Aztec Pantheonweapon
Macuahuitl of Huitzilopochtli
- Obsidian Edge
- War Favor
- Solar Wrath
An obsidian-edged war club associated with the Mexica war god, a weapon that cuts like a blade and carries solar war-fire into battle.
About Macuahuitl of Huitzilopochtli
Obsidian-edged club under the war god
The macuahuitl is a historical Mesoamerican wooden sword-club set with obsidian prismatic blades; Spanish witnesses describe the wounds. Huitzilopochtli is the Mexica patron of war and the sun. A specific named "Macuahuitl of Huitzilopochtli" is a modern convenience: warriors and the god share the weapon-type in art and in the Florentine Codex's war material. The Coatepec cycle gives him the xiuhcoatl as the famous divine weapon; the macuahuitl is the human fighter's analog under his patronage.
Origin
Linked to Huitzilopochtli's patronage of Mexica warriors and the ritual warfare that sustained the Fifth Sun.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Florentine Codex (war and Huitzilopochtli) / Spanish notices of the macuahuitl
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
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