"So how did your world end?" "Mine was ended by rains of fire. "Mine was ended by strong winds." "Mine was ended by floods." "Mine was ended by jaguars." "Jaguars? Your world ended by *jaguars?* "Yeah. Why?" "Wouldnt it have been like earthquakes or something?" "Nah man. The jaguars were just too much."
Wow..the moon god of Aztec myth is also related to rabbit?! In my country(Korea), there are legends that rabbits are living on moon. What a coincidence!
It's because all people see the face of the moon the same from anywhere on Earth. The craters and such form an image that looks like a rabbit in profile. Check it out next time the moon is full.
I remember hearing this as a child, but the only parts that stuck with me were the bravery of a man who threw himself to the fire and the cowardice and pride of the 2nd one. My dad told me this story before pointing to the moon and showing me the rabbit figure in it. I could never remember what the myth was truly about but it made an impression, taught me about being selfless and I had a rabbit in the moon to remind me not to be arrogant.
@@enzonavarro8550 Almost all cultures did that in their own form. The Aztecs ones were exaggerated by the Spanish too. They have a beautiful culture and sacrifice shouldn't be the focal point. It's like making witch hunts or inquisitions the focus of Europe.
@@enzonavarro8550i mean we criticize meso American human sacrifice but Europeans would literally burn innocent men and women because they were "witches" at least sacrifice was supposedly to bring good things
@@julioreyes791 if you are of Mexican heritage, you more than likely are of Native American descent. These myths , are that of our ancestors. The Aztecs mythology that is still around today and that survived the Spanish invasion, is quite fascinating. I enjoy learning about my Native American herritage.
Ted-ed animation and content are superb... You people are genius... Thanks for educating us...🙏 Congratulation for webby award.. I voted for you ted-ed...👍
El Shevii I’m Mexican. I have been in countless Aztec music presentations. I’ve also been to the Andes numerous times. What do YOU know about Aztec music?
I love the various variations on these myths because there are so many tribes/cultures in mesoamerica they have many versions. One of those is Huitzilopotchli, whom became the sun. There is a family feud of this god. The sister plotted to kill her mother, and so she convinced everyone to kill the mother whom was pregnant and going to give birth to the sun god. He was given birth with full armor and with a shield and a sword that was a feather snake (in some versions is also in fire). After so much fighting he decided to kill his sister. He severed his sister's head and threw at the sky and she became the moon. So the sun god fights the goddess of the moon from ending the world seeking her revenge. But the fight drains the sun god of his stamina and needs blood. that is why the Aztecs, made many heart sacrifices as "blood transfusion" for the sun god from preventing the apocalypse from happening. By the way somehow the moon goddess made 1000 of her heads and this the sun god has to fight 1000 severed heads of his sister. And so he fights to prevent the end of the world. When she is wining is night, when he is wining is daylight.
Woah, maybe i'm being biased but the mythology of Central/South America are my favorites! so creative and passionate like this one. Can you help me telling where can I find this stories? (I speak Spanish too)
I remember hearing this myth was "created" by their government, rather than arising naturally over time. Thus it's more likely that this myth was invented by the Aztec leadership to justify their large amounts of human sacrifices-not the other way around. Other cultures in the area also practiced human sacrifice, but nobody sacrificed as much as the Aztec, who imported people from all around Mesoamerica to be sacrificed in large numbers.
@@109Rage So did your source also suggest what the purpose of human sacrafice on such a large scale was, if not as tribute to the gods as per dictated by their mythology?
@@brandonkelley6500 IIRC, the Aztecs believed the gods required sustenance in the form of human blood, so they believed the constant human sacrifice kept the sun rising every day… but I'm not sure how accurate that bit of information actually it…
@@109Rage You just gave circular logic. The myth of the gods needing sacrificial blood was created by the government, who wanted to sacrifice people because their gods needed sacrificial blood, therefore they created the myth about the gods needing sacrificial blood in order to give the gods sacrificial blood? I am in no way shape or form knowledgeable about Aztec history but that makes no sense.
In Chile, my country, there’s a myth about two enormous snakes, Txeg Txeg, the earth snake, and Cai Cai, the sea snake, who wrestled with each other, slaying many human beings in the process, but Txeg Txeg saved her people by elevating the hills out of Cai Cai’s reach. The humans who had fell into the sea became sumpall, genies of the water. The remains of the earth became the Archipelago of Chiloé.
There is an interesting tale in one of the villages in Fiji of how the moon got its spots (craters). Gods in the region wanted to capture the moon using bamboo trap, and a pot of water and sea water. The latter was supposed to be splashed at the moon when it is caught to disable and temporarily paralyze it, while the former to revive it after it gets caught. Long story short, wrong water was thrown at the moon when it was trapped and when the untouched golden globe was slowly retreating to the sky, they started throwing mud at it, and wallla, marks on the moon we see today 🙂 oh and by the way, because the bamboo trap was prematurely triggered, one branch flew to another far a way village, and another wallla, yes the same species of bamboo can only be found in these villages (so they say)... there are other attachments to this trapping the moon story which attempts to justify existence of other things, but i digress - yes we are responsible for mud spots on the once clean golden moon, and yes, on behalf of my ancestor’s greed to capture for themselves the golden sphere sailing happily across the sky and ending up soiling and dirtying it, i do sincerely apologize to everyone.
