Reference no: EM134023452

Assignment:

Aztec Sacrifice

Florentine Codex (c. 1540-1560)*

One of the most comprehensive sources on Aztec life and history is known as the Florentine Codex. Now housed in a museum in Florence, Italy, it is a series of manuscripts compiled by the Spanish Franciscan priest Bernardino de Sahagún several decades after the Spanish Conquest. Despite Sahagún's oversight role, the codex was largely composed and entirely illustrated by a team of Aztecs and former Aztec subjects. Beginning in the 1520s, Aztec boys were trained by Franciscan missionaries to adapt Spanish phonetics and the Latin alphabet to Nahuatl, making it a true written language for the first time. The following selection, translated directly from courtly Nahuatl, describes the sacrificial feast of Toxcatl, in which a captive warrior impersonated the god Tezcatlipoca for an entire year.

In the time of Toxcatl there was Tezcatlipoca's great festival. At that time he was given human form; at that time he was set up. Wherefore died his impersonator, who for one year had lived [as Tezcatlipoca].

And at that time was appointed his [new] impersonator, who would again live [as Tezcatlipoca] for a year.

For many impersonators were living, whom stewards in various places guarded; whom they maintained. About ten [so] lived. These were indeed selected captives; they were selected when captives were taken. There one was chosen if he was seen to be suitable, if he was fair of body. Then he was taken. They entrusted these to stewards. But one destined to be a slave, him the captor slew.

Indeed he who was thus chosen was of fair countenance, of good understanding, quick, of clean body, slender, reed-like, long and thin, like a stout cane, like a stone column all over, not of overfed body, not corpulent, nor very small, nor exceedingly tall....

For him who was thus, who had no flaw, who had no [bodily] defects, who had no blemish, who had no mark, who had on him no wart, [no such] small tumor, there was taken the greatest care that he be taught to blow the flute, that he be able to play his whistle; and that at the same time he hold all his flowers and his smoking tube. At the same time he would go playing the flute, he would go sucking [the smoking tube], he would go smelling [the flowers].

So [his flute], his flowers, his smoking tube went together when he followed the road.

And while yet he lived, while yet he was being trained in the home of the steward, before he appeared [in the presence of the people], very great care was taken that he should be very circumspect in his discourse, that he talk graciously, that he greet people agreeably on the road if he met anyone.

For he was indeed much honored when he appeared, when already he was an impersonator. Since he impersonated Titlacauan, he was indeed regarded as our lord. There was the assigning of lordship; he was importuned; he was sighed for; there was bowing before him; the commoners performed the earth-eating ceremony before him.

And if they saw that already his body fattened a little, they made him take brine; with it they thinned him; they thinned him with salt. Thus he became thin; he became firm; his body became hard.

And for one year he [thus] lived; at the time of Toxcatl he appeared [before the people], and at that time died the man who had been impersonator for one year, who had been led along the road, who had waited for one year, who had [thus] passed one year. Just then he went being substituted; one was set in his place [from among] all whom the various stewards were guarding, were maintaining, at the time that [the first impersonator] appeared [before the people].

Thereupon he began his office. He went about playing the flute. By day and by night he followed whatever way he wished.

His eight servitors went following him. Four [of them] had fasted for a year. Their hair was shorn as if they were one's pages; their hair was cut; their hair was clipped; they were not clipped smooth like a gourd; they were not clipped bald like a gourd; their heads were not smooth like pots; they did not stick [hair] to the head.

And also there were four constables, masters of youths. They cut their hair similarly; their hair arrangement was similar. It was arranged upright for them on their foreheads.

At this time Moctezuma adorned [the impersonator]; he repeatedly adorned him; he gave him gifts; he arrayed him; he arrayed him with great pomp. He had all costly things placed on him, for verily he took him to be his beloved god. [The impersonator] fasted; hence it was said: "He fasteth in black," [for] he went with his face smoke-black. His head was pasted with feathers, with eagle down. They only covered his hair for him; it fell to his loins.

