The Aztec gods were easy to please. Subjects need only live, serve and obey.
Until the gods demanded death, in return for new life.
The bloody rise and fall of the Mesoamerican empire, and the gods they worshipped, are chronicled in Melbourne Museum's latest exhibition Aztecs.
Featuring more than 200 pieces loaned from Mexican museums, the exhibition provides insight into the short, yet dramatic Aztