Huitzilopochtli

Huitzilopochtli.

I used the same technique I've used in "Goddess Slaying the Bull", just Faber-Castell Chrome Green and a dark green soft pastel.

I should've draw Huitzilopochtli by blue, rather than green. However, I'd prefer to do this version green. I'm planning to make another version of Huitzilopochtli by blue.

[26.09.2005]

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Huitzilopochtli, whose name means "Blue Hummingbird on the Left," was the Aztec god of the Sun and the war. He was shown as a blue man fully armed with hummingbird feathers on his head. His mother Coatlicue became pregnant with Huitzilopochtli when a ball of feathers fell from the heaven and touched her. Huitzilopochtli's siblings thought that their mother Coatlicue had dishonored them with her mysterious pregnancy.

Aztecs used to offer human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli. The victims were usually prisoners captured in the frequent wars that Aztecs were fighting against their neighbors. The sacrifices were intended to secure rain, harvests and success in war.The most common form of sacrifice practiced by Aztecs was to tear out the heart of a living body and offer it to the Sun.

Huitzilopochtli, the Aztecs believed, battled the forces of darkness each night and was reborn each morning. As the Legend of the Five Suns shows, there was no guarantee that the sun would always win. To give the sun strength to rise each day, the Aztecs offered human sacrifices. Priests offered the hearts of tens of thousands of victims to Huitzilopochtli and other Aztec gods. Most of the victims were prisoners of war, but sometimes a noble family gave up one of its own members to appease the gods.