And when he was attired, he went about with popcorn flowers laid upon his head; they were his crown of flowers. And he was dressed in these same on both sides; they drew them out to his armpits. This was called "the flowery stole."

And from his ears on both sides went hanging curved golden shell pendants. And they fitted [his ears with] ear plugs made of turquoise, turquoise mosaic. And a shell necklace was his necklace. Moreover, his breast ornament was of white seashells.

And then his lip pendant, his slender lip pendant, was of snail shell. And down his back went hanging what was like a cord bag called icpatoxin.

Then on both sides, on his upper arms, he placed golden bracelets, and on both sides, on his wrists, he went placing turquoise bracelets taking up almost all his forearms. And he went putting on only his net cape like a fish net of wide mesh with a fringe of brown cotton thread. And his costly breechclout reached to the calves of his legs.

And then he went placing his bells on both sides, on his legs. All gold were the bells, called oyoalli. These [he wore] because they went jingling, because they went ringing; so did they resound. And his obsidian sandals had ocelot skin ears. Thus was arrayed he who died after one year.

When [the feast of] Toxcatl went drawing near, when it approached him, when already it went reaching him, first he married; he looked upon a woman; he was married at the time of Uey toçoztli.

And he shed, he put in various places, he abandoned what had been his ornaments in which he had walked about fasting in black. His hair was shorn; he was provided a tuft of hair upon his forehead, like that of a seasoned warrior. They bound it; they wound it round and round. They bound it with [brown cotton thread] called tochyacatl; it was tied with a slipknot. And his forked heron feather ornament with a quetzal feather spray they bound to his warrior's hairdressing.

It was for only twenty days that he lived lying with the women, that he lived married to them. The four women in whose company he lived had also lived for a year guarded in the steward's establishment.

The name of the first one was Xochiquetzal; the second was Xilonen; the third was Atlatonan; the fourth was Uixtociuatl.

And when it was already the eve of [the feast of] Toxcatl, still five [days] from it, on the fifth day [from it], five days before the feast of Toxcatl would pass, they began each to sing [and dance].

At this time, in all these days, one knew nothing more of Moctezuma. They who yet had been his companions provided people with food, provided people with favors.

On the first day they sang [and danced] at a place called Tecanman. On the second day it was in the place where was guarded the image of Titlacauan, in the home of him who was the steward who guarded it. On the third day it was at Tepetzinco, in the middle of the lagoon. The fourth time it was at Tepepulco, which is also quite near Tepetzinco.

When they had sung [and danced], thereupon he embarked in a boat. The women went, going with him. They went consoling him; they went encouraging him. The boat proceeded to a place called Acaquilpan or Caualtepec; there it proceeded to the shore; there it landed them.

For here they were left, rather near Tlapitzauhcan. The women then returned. And only they who for the time had become [and] were his servitors went following him while yet he lived.

Thus was it said: when he arrived where [the impersonators of Titlacauan] used to die, [where] a small temple called Tlacochcalco stood, he ascended by himself, he went up of his own free will, to where he was to die. As he was taken up a step, as he passed one [step], there he broke, he shattered his flute, his whistle, etc.

And when he had mounted all the steps, when he had risen to the summit, then the offering priests seized him. They threw him upon his back on the sacrificial stone; then [one of them] cut open his breast; he took his heart from him; he also raised it in dedication to the sun.

For in this manner were all [these] captives slain. But his body they did not roll down; rather, they lowered it. Four men carried it.

And his severed head they strung on the skull rack. Thus he was brought to an end in the adornment in which he died. Thus his life there ended; there they terminated his life when he went to die there at Tlapitzauayan.

And this betokened our life on earth. For he who rejoiced, who possessed riches, who sought, who esteemed our lord's sweetness, his fragrance - richness, prosperity - thus ended in great misery. Indeed it was said: "No one on earth went exhausting happiness, riches, wealth."

Examining the Evidence

1. According to the Florentine Codex, what characteristics were required of this sacrificial war captive?

2. What was life like for the captive during the long preparation for the Aztec sacrifice?

3. How might this deity impersonation and sacrifice be explained?