Note 2 — Chapter IX · STELLAR AND PLANETARY DEITIES

For the reason that he was regarded as existing on blood, the sun was thought of as the great patron of warriors, and has an intimate connection with both Uitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipocâ. But if we seek for evidence which would seem to exalt him above the greater gods in Mexico, and place him in a central and pre-eminent position in the pantheon, we will be disappointed.2 At the same time we must recollect that the two deities just mentioned, and even Quetzalcoatl in a measure, possessed a solar connection, and in the offering of the hearts of all victims to his glowing face we may probably see a survival or a reminiscence from a period when he was perhaps the central figure in the pantheon of the Chichimec nomads.