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HUITZILOPOCHTLI

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 869 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUITZILOPOCHTLI , the supreme being in the religions of See also:

ancient See also:Mexico, and as a specialized deity, the See also:god of See also:war. He was the mythic See also:leader and See also:chief divinity of the See also:Aztecs, dominant tribe of the Nahua nation. As a humming-See also:bird Huitzilopochtli was alleged to have led the Aztecs to a new See also:home. E. B. See also:Tylor See also:Primitive Culture, 4th ed., vol. ii. p. 307) calls him an " in-extricable See also:compound parthenogenetic deity "; and finds, in the fact that his chief festival (when his See also:paste idol was shot through with an arrow, and afterwards eaten) was at the See also:winter See also:solstice, ground for believing that he was at first a nature-god, whose See also:life and See also:death were connected with the See also:year's. His idol was a huge See also:block of See also:basalt (still thought to be preserved in Mexico), on one See also:side of which he is sculptured in hideous See also:form, adorned with the feathers of the humming-bird. The ceremonies of his See also:worship were of the most bloodthirsty See also:character, and hundreds of human beings were murdered annually before his See also:shrine, their limbs being eaten by his worshippers. When his See also:temple was dedicated in 1486 it is traditionally reported that 70,000 See also:people were killed. See MExlco.

End of Article: HUITZILOPOCHTLI

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