Jaguars and Eagles
The elite Aztec military orders of the Jaguar Knights and Eagle Knights
To say the Mexica were a warlike people would be an understatement. Following their migration into the Valley of Mexico, they initially hired themselves out as mercenaries in wars between the more powerful Nahua city states, but soon they were making alliances with neighboring states and fighting their own battles, culminating in the Aztec domination of Anahuac and the emergence of the largest empire in central Mexico.
Warfare was so important to the Aztec culture that new rulers were expected to start their rule on the battle field, expanding the size of the empire and capturing prisoners for ritual sacrifice to the gods. In such a militaristic society great numbers of warriors were required and although there was no Aztec standing army, there was a core of professional warriors and every able-bodied man of a tribe was expected to be a soldier of sorts that could be called on for campaigns. All boys were taught fighting with a number of different weapons in the telpuchcalli (houses of youth) from the age of fifteen, and when they reached adult age, they stopped cutting their hair until they took their first captive. Those that had taken prisoners could become full-time warriors, and each captive taken advanced a warrior through the ranks. Once an Aztec warrior had captured 4 or 5 captives, he became a tequiua and was allowed admission to the elite Jaguar or Eagle Knights.
When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico the most feared and famous of all Aztec soldiers they faced were these fierce rival castes of the Eagle Knights of Huitzilopochtli and the Jaguar Knights of Tezcatlipoca. It's likely these warrior orders were originally derived from the Toltecs, along with the practice of massive human sacrifices, and symbolically reflected the duality of the world between darkness and light that the Aztecs recognized: the eagle was the greatest predator of the day, the jaguar was that of the night. There was also a third, not often mentioned, order, that of the Arrow.
Admission to the prestigious orders of Eagle or Jaguar warriors was reserved only for nobles and those who distinguished themselves in battle by capturing enemy soldiers - indeed the same word oceloyotl is used to denote both 'bravery', and the status of being a Jaguar knight - the two concepts were inseperable. In battle, the Jaguar and Eagle Knights generally acted as military officers of sorts, in charge of brigades composed of the forces of two or more clans. They could be distinguished by their distinctive dress code and helmets: a Jaguar warrior (Ocelotl - the same word is used both for the animal itself and the knightly rank) would wear elaborately plumed headgear and jaguar pelts with his face peering out of the animals head, and an Eagle warrior (Cuauhtli) would wear a feathered helmet with a gaping beak. Their weaponry too was generally also of much higher class than that of the ordinary soldier, and included a decorated chimalli (war shield), maquahuitl (club set with sharp obsidian blades), wooden spears with obsidian-edged blades, and flint and obsidian obsidian-tipped knives and swords.
As a militaristic society, the Aztecs placed a very high emphasis on honor and battlefield skill: the ideal warrior was noble, brave and had to serve and respect the gods. A warrior who fulfilled these ideals sufficiently to rise to the rank of Jaguar or Eagle knight would be permitted unique benefits and privileges, including exemption from taxation and tribute, taking part in war councils, being permitted to keep concubines, invitations to dine in the royal palace, and participation in cannibalistic feasts. And if he died in battle, or was sacrificed as a captive of war, he would become a blue hummingbird, the symbol of the Aztec patron and War God Huitzilopochtli.
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Amoxcalli
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