I love how odd these ancient myths can be sometimes. "The dawn tried to shoot an arrow and the sun, but missed, so the sun shot the dawn and then the dawn shattered into frost." How does ANY of that follow or make the least bit of narrative sense? xD
It’s awesome to see this Aztec story of the five suns being turned into a short film, it is well know to me and I like the way Ted Ed portrayed it, some video and thanks for sharing it, making it more well known
How interesting that the origin of the moon God in the Aztec myth share an element w/ the Japanese myth as well. In Japan, the moon is also said to house a rabbit and is similarly related to a greater folk tale.
1:32 and humble Nanahuatl rekindled the First Flame and continued the Age of Fire, but to streak across the sky, he demanded the Lord Souls of the remaining gods.
im graduating in history, and my teacher of Ancient History started to talk about the Persians and their religion (witch exist until today) called Zoroastrianism. finally, in that religion they have a cult of having a "Temple Of Fire" witch is a temple (obviously) that in the top have a fire that cant be fade, so they keep feeding It so It wont fade away because its sacred and etc. So yeah, Miyazaki wasnt the first with this Idea lol -sorry for poor english. My native language is portuguese, so please forgive me
@@arthurseara Yeah, a never ending fire 🔥 seems to be universal desire for humans. There's actually a cool book called "Children of the Sun" by Crosby. It's about humankind's history, relationship, and obsession with cultivating a neverending energy like the Sacred Fire.
Nanahuatl: I sacrificed myself and had death take the lives of five gods to become the Fifth Sun. Jesus: Not only did my Father create the Sun, Moon and the Rabbit in the first attempt, but He managed to not destroy the world more than once. Also while you sacrificed others just so you can move, I sacrificed myself so that I could slay death so others can live. "See that's the difference. Between a real soldier and this little Halloween outfit you got going on. You're willing to kill for you own rights, A real soilder is willing to die to protect the rights of others." -Elliot Spencer, Leverage (S3E7)
2:14 Oh hey that’s pretty cool! Hearing that made me do a quick internet search and look into it a bit more, but it was pretty neat learning China (and other East Asian countries influenced by China) weren’t the only ones with myths about rabbits in the moon.
Water, Jaguar, Fire, Air Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Only the god of pimples, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.
my humble request Ted ed.. why not include Filipino myths as well?...we happen to have a pantheon of ancient myths too.. as much as greece and aztecs have :)
I wonder if the pimples are to explain the sun spots // also its so interesting they had legends of a rabbit on the moon, Japanese stories speak of a rabbit on the moon too !
The meaning behind this myth is that Nanahuatzin was the weakest, the poorest and the most humble among all the gods and yet he was the bravest whom first sacrificed himself to become the sun ☀️
A community who loves bravery in its extreme. And worshipping a hero to follow its footstep. Never I had never heard 'blood' in aztec. Never I had never heard 'sacrifice' in ancient community. I think its about the fear of the unknown, trees forest, wild animals, and the dark and of course hunger to survive. I am thinking a group of chimpz and clan.
I remember when I was a child, my teachers told us the story of the fifth sun, if I´m not mistaken, it was one of those inspirational tales they would tell to kids, like, something to do with bravery and that no matter where you come from or who you are you can achieve great things if you are brave enough to do them, or something like that i don´t remember that well, i was like 3 or 5 when that happened, the thing I got when i was a child was the fact that some dude picked up a rabbit and launch him into the moon. also great video.
Friend- bro how to become a God bro. Me- jump into the fire bro Friend - what? Me- yeah bro I saw it in Ted Ed video bro. Friend - ok bro *Jumps into the fire* Me- but i think that was a myth bro *Oh no....BRO*
I mean this in the most sincere & least mean way possible: this tale sounded like a kid thought it up for fun. Things were happened so randomly in the story, like jaguars destroying a whole world for some reason & a god throwing a rabbit onto another god. It's astonishing to realize people sincerely believed this with all their heart.
A Moon Rabbit...What a Coincidence! It's just like the Jade Rabbit representing the Moon in Chinese Myths while the Three-Legged Golden Crow represents the Sun!
Beautiful story- thank you for doing these! Yesterday Denver, Colorado passed to decriminalized mushrooms. The effects of these medical plants make one see the actual truth of this whole dimension, world, or whatever you want to call it, with real meaning and makes you humble. You actually see these Aztec Gods when under the influence and can see how much spiritual truth these ancient cultures held to another level of deep meaning. Que bonito es la vida y vive con Paz/Amor.
There is a tremendous amount of social, historical, and religious commentary that could be read from this story, but from a strictly modern literary view, I could not help but to think of Babylon 5 (the fifth of the space stations, the previous four having suffered strange mishaps) and the show's "Third Age of Mankind" and the Sunbane fire in The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
