Coatlicue gives birth to Huitzilopochtli, from the Florentine Codex. In Aztec religion, Huitzilopochtli was a god of war, sun, human sacrifice and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the national god of the Mexicas of Tenochtitlan. The myth of Huitzilopochtli's birth: his sister, Coyolxauhqui, tried to kill their mother, Coatlicue, because she became pregnant in a shameful way (by a ball of feathers). Her offspring, Huitzilopochtli, learned of this plan while still in the womb, and before it was put into action, sprang from his mother's womb fully grown and fully armed. He then killed his sister Coyolxauhqui and many of his 400 brothers. He tossed his sister's head into the sky, where it became the mooni. He threw his other brothers and sisters into the sky, where they became the stars. The Florentine Codex is the common name given to a 16th century ethnographic research project in Mesoamerica by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahag?n. Bernardino originally titled it: La Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana (The General History of the Things of New Spain). Bernardino conducted research, organized evidence, wrote and edited his findings starting in 1545 up until his death in 1590. It consists of 2400 pages organized into twelve books with over 2000 illustrations drawn by native Aztec artists.
