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Aztec gods are absolutely the wildest and most metal. Xipe Totec, "Our Lord The Flayed One", is another fun one -- usually depicted with deep-set, red eye socke

Aztec gods are absolutely the wildest and most metal. Xipe Totec, "Our Lord The Flayed One", is another fun one -- usually depicted with deep-set, red eye sockets peeping through under his mask-like face and with an extra set of loose hands draping off of his wrists, because he's wearing a human skin-suit.

krapp 3y ago
It's funny how Christians were so horrified by Mesoamerican religion while they themselves ritually consumed the flesh and drank the blood of their god every week and wore a symbol of gruesome torture and execution around their necks.
- MilStdJunkie 3y ago
  The horror that the Conquistadores experienced was largely religious, or straight propaganda. Spain had been in a vicious ethnic war for the better part of a thousand years by the 15th C, and had what was possibly the most mass-brutalized population in Europe. Those men had almost certainly seen far, far worse as inquisitors, generals, clerics, or even just ground humps in, say, the conquest of Grenada. The horror was in the presence of alien gods - which to a devout Catholic of the era would be seen as real . . real demons, that is. Other "horror" I put in quotes, as some codices were written for the precise purpose of propaganda. However, don't let that blind our eyes. The Aztecs were indeed nasty bastards. But "nasty bastards" covers lots of territory in history, and we shouldn't forget that one of the bands of nasty bastards came there specifically to be nasty bastards to someone else. The entire Cortez operation was such a fustercluck, it really deserves a film, if someone could manage it without being horrifically offensive.
MilStdJunkie 3y ago
<QLazzarus_sounds/> Unsurprisingly, the English-Nahuatl translation for "I'd @&#k me" is unhelpful. Seriously though, I remember reading comics as an undergrad and Grant Morrison's fascination with Xipe Totec. One scary mfer. But somehow not as scary as real Aztecs. In one story - probably a mix of legend and record, passed through the filter of mass death - the Mexica (later known as Aztecs, back when they were sort of homeless, coming from no-one's-sure-where) had come to be challenged by an alliance between the Tepanec and the Cualhuac. The alliance relented and the Aztecs settled among them, but the multi-ethnic state did what ethnic states do, and things went a bit sour. So . . punchline. The Aztecs had this cultural tic: they demonstrated hostility by asking for something. So they asked for the gorgeous daughter of Prince Achitometl. The young lady was sent off to the Aztecs in the finest clothes and jewels during the Feast of Xipe Totec. Bright side: not the last time Achitometl would see his daughter. Down side: the way he saw her the second time round sent every single man, woman, and child into a purge-o-rific rage against these @&#$! Mexica. Go be Aztecs somewhere else! Not the last word in that story, obviously, but it's a good one. The Aztecs were never what you might have called "popular". Which, intuitively, makes sense, considering what would happen later.

krapp 3y ago

It's funny how Christians were so horrified by Mesoamerican religion while they themselves ritually consumed the flesh and drank the blood of their god every week and wore a symbol of gruesome torture and execution around their necks.

MilStdJunkie 3y ago
The horror that the Conquistadores experienced was largely religious, or straight propaganda. Spain had been in a vicious ethnic war for the better part of a thousand years by the 15th C, and had what was possibly the most mass-brutalized population in Europe. Those men had almost certainly seen far, far worse as inquisitors, generals, clerics, or even just ground humps in, say, the conquest of Grenada. The horror was in the presence of alien gods - which to a devout Catholic of the era would be seen as real . . real demons, that is. Other "horror" I put in quotes, as some codices were written for the precise purpose of propaganda. However, don't let that blind our eyes. The Aztecs were indeed nasty bastards. But "nasty bastards" covers lots of territory in history, and we shouldn't forget that one of the bands of nasty bastards came there specifically to be nasty bastards to someone else. The entire Cortez operation was such a fustercluck, it really deserves a film, if someone could manage it without being horrifically offensive.

MilStdJunkie 3y ago

<QLazzarus_sounds/> Unsurprisingly, the English-Nahuatl translation for "I'd @&#k me" is unhelpful. Seriously though, I remember reading comics as an undergrad and Grant Morrison's fascination with Xipe Totec. One scary mfer. But somehow not as scary as real Aztecs. In one story - probably a mix of legend and record, passed through the filter of mass death - the Mexica (later known as Aztecs, back when they were sort of homeless, coming from no-one's-sure-where) had come to be challenged by an alliance between the Tepanec and the Cualhuac. The alliance relented and the Aztecs settled among them, but the multi-ethnic state did what ethnic states do, and things went a bit sour. So . . punchline. The Aztecs had this cultural tic: they demonstrated hostility by asking for something. So they asked for the gorgeous daughter of Prince Achitometl. The young lady was sent off to the Aztecs in the finest clothes and jewels during the Feast of Xipe Totec. Bright side: not the last time Achitometl would see his daughter. Down side: the way he saw her the second time round sent every single man, woman, and child into a purge-o-rific rage against these @&#$! Mexica. Go be Aztecs somewhere else! Not the last word in that story, obviously, but it's a good one. The Aztecs were never what you might have called "popular". Which, intuitively, makes sense, considering what would happen later.