Aztec Human Sacrifice

They sacrificed victims, cut open their chests with daggers and tore out their still beating hearts and, while they were still half alive, their bodies were sent rolling down the steps of the temple, bathing them in blood. For a long time the Aztec people have been assumed to be savage beasts and mass murders due to history of human sacrifice. Though it has been noted that the most common sacrifice was the decapitation of animals like quail; the most dramatic and valued sacrifices were the human sacrifices of captured warriors, women, children, and/or slaves after a ceremony where they were dressed to impersonate the specific deities they were sacrificed to please. Human sacrifice was seen by other cultures, not just the Aztec, as the ultimate gift to god(s), the Aztec may have believed some desperate dealing was necessary for anyone to survive.

The “Victims were honored in life and glorified in death and, significantly, human sacrifice was not limited to strangers from foreign lands. Aztec [citizens] too became victims, both at the hands of their own priests and as captives in the many other cities which shared their religious ideology.” Sacrifice was a way of life for the Aztecs, practiced in their temples and marketplaces it was part of their philosophy and their belief on how

It was said that in the beginning, there was only water and sky in a world with no light. Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent) lay in the water, silent, until the Heart of Heaven began to speak with him, with their words they created land, rose mountains, and created animals. Quetzalcoatl and the Heart of Heaven then told the animals they created to praise them, but with no voices the animals could not, so they were sent into the forests to be hunted. They then made a man out of clay who spoke, but the words it said made no sense and the man of clay crumbled into dust, worn away with the