Aztec, Maya & Inca

40 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.Which deity's name means "Smoking Mirror", lord of night and sorcery?
- A. Quetzalcoatl
- B. Tezcatlipoca
- C. Xipe Totec
- D. Huitzilopochtli
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Tezcatlipoca
Did you know? Tezcatlipoca's obsidian mirror smoked with visions of the future.
2.Which island in Lake Titicaca holds the mythic birthplace of the sun?
- A. Amantani
- B. Taquile
- C. The Island of the Moon
- D. The Island of the Sun
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The Island of the Sun
Did you know? Viracocha kindled the sun from the rock of the Island of the Sun.
3.Which divine grandparents cast the divining seeds in the Popol Vuh?
- A. One Death and Seven Death
- B. Tepeu and Gucumatz
- C. Ix Chel and Itzamna
- D. Xmucane and Xpiyacoc
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Xmucane and Xpiyacoc
Did you know? Xmucane and Xpiyacoc, the daykeepers, read the days before the twins' trials.
4.Which spider trickster of the Lakota weaves snares of illusion?
- A. Raven
- B. Coyote
- C. Anansi
- D. Iktomi
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Iktomi
Did you know? Iktomi's dream webs taught that wisdom and folly braid together.
5.Which first couple serves as the Aztec patrons of daykeepers and the calendar?
- A. Xmucane and Xpiyacoc
- B. Mictecacihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli
- C. Oxomoco and Cipactonal
- D. One Death and Seven Death
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Oxomoco and Cipactonal
Did you know? Oxomoco and Cipactonal cast the lots and invented the calendar count.
6.From what material did Viracocha shape the earliest people at Tiwanaku?
- A. Maize dough
- B. Stone
- C. Clay
- D. Wood
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Stone
Did you know? Viracocha carved the first people from stone, then painted their dress on them.
7.Which false, bejeweled bird-god did the twins bring down early in the tale?
- A. Vucub-Caquix, Seven Macaw
- B. Cabracán
- C. Zipacná
- D. Camazotz
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Vucub-Caquix, Seven Macaw
Did you know? Seven Macaw's boast of being the sun ended with Hunahpú's blowgun shot.
8.Which Aztec deity is the feathered serpent?
- A. Tezcatlipoca
- B. Quetzalcoatl
- C. Xipe Totec
- D. Huitzilopochtli
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Quetzalcoatl
Did you know? Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, pairs the quetzal bird with the rattlesnake.
9.How did Viracocha leave the world after making it?
- A. Walking on the sea westward across the ocean
- B. Ascending in a pillar of smoke
- C. Turning into the morning star
- D. Sinking into Titicaca's depths
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Walking on the sea westward across the ocean
Did you know? Viracocha walked off over the waters toward the west, unseen again.
10.Which merchant god doubles as the Maya patron of cacao and travel?
- A. Ek Chuah
- B. Itzamna
- C. Kukulkan
- D. Chaac
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Ek Chuah
Did you know? Ek Chuah, the black god, guarded traders and the cacao groves.
11.Which twin shrines crowned the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan?
- A. Inti's and Viracocha's
- B. Tonatiuh's and Xipe Totec's
- C. Tlaloc's and Huitzilopochtli's
- D. Quetzalcoatl's and Tezcatlipoca's
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Tlaloc's and Huitzilopochtli's
Did you know? The Templo Mayor's twin stairs honored rain Tlaloc and war Huitzilopochtli.
12.Which storm god hurls hail with a sling from the summer thunderclouds?
- A. Kon
- B. Viracocha
- C. Illapa
- D. Inti
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Illapa
Did you know? Illapa's sling crack is the thunder that breaks the dry fields.
13.What did the twins avenge by descending to Xibalba?
- A. The theft of the maize seeds
- B. The burning of their village
- C. Their grandmother's captivity
- D. Their fathers' deaths at the ballcourt
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Their fathers' deaths at the ballcourt
Did you know? The twins went down to beat the lords who had killed their father and uncle.
