Centzon Huitznahua- Aztec GroupCollective"Four Hundred Southerners"

The Conspiracy at Coatepec

The Centzon Huitznahua, "Four Hundred Southerners," meaning an innumerable host, were the sons of Coatlicue, the earth goddess, and brothers to Coyolxauhqui. They were star gods, the countless lights of the southern sky, and their defining act was an attempted murder.

When Coatlicue became miraculously pregnant after tucking a ball of hummingbird feathers into her bosom while sweeping the temple at Coatepec, the Serpent Mountain, her existing children were outraged. The pregnancy was a dishonor, or so Coyolxauhqui convinced them. She rallied the four hundred, painted their faces, bound her hair in warrior fashion, and led them up the mountain to kill their mother before she could give birth.

The Sun's First Victory

As the Centzon Huitznahua reached the summit, Coatlicue's unborn child emerged fully grown and armed. Huitzilopochtli burst from the womb with the Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, already blazing in his hand. He struck Coyolxauhqui first. Her head flew from her shoulders, her body fell dismembered down the mountainside. Then he turned on his brothers and routed the four hundred, driving them from Coatepec with his weapon of living flame.

Those he killed became the stars of the southern sky. Every dawn since that first morning, the Centzon Huitznahua flee as Huitzilopochtli-as-the-sun rises to pursue them. Every sunset, they return. The Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan was built to replicate Coatepec itself, and the blood sacrificed there fed the sun's strength to keep winning each morning.