157. Templo Mayor (Main Temple). Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City, Mexico). Mexica (Aztec). 1375–1520 C.E. Stone (temple); volcanic stone (The Coyolxauhqui Stone); jadeite (Olmec-style mask); basalt (Calendar Stone). (4 images)

• Huitzilopachtli temple • sun/fire/war god • during dry season, sun rose behind

• at equinoxes sun rose between the 2 temples

• Tlaloc Temple • rain god

• during winter/rainy season, sun rises behind

• 7 stages of construction, built around earlier temple

• destroyed after Spanish conquest, stones used to build cathedral, rest was buried

• In Tenochtitlan, the lower the space = open/profane, higher space = restrictive/sacred

• Axis Mundi of the Aztecs

• Aztec is sometimes called Mexica

• Temple symbolizes Coatepec (Mount of the Serpent) on which Huitzi’ was born and defended his mother from the moon goddess.

• Ritual sacrifices re-enact the myth, with bodies thrown down the steep stairs

• Myth Summary associated with war god aspect of temple: • Huitzilopochtli's mother, Coatlicue (Snakes-her-skirt), became

miraculously pregnant. Her daughter, Coyolxauhqui, became angry when she heard this, so with her 400 brothers, she attacked their mother. Right away, Caotilcue’s son, Huitzilopochtli emerged out of her womb, fully grown, clothed and armed to defend his mother on the mountain called Coatepec (Snake Mountain). Eventually, Huitzilopochtli defeated his sister and brothers, then beheaded her and threw her body down the mountain and her body broke apart. Huitzilopochtli became the patron deity of Mexica.

• Jadeite Olmec style mask, buried as an offering.

• Not made by Aztecs • precious stone =

good offering

• Coyolxauhqui (goddess of the moon, Huitzi’s sister)

• severed head and limbs • feather headdress • head and limbs rotate away

from torso, all in profile with frontal upper torso, gives sense of body parts rolling down the mountain.

• she is nude = public humiliation and defeat

• originally painted • this was located at the foot

of the stairs to the Templo Mayor

• While called the calendar stone and contains the 20 days of the 260 day calendar, it functioned as a sacrificial altar

• Depicts either the sun god or the earth god