14.Which rain god is drawn with goggle eyes and long fangs?
- A. Tlaloc
- B. Xipe Totec
- C. Ehecatl
- D. Chaac
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Tlaloc
Did you know? Tlaloc's jar of rain could bless crops or hurl hail and lightning.
15.Which sun god is father of the Inca ruler's line?
- A. Illapa
- B. Inti
- C. Kon
- D. Viracocha
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Inti
Did you know? Inti's golden disc hung in the Cusco temples as the Inca's ancestor.
16.What is the name of the ballgame the twins and their fathers played?
- A. Chunkey
- B. Pok-ta-pok
- C. Tlachtli
- D. Tejo
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Pok-ta-pok
Did you know? The rubber ballgame, pok-ta-pok, echoed through Xibalba's courts.
17.Which pair of primal deities above all others begot the four Tezcatlipocas?
- A. Tonatiuh and Metztli
- B. Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl
- C. Tlaltecuhtli and Cipactonal
- D. Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl
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Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl
Did you know? The dual lord Omecuhtli pair bore the four sons who made and unmade the suns.
18.From which cave did the Inca ancestors emerge with their four Ayar brothers?
- A. Pacariqtambo
- B. Sacsayhuaman
- C. Chincana
- D. Tambo Machay
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Pacariqtambo
Did you know? The Ayar siblings stepped out of the three-windowed cave of Pacariqtambo.
19.What is the Popol Vuh?
- A. A Aztec tribute roll
- B. A codex of Maya astronomy
- C. The K'iche' Maya book of council and creation
- D. An Inca genealogy of kings
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The K'iche' Maya book of council and creation
Did you know? The Popol Vuh records the K'iche' Maya creation and their Hero Twins.
20.Which prized art did Nahuatl poets call "flower and song"?
- A. Fresco painting
- B. Feather work
- C. Carved jade
- D. Poetry and music
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Poetry and music
Did you know? "In xochitl in cuicatl" names truth-seeking poetry as flower and song.
21.Which earth mother receives offerings of coca and chicha?
- A. Pachamama
- B. Mama Quilla
- C. Xmucane
- D. Coatlicue
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Pachamama
Did you know? Farmers still pour the first sip of chicha for Pachamama.
22.Who are the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh?
- A. One Death and Seven Death
- B. Hunahpú and Xbalanqué
- C. Hun Hunahpú and Vucub Hunahpú
- D. Tepeu and Gucumatz
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Hunahpú and Xbalanqué
Did you know? Hunahpú and Xbalanqué outwitted the lords of death themselves.
23.Which sister did Huitzilopochtli behead at the hill of Coatepec?
- A. Xochiquetzal
- B. Coyolxauhqui
- C. Mictecacihuatl
- D. Chalchiuhtlicue
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Coyolxauhqui
Did you know? Huitzilopochtli sprang armed from Coatlicue and struck down Coyolxauhqui, the moon.
24.Which mountain lords, worshipped as water guardians, overlook Inca villages?
- A. The Chachapoya
- B. The Huacas of the coast
- C. The Ayars
- D. The Apus
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The Apus
Did you know? Each snowpeaked Apu guards the streams of the valley below.
25.How did the Hero Twins finally defeat the lords of Xibalba?
- A. They stole the lords' ball of fire
- B. They dug a tunnel out of Xibalba
- C. They burned the lords' council house
- D. They performed a sacrifice trick and returned from it
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They performed a sacrifice trick and returned from it
Did you know? The twins' death-and-rebirth trick fooled the lords into leaping to their own deaths.
26.Which hummingbird-named god leads the Mexica as god of war and the sun?
- A. Quetzalcoatl
- B. Tezcatlipoca
- C. Tonatiuh
- D. Huitzilopochtli
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Huitzilopochtli
Did you know? Huitzilopochtli, "Hummingbird of the South," carried the Mexica banner south.
27.What does the name Cusco mean in Quechua?
