Traditionally, the appearance of a comet has always been considered a harbinger of some catastrophe.
A celestial event over Tenochtitlán (present-day Mexico City) years before the arrival of the Spanish appears to have foreshadowed the end of an empire.
“A disastrous omen was shown in the sky. One like an ear of fire, another like a flame of fire, another like the dawn: it seemed as if it pierced the sky.”
As stated in the Spanish account, the event would have occurred in the year 1517 and would have lasted one year counting from the beginning of the year in the Aztec calendar.
After being informed about the phenomenon, Emperor Montezuma II would have seen the comet appear at midnight, with that tail so beautiful and so resplendent, he was surprised and so scared that at that time he thought he would be killed.
The astrologers and soothsayers of the Tlatoani (Moctezuma’s title of ruler) were unable to provide an explanation for the comet.
Then, Montezuma summoned Nezahualpilli, the king of Texcoco, who clarified that it was an omen: “many days have passed since that star appeared in the sky with that brightness. There will be great calamities and misfortunes in all our lands; there will be nothing left. There will be countless deaths.”
The story tells that when the news of this comet reached all the provinces, the fear and terror of the people was so great that every day at dawn they gathered and their cries and screams were so loud that they rose to the sky and it seemed the end of the world.
The comet was the first of eight terrible omens that would have announced the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.
The meeting between Montezuma and Hernán Cortez, head of the Spanish troops, took place in November 1519 and was the beginning of the end for the Aztecs.
The relationship started out friendly, but then turned into a bloody battle. With the death of Montezuma in June 1520, the Aztecs rebelled against the Spanish.
Cortez won, took the Aztecs’ gold, buried temples and destroyed the city of Tenochtitlán in 1521, putting an end to the powerful Aztec Empire.
