Why were the Aztec's So Obsessed with Blood?

The Aztec Empire was one of the most powerful nations that existed in pre-Columbian America, coming to dominate what is today central Mexico through a network of alliances and ruthless military conquest. However, after their meteoric rise to power, this vast empire didn’t even last a single century before it all came crumbling down upon the arrival of Spanish conquistadores in the early 1500s.

Despite existing only for this brief period, the Aztec Empire still managed to leave a lasting legacy in history, thanks to their unique, massive stone temples, innovations in farming and city planning, and, of course, their insatiable, ritualistic thirst for blood and death.

Today we’re going to dive into what exactly drove these people to center much of their religion and culture around the shedding of blood, from lacerating combat tactics to self-mutilating rituals and, most grisly of all, thousands upon thousands of human sacrifices.

An Eternal Debt

The Aztec religion was centered around the worship of a pantheon of dozens of gods, with essentially every object or concept you can think of under the care of a specific deity. There was a god or goddess of time, fire, corn, water, merchants, flower, even intoxication. However, in the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, there was one God that was worshipped at their main temple and seemingly revered above the rest, Huitzilopochtli [wee-tsee-lo-poch-tli] the god of the sun.

It’s quite common in polytheistic religions around the world for the god of the sun to take a prominent role in worship, but where the Aztecs differ from the rest is in how exactly they went about this worship, which was primarily through the sacrifice of either their own blood or the blood and body of someone who would be presented as an offering.

You see, the Aztec religion believed that the gods themselves had sacrificed greatly in order for mankind to live. In some myths, the gods sacrifice all or parts of themselves to keep the universe in stability, and other myths describe individual gods cutting themselves and releasing their own blood to bring life to the first man.

What all of these tales have in common is the idea that humans on earth owe their existence and the stability of the cosmos to the deities. The Aztec priests told the Spanish,

“Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice, they gave us life. … They produce our sustenance … which nourishes life”

This concept of debt is not one that can be paid back in full, however, they believed that man must continually make sacrifices back to the gods to show their gratitude, otherwise, everything could come crumbling down.

Bloodletting rituals and human and animal sacrifice were not invented by the Aztecs, and archaeological evidence shows that they were a feature of Mesoamerica for centuries before them, however, no one else even came close to the staggering size and scale of sacrifice that the Aztecs achieved.

The Rituals

Self-harm, or partial auto-sacrifice, was a common practice throughout the Aztec empire, and though it was most often performed by elites and priests, there were several occasions in which the ordinary citizen participated as well.

For example, the celebration of the Binding of Years, which took place when both Aztec calendars ended on the same day. This was believed to be a time when the gods could abandon mankind, and so extra sacrifice was prepared in every household around the empire. Tongues, ears, and genitals were common places to slice or pierce, which was usually done with something like an obsidian blade, stingray spines, or even shark teeth. To take this to the next level, one could cover a thin rope in thorns and thread it through the tongue piercing.

But it wasn’t just during occasional celebrations that bloodletting took place. For example, it was believed that drawing blood from the genitals would increase fertility, particularly on the male side. And during sacrifices on top of the temple, priests would stand below and cut themselves for the public to view.

In 1566, Diego de Landa wrote:

“At times they sacrificed their own blood, cutting all around the ears in strips which they let hang as a sign. At other times they perforated their cheeks or the lower lip; again they made cuts in parts of the body, or pierced the tongue crossways and passed stalks through, causing extreme pain; again they hewed at the superfluous part of the penis, leaving the flesh in the form of two floppy ears.”

Once blood had been drawn, it was collected onto a small dish and burned, as the smoke from the burning blood rising into the air was the mechanism by which the offering was sent to the gods.

We should also mention here that it wasn’t just the Aztecs whose religion centered around blood. The Maya also had a fascination with the red liquid, and invoked bloodletting during marriages, birth, funerals, really any major life event.

But one thing that the Maya didn’t have in common with the Aztecs were the horrifying numbers of sacrificial victims, and the brutal ways in which they were killed.