- A. House of the sun
- B. Golden city
- C. Navel
- D. High valley
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Navel
Did you know? Cusco, "navel," anchored the four quarters of the Inca world.
28.What stood in for Hunahpú's stolen head at the ballgame?
- A. A chilacayote squash carved like a head
- B. A baked tortilla disc
- C. A wooden mask of jade
- D. A gourd of the turtle
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A chilacayote squash carved like a head
Did you know? Xbalanqué swapped in a squash head, and the lords played on unknowing.
29.Which earth mother wears a skirt of snakes?
- A. Coatlicue
- B. Chalchiuhtlicue
- C. Cihuacoatl
- D. Mictecacihuatl
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Coatlicue
Did you know? Coatlicue, "Serpent Skirt," conceived Huitzilopochtli from a ball of feathers.
30.Which moon goddess completes the Aztec night sky beside Coyolxauhqui?
- A. Chalchiuhtlicue
- B. Metztli
- C. Mictecacihuatl
- D. Xochiquetzal
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Metztli
Did you know? Metztli, the moon of the night, shines over the tenebrous road of the dead.
31.How many suns, or world ages, does Aztec myth count before ours?
- A. Six
- B. Two
- C. Four
- D. Nine
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Four
Did you know? Four suns rose and fell before the fifth sun, ours, dawned over the world.
32.What founding sign told the Mexica where to build Tenochtitlan?
- A. A spring bubbling from stone
- B. A serpent of fire in the reeds
- C. A rainbow over the lake
- D. An eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus
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An eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus
Did you know? The eagle on the cactus, seen in Lake Texcoco, fixed Tenochtitlan's site.
33.Which maize god feeds the fifth world?
- A. Centeotl
- B. Quetzalcoatl
- C. Tlaloc
- D. Xipe Totec
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Centeotl
Did you know? Centeotl's body of maize fed the people of the current sun.
34.Which creator god rose from Lake Titicaca to make the sun, moon and stars?
- A. Viracocha
- B. Inti
- C. Pachacamac
- D. Illapa
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Viracocha
Did you know? Viracocha called the sun and moon from the isle of the sun in Titicaca.
35.Which death-bat decapitated Hunahpú in the House of Bats?
- A. Zipacná
- B. Zotz
- C. Camazotz
- D. Vucub-Caquix
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Camazotz
Did you know? Camazotz snipped off Hunahpú's head in the bat house's dark.
36.Who rules Mictlan, the ninth-level underworld of the dead?
- A. Tlaloc
- B. Xolotl
- C. Tezcatlipoca
- D. Mictlantecuhtli
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Mictlantecuhtli
Did you know? The dead crossed nine levels to reach Mictlantecuhtli's realm of bones.
37.Which gilded temple at Cusco honored Inti?
- A. The Acllahuasi
- B. The Kallanka
- C. The Coricancha
- D. The Usnu
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The Coricancha
Did you know? The Coricancha's walls were sheathed in gold for the sun god.
38.Who was the father of the Hero Twins, a ballplayer killed in Xibalba?
- A. Zipacná
- B. One Hunahpú
- C. Seven Macaw
- D. Vucub-Caquix
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One Hunahpú
Did you know? One Hunahpú and his brother fell to the Xibalba lords before the twins were born.
39.From which legendary island homeland did the Mexica migrate?
- A. Teotihuacan
- B. Chicomoztoc
- C. Aztlán
- D. Tula
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Aztlán
Did you know? The Mexica's wandering began at Aztlán, the white place of herons.
40.What are the Inca's three tiers of the cosmos called?
- A. Tonalpohualli, Xiuhpohualli and Nahui-Ollin
- B. Asklepion, Duat and Aaru
- C. Hanan Pacha, Kay Pacha and Uku Pacha
- D. Hanan, Xibalba and Mictlan
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Hanan Pacha, Kay Pacha and Uku Pacha
Did you know? Sky, living earth and the world below form the Inca's three realms.

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