This paper will discuss the gods of the Aztec, Maya and Inca empires. In particular, the paper will be concerned with the perceptions held by the Aztec, Maya and Inca peoples regarding the anger of their gods. The Aztecs, who arrived in central Mexico in the twelfth century A.D., borrowed many of their religious ideas from the Toltecs and the Maya who had lived in the area before them. However, the Aztecs differed from these earlier cultures in that they were far more bloodthirsty and warlike. It can be seen that the Aztecs placed a great deal of faith in their gods. In fact, it was their god Huitzilopochtli who had led them to central Mexico in the first place. As the Aztec empire developed over the following centuries, the practice of human sacrifice among the Aztec people also grew. In the view of the Aztecs, the reason behind human sacrifice was that it kept the gods satisfied. Thus, according to the Aztec priests, "the gods hunger and thirst; their hunger and thirst must be sated with human flesh and blood" (Keen 43).
The Aztecs provided many such human sacrifices in order to feed their gods. On the one hand, the Aztecs did this in order that they might give worship and blessings to the gods in thanks for being provided with food and the other necessities of life. on the other hand, it can be seen that the human sacrifices of the Aztecs also represented an effort to appease the gods and keep them from becoming angry. In this regard, "the Aztec perception of the world stressed uncertainty: The present was tenuous, the future was fragile" (Berdan 112). Because of this worldview, the Aztecs continually fed human victims to the gods not only to keep the gods alive but also to keep them happy. It was believed that avoiding the gods' anger in this way would keep an already difficult life from becoming any harder. Furthermore, the Aztecs believed that sacrificing humans to the gods was the only way to keep the world fro...