in the valley of Mexico. They took shelter and waited for the morning to execute their plan. Before the sun rose, Huitzilli disguised himself as a high priest and infiltrated the camp. He found the slaves and helped them escape.

Tlacaelel was angered at the news of the escaped slaves. He demanded to know who was responsible, but no one had an answer to his question. During his fit of rage, the disguised Huitzilli approached him and told Tlacaelel that he had received a vision from Huitzilopochtli in his sleep. He told Tlacaelel that Huitzilopochtli had provided him with a recipe to make a drink that would answer all his questions. He offered him a bowl of pulque, and Tlacaelel consumed it at once.

In his drunken state, Tlacaelel was even more demanding and aggressive. He became paranoid that his nephew, Copil, was planning on overthrowing him. As the sun began to set, Tlacaelel called the camp together for the daily sacrifice. He announced that because the slaves had escaped, one of their own must be sacrificed to nourish Huitzilopochtli. Tlacaelel said that Huitzilopochtli had spoken to him in a dream to tell him that Copil must be the one to be sacrificed. The priests seized Copil, then Tlacaelel cut open his chest with his obsidian knife and removed his beating heart. He threw the heart towards Lake Texcoco where it landed upon an island.

Later that night, Quetzalcoatl located the heart, and in its place, made a cactus with red flowers appear.

When the sun rose the following morning, the people noticed that a cactus had grown on the spot where the heart of Copil had landed. They called the priest to come and see the strange plant. When the priest arrived, Quetzalcoatl transformed into an eagle and captured a snake. He flew over to the cactus and landed on it to devour his meal. The priests were amazed to see Tlacaelel's vision come true and ran quickly to inform him of the good news. Tlacaelel was delighted to hear the news and told his people that they had arrived to the land promised to them by none other than Huitzilopochtli. He instructed them to begin settling for they were finally home. Meanwhile, Huitzilli was still in disguise and had prepared more pulque to give to Tlacaelel. He offered it as a gift to the king for bringing the Aztecs to the promised land, and Tlacaelel drank it eagerly.

Again Tlacaelel became paranoid at the idea of a coup d'etat and grew suspicious of his high ranking officers. He devised a plan to remind them of who was in power. He announced to his officers that they should each present to him their most precious daughter. By the end of the day, he would choose one to become his wife and the queen of the Aztecs. All the officers eagerly presented their daughters, and Tlacaelel took them to a hidden location. There he killed each one of them and flayed their skins from their bodies. He instructed his priest to wear the skins of the girls by saying that it was the will of Huitzilopochtli, and they followed his orders.

When the officers came back to see which one of their daughters would become the next queen, they were all horrified to see the skins of their daughters hanging from the bodies of the king's priest. There Tlacaelel announced to the officers that it is by Huitzilopochtli's will that he reigns over them. That his power is supreme and second only to the god's. And that any man that wishes to overthrow the king will face the wrath of the Sun God. The officers were all experienced soldiers, but never had they seen such a gruesome sight. They were sickened and horrified by the act of their king and the god to whom they had devoted their entire lives. They wept and grieved the loss of their own flesh and blood.

Author's Note

This story is the result of combining three other Aztec myths.

The first myth is the The Founding of Tenochtitlán. In this myth, Huitzilopochtli commanded the Aztec people to travel south where they would find a cactus plant which an eagle holding a snake between its beak perched on top. This they did and founded the city of Tenochtitlán, which is now called Mexico City. This story is central to the Mexica, now "Mexican," identity and it is why the Mexican flag is depicted with the very image of an eagle holding a snake between its beak perched on top of a cactus plant. I used this myth as an explanation for the sudden migration of the Aztec people. The official founding date of Tenochtitlan is between 1324 and 1325, but I stated in my introduction that my story takes place in the 1400's, so I just had to move the timeline a little bit further into the future.

The second myth is the story of Malinalxochitl, sister of the god Huitzilopochtli. There are a few different variations of this story actually have it take place at the same time as the first myth. In this myth, Copil attempts to get revenge of Huitzilopochtli by killing him but fails. As a result, Huitzilopochtli rips out his heart, cuts off his head, and flays his skin. In one version of this myth, Huitzilopochtli then throws the heart onto the island inside lake Texcoco and there sprouts a cactus with red flowers. So for my story I changed the main character from Huitzilopochtli to Tlacaelel, I kept Copil as the nephew but changed how he died in order to demonize Tlacaelel. This worked really well with my story because we already know that Tlacaelel reveres Huitzilopochtli so just kind of how my main character is becoming a mortal version of Quetzalcoatl, Tlacaelel is becoming a mortal version of Huitzilopochtli. This leaves a weird situation because normally Quetzalcoatl hates this kind of stuff but now he's causing it. I have a fix for this in the end though.

The third myth is the most gruesome one. In this myth, shortly after founding Tenochtitlan, Huitzilopochtli the god of war becomes bored with an newfound era of peace and decides to disturb his neighbors. He goes to the king of a neighboring city and offers to marry his daughter and turn her into a goddess. The king excitedly agrees and presents him with his daughter. The next day the king goes to Tenochtitlan to attend the wedding ceremony but instead finds the skin of his daughter being worn by one of Huitzilopochtli's priests. Horrified, he flees and they declare war on the Aztecs and eventually flee the area. In my story I once again flip the roles and put Tlacaelel in Huitzilopochtli's place. Also I changed the victims to be the daughters of his own officers rather than of another city to make Tlacaelel, and by extension Huitzilopochtli, betray his own people.

Like I said in the story, Quetzalcoatl had been betrayed by Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca by getting him drunk on pulque and then messing with his brain. So I switched the roles here again and made Huitzilli and Quetzalcoatl the tricksters and made Huitizilopochtli and Tlacaelel the victims.

If you have any questions or want to read the original stories check out this paper and this website. It's an awesome source I found recently and also includes a boatload of other information about some of the many Aztec gods.

Banner image by Emmanuel Valtierra