8. Aztec Kings Brutally Murdered Female Sacrifices
Human sacrifice was a core component of the religious practices of the Aztec Empire. Ritual sacrifice was practiced on both men and women to appease their various deities. Women sacrifices faced a particularly brutal fate as they were given none of the rewards of male sacrifices before their death. In fact, their “reward” before death was really additional punishment through rape.
Female sacrificial victims to the mother goddess Toci would be given to a tlatoani, translated as a ruler or king. That gifting allowed the ruler to use the woman however he wanted. It is widely understood that this meant the woman would be used as a sex object by the ruler before her death. When one compares this fate to the gifting of four wives and pampering of male victims before dying, this treatment stands out as especially egregious. Women paid a steep price in the Aztec religion.
The actual killing of female sacrificial victims was also especially brutal. After a period of being raped by the tlatoani, the woman would be flayed alive. Her skin would then be worn by a male priest impersonating the goddess Toci, who is represented in contemporary Aztec artwork as wearing human skin from sacrificial victims.