The “Wife” of Huitzilopochtli

A question recently came up on Twitter: Did Huitzilopochtli, patron god of the Mexica, have a wife?

In fact, two major sources preserve the sacred story of how the Mexica “acquired” a “wife” for Huitzilopochtli, angering an entire nation in the process and helping to fulfill their destiny.

To share this often gruesome story with you, I’m going to translate the Nahuatl text contained in the Codex Chimalpahin (compiled by Nahua chronicler Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Cuauhtlehuanitzin). But I’ll also pull a couple of lines from Diego…