The ritual was performed differently depending on which god the body was being offered to. We’ll start with the sun god we mentioned earlier, Huitzilopochtli. When someone was sacrificed to this god, they were taken atop the main temple and laid on a flat stone table. The high priest would then cut through the abdomen with an obsidian blade, where he would then open up the torso and find the still-beating heart, which would be torn out.

The heart would be held to the sky, and then the body of the victim would be pushed down the stairs of the temple. If the victim had been captured by a warrior, the body was then presented to him for ritualistic cannibalism. This is the classic sacrificial ritual that has been popularized by the likes of Hollywood, but it isn’t the only one.

A sacrifice to the god of Flame, during the New Fire ceremony, involved taking the sacrifice up to the top of a volcano and not only ripping his heart out, but then lighting a fire inside of his now hollow chest cavity. This flame was then shared throughout the empire, lighting the hearths in every home.

If you were being sacrificed to Tezcatlipoca, the god of destiny, your death would go quite differently. Instead of being killed by a priest, you instead were forced to die in ritualistic combat. Placed in a gladiator-style arena, you would be given a mock weapon to face off against several of the Aztec’s elite fighters, the Jaguar Knights and Eagle Warriors. On a more special occasion, during the month of Toxcatl, a young man would be selected as an impersonator of this god.

For the entire month, he would dress as the deity, speak on his behalf, and would be given four women to keep him company around the clock. During the day, he would walk around the city playing a ceremonial flute.

On the day of sacrifice, a massive feast would be prepared, the impersonator would climb the steps of the temple, break his flute, and offer his body to the priests.

Similarly, if you were the sacrifice for the god of agriculture, Xipe Totec, you would also get to impersonate and live as the god for a brief period. For this ceremony, forty slaves or prisoners of war were selected, and each would take turns living as the god for one day up until the ceremony. At the end of your day of luxury, your heart was removed and your body was dismembered for later consumption. Perhaps the most horrifying part of this though, is that prior to your death, the priests would skin you alive.

Your skin would then be worn by someone who would walk around the city collecting gifts.

And finally, there was the ceremony for Tlaloc, the god of rain. This was a ceremony of high importance to the Aztecs, because they believed that if it was not performed, there would be no rain and Tlaloc would release diseases into the city.

But not just any sacrifice would do, no, Tlaloc required the sacrifice to be a child. And not only that, but the more the child cried, the greater the offering was to Tlaloc. Thus, the skeletal remains of children found sacrificed to the rain god were found to have endured brutal torture before death, as the priests extracted as many tears as possible before sentencing them to death by fire.

And these are but just a few. Others include sacrifice by starvation in a pitch-black cave, hurling slaves from tall cliffs, or drowning. But nearly every ceremony had one thing in common, which was the extraction of the heart before or after death, and the subsequent dismemberment and potential cannibalization of the body.

Suffice to say, all of this came as an incredible shock to the European explorers making their way through Mesoamerica, who documented their reactions. Bernal Diaz, for example, wrote extensively on the subject, noting his eyewitness testimony of some such as:

“They strike open the wretched Indian’s chest with flint knives and hastily tear out the palpitating heart which, with the blood, they present to the idols … They cut off the arms, thighs and head, eating the arms and thighs at ceremonial banquets. The head they hang up on a beam, and the body is … given to the beasts of prey”

In other records, it is described how the meat of some sacrifices was sold in markets as if it were from an animal.

Flower Wars

Now that we’ve covered most of the rituals themselves, it’s time to talk about how the Aztecs went about finding sacrificial victims for them in the first place.

This is a bit complicated, because in many parts of Aztec society it was deemed an honor to be the sacrifice, so priests and high-ranking officials would often choose one of their own children or relatives. However, from what historians can tell, this was only the view of some. The lands that the Aztecs had conquered, for instance, did not view this death as honorable, in fact, they despised the Aztecs for sacrificing their prisoners of war.

Slaves and prisoners of war were a common source of sacrificial material, so much so that the Aztecs had an entire season dedicated to capturing them, called the Flower Wars.

