Mexitli

Mexitli, Mexi, or Mezih was a legendary great leader and war priest of the

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

s (before they became known as the Mexica, possibly in his honor) during the wandering years. According to

Bernardino de Sahagún Bernardino de Sahagún, OFM (; – 5 February 1590) was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he ...

, the name derives from the

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

''metl'' and ''zitli'' (Agave Hare). Aztec mythology and religion Aztec people History of the Aztecs Indigenous leaders of the Americas {{Mesoamerica-myth-stub