The Mexica banner is a tribal insignia that represented the founding of the city of Tenochtitlan. The traditional founding date of the city was 1345 AD. C. It was located on an island near the western shore of Lake Texcoco in central Mexico.
Tenochtitlan was the capital and the religious center of the Aztec civilization. It was the most important Aztec center until it was destroyed by the conquerors in 1521 AD. C. Present-day Mexico City now lies over much of its remains.
Illustration of the founding myth of the Mexica; eagle, snake and nopal. Ludovicus Ferdinandus's work, source: wikipedia.org
The elements of the Mexica banner refer to a legend about the founding of this city. Legend has it that the people of Aztlán had to leave their homes on the orders of the Sun God and Huitzilopochtli War. The future Mexica had to find the promised land, which was in a place where an eagle was perched on a cactus.
Over time, the banner became the symbol of the Aztec Empire. However, he was not the only one. It was common practice for each ethnic group in Mesoamerican cultures to carry their own banners in wars.
These emblems did not resemble the flags of European territories. Rather, they resembled the signum used by the Romans.
History
According to their own records, the Mexica left their homeland, Aztlan, due to a severe drought. In several codices, the Mexica are shown carrying the idol of their patron deity Huitzilopochtli. After two centuries of migration, around AD 1250, the Mexica arrived in the Valley of Mexico.
Upon arrival, they settled on the inhospitable hill of Chapultepec. There they became vassals of the city of Culhuacan. In recognition of their help in battle, the Mexica received one of the king's daughters to be worshiped as a goddess.
When the king arrived to attend the ceremony, he found one of the Mexica priests dressed in the flayed skin of his daughter. The Mexica informed the king that their god Huitzilopochtli had requested the sacrifice of the princess.
After the princess's sacrifice, a fierce battle ensued, which the Mexica lost. They were forced to leave Chapultepec and move to some swampy islands in the middle of the lake.
According to the Mexica myth, the Aztecs wandered for weeks, looking for a place to settle. Huitzilopochtli appeared to the Mexica leaders and indicated a place where a large eagle was perched on a cactus killing a snake.
This place, right in the middle of a swamp, was where the Mexica founded Tenochtitlán. The city grew rapidly as a commercial and military center. In 1427, the Mexica defeated the Tepanecas, becoming the greatest political force in the Basin of Mexico. Together with Texcoco and Tlacopan they founded the Triple Alliance.
Since then, the Mexica banner has displaced the other symbols of identity. Each time this army conquered a new territory, those victories were marked with the banner of the eagle and the serpent waving triumphantly at the top of the conquered temple.
Characteristics of the mexica banner
The Mexica banner is an antecedent of the current national symbols of the Mexican nation. On the shield are present four of the elements that characterized this banner: the stone, the nopal, the eagle and the snake.
These have gone through a process of evolution. However, in many monuments and codices that are preserved after the destruction of the city, the original details can be appreciated.
Thus, in many of the compositions that represented the founding of Tenochtitlan, a glyph, engraved or painted signs especially used by the Mayans, can be observed.
Many specialists claim that this particular glyph represented a stone. It emerges from the waters, and on the stone there is a cactus. On the nopal, covered with tunas, an eagle is perched devouring a snake.
In some codices the serpent does not appear. In others, it is replaced by a bird. In addition, in the Mexican sculpture Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada, the cactus with tunas is born from the earth. This is represented by a figure with a mouth and teeth called Tlaltecuhtli. And from the beak of the bird arises the atl-tlachinolli or double current. This symbol can easily be mistaken for a snake.
After the taking of Tenochtitlan, no more was known about this symbolic composition. Thirty-five years later, he reappeared in the arms of the second archbishop of New Spain, Don Alonso de Montúfar. Soon, this iconographic set began to be seen also on facades, doorways of temples and convents.
Symbology
The plot of the different versions of the founding of Tenochtitlan is related to the symbolic content of the Mexica banner. Part of the legend tells that the god Huitzilopochtli had banished his sister Malinalxochitl from the Mexica clans.
Years later, her son, Cópil, tried to take revenge when the Mexica, his cousins, arrived in Chapultepec. But, his conspiracy to attack the Huitzilopochtli clans was discovered.
Then the Mexica priests murdered him and cut out his heart. When they brought the heart to their god, he ordered them to throw it into Lake Texcoco. This falls on a stone from which a cactus is born.
The stone is then taken as a symbol of the sacrificed heart of Cópil. The nopal, for its part, is the tree of sacrifice. Its red fruits represented the hearts of the prisoners who were sacrificed as an offering to Huitzilopochtli.
On the other hand, in Mexica symbology, the eagle embodies the Sun. This, in turn, represents the god Huitzilopochtli, the celestial hunter. The images of an eagle devouring a snake or other birds denote the victory of this god over his enemies.
In this sense, among the farming peoples, the serpent symbolized fertility. The eagle-serpent opposition signified the triumph of the Mexican warriors over the farmers who populated the Valley of Mexico.
However, in relation to the eagle-snake pairing there is another interpretation. Many scholars consider that the serpent represented the dark forces of the night. Human sacrifices allowed the solar god Huitzilopochtli (the eagle) to recover the vital force that he lost in his constant fight against the forces of evil (the serpent).
References
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- Maestri, N. (2017, April 08). Aztec Origins and the Founding of Tenochtitlan. Retrieved on February 4, 2018, from thoughtco.com.
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