Around 1450, a series of minor droughts had led to poor crop yield, and thus, a fair amount of hunger. The priests determined that this was because the gods were unsatisfied with the sacrifices, and that they needed to take things up a notch. It was decided that a few enemy states of the Aztec Empire would be the source of these bodies, and so the Aztecs prepared for war.

But this type of warfare was unique. You see, the Aztecs were experienced conquerors, and their traditional attacking strategy involved using ranged weapons like atlatls and throwing darts to weaken enemy forces from afar before engaging them face to face. However, in the flower wars, warriors were expected to charge the enemy head-on and prove their courage. Not only that, but the intent of the battle was not to kill as many enemy soldiers as possible, but rather to maim them and knock them unconscious.

This way the prisoner could still be kept to be used as a living sacrifice later.

To achieve this, Aztec warriors fought with a weapon called the macuahuitl, a type of club with embedded obsidian blades. Obsidian is one of the sharpest known materials to man, and so making a club with dozens of small pieces of obsidian was a guaranteed way to lacerate your opponent’s skin without cutting too deep. A few connecting swipes with the weapon could leave an enemy covered in their own blood, causing them to either pass out from the shock and blood loss, or leave them open to be struck in the head.

One of the primary opponents in the flower wars was the state of Tlaxcala, which was attacked by the Aztecs on a yearly basis. However, each time, the empire refrained from completely conquering the state. When asked by the Spanish why their enemy had not yet been annexed, emperor Moctezuma II responded by stating that they could conquer the state at any time, but preferred to let it recover each year as it was a convenient place to gather sacrifices, not to mention that it provided valuable combat training to new soldiers.

For an Aztec soldier, dying in a flower war was seen as one of the highest honors possibly, as it landed you directly in heaven with the sun god, but for the other side, all the flower wars served to do were anger the Tlaxcala, who swore that they would one day get revenge on the bloodthirsty empire that had pillaged them for decades.

Brought to its End

For the Aztecs, conquering, enslaving, and raiding anyone who refused to ally with you was certainly a profitable business, and dominating the entire region made for fairly easy acquisition of sacrificial victims. However, these actions did eventually have consequences.

When Cortes landed on the coast of Mexico in 1519, he was expecting a fight at every turn. Indeed, nearly every local tribe was immediately hostile to him and several battles were fought. However, after acquiring translators who could translate from Spanish into Maya into Aztec, he found that many of the surrounding peoples, especially the Tlaxcala, were more than willing to side with the Europeans if it meant bringing down the Aztecs. After all, the enemy of my enemy is your friend, and to them at the time, the Aztecs were seen as the bigger threat.

This meant that when tensions in the capital finally snapped and the Spanish found themselves at war, instead of about 1000 Spaniards facing off against 80,000 Aztecs, Cortes was joined by as many as 200,000 native allies, eager for revenge.

During the siege that brought about the Aztec’s last stand, known as the fall of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish witnessed firsthand the horrifying rituals that had made so many enemies. Nearing the end of the battle, the Aztecs held their main temple complex, surrounded by water. The only way to cross was by traversing the narrow causeways, which were heavily defended.

For several days, vicious fights took place on these thin bridges, during which the Spanish suffered several casualties and were forced to retreat. Then, each night, torches would be lit at the top of the main temple, and Cortes and his men, watching from afar, were given a perfect view of their comrades having their still-beating hearts ripped out of their chests.

Eventually, the temple too was overrun, and the remaining Aztec soldiers negotiated for a surrender after being cornered in their central market. However, despite the Spanish agreeing to the truce, the native allies did not, and they rushed in, slaughtering everyone in their sights before ransacking the capital, attacking anyone they could find.

Following the fall of the Aztec capital, and the subsequent conquest of the continent by Europe, human sacrifice and bloodletting rituals largely came to an end in the region, but they certainly left their mark on history.

It’s hard to gauge a total number of casualties from Aztec rituals, as they didn’t keep exact records of these as far as we know, and even if they did, they were almost certainly destroyed during the conquest, looting, and utter annihilation of their capital. However, to put the scope of the sacrifice in perspective, it was claimed by sources at the time that during a single four-day ritual, 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed through heart removal, flaying, drowning, and crushing. A more conservative estimate of this ceremony by modern historians is around 10,000.

That’s quite a bit less, but still an unreal amount of death. Historians’ estimates vary wildly on the annual death toll from the Aztec religion, but, on the low end, it was at least 20,000 victims. Every.

Single. Year. It’s no wonder that when Cortes and his men were first welcomed into Tenochtitlan and saw the plaza where sacrifices were performed, they described how everything was covered in blood, both dried and fresh, even all the way up the walls.

A few historians have taken the stance that all of this has been wildly exaggerated by the Spanish after the fact in order to justify their brutal conquest of Mesoamerica, and while many of us would like for that to be true, the evidence unfortunately says otherwise. Based on Aztec engravings, analysis of hundreds of brutalized skeletons, and the testimony of not only the Spanish, but also the Tlaxcala and the Aztecs themselves, it appears that most, if not all, of the horrific information we shared today is true.

Key Takeaways

• The Aztec Empire’s brief existence left a lasting legacy through massive stone temples, farming innovations, and extensive human sacrifices.
• Aztec religion centered on a pantheon of gods, with Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, being the most revered, worshipped through blood sacrifices.
• Bloodletting rituals were common, involving self-harm by elites and priests, often during celebrations or to increase fertility.
• Human sacrifices were performed in various brutal ways, depending on the god being honored, often involving heart extraction and dismemberment.
• The Aztec Empire’s practice of human sacrifice and conquest led to their downfall, as local tribes allied with Spanish conquistadores to overthrow them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the primary deity worshipped by the Aztecs in their main temple?

The primary deity worshipped by the Aztecs in their main temple was Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun.

Why did the Aztecs believe they owed a debt to the gods?

The Aztecs believed they owed a debt to the gods because, according to their myths, the gods had sacrificed themselves to create and sustain the universe and mankind.

What were some common practices of self-harm or partial auto-sacrifice among the Aztecs?

Common practices included slicing or piercing the tongue, ears, and genitals using obsidian blades, stingray spines, or shark teeth. Sometimes, a rope covered in thorns was threaded through tongue piercings.

How did the Aztecs perform sacrifices to the god Huitzilopochtli?

Victims were taken atop the main temple, laid on a flat stone table, and had their hearts torn out by a high priest using an obsidian blade. The heart was held to the sky, and the body was pushed down the temple stairs.

What were the Flower Wars, and what was their purpose?

The Flower Wars were a season dedicated to capturing prisoners for sacrifice. The Aztecs fought head-on battles to maim and capture enemies rather than kill them, using weapons like the macuahuitl to cause lacerations without fatal wounds.

How did the Aztecs’ practices of human sacrifice and bloodletting contribute to their downfall?

The Aztecs’ brutal practices of human sacrifice and bloodletting angered many of the surrounding tribes, who were willing to ally with the Spanish conquistadores to bring down the Aztec Empire.

What was the significance of the Binding of Years celebration for the Aztecs?

The Binding of Years was a celebration that took place when both Aztec calendars ended on the same day. It was believed to be a time when the gods could abandon mankind, so extra sacrifices were prepared in every household.

How did the Aztecs collect and offer blood to the gods during rituals?

Once blood was drawn, it was collected onto a small dish and burned. The smoke from the burning blood rising into the air was believed to be the mechanism by which the offering was sent to the gods.

What was the role of the Tlaxcala in the downfall of the Aztec Empire?

The Tlaxcala were a state frequently attacked by the Aztecs in the Flower Wars. They were eager to ally with the Spanish conquistadores to bring down the Aztec Empire, providing valuable support during the conquest.

What was the estimated number of sacrifices during a significant Aztec ritual?

During a single four-day ritual, it was claimed that 80,400 prisoners were sacrificed. Modern historians estimate around 10,000 victims for this ceremony, highlighting the massive scale of Aztec sacrifices.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: Why were the Aztec’s So Obsessed with Blood?
• Hero image source by Rodtico21 / openverse, by-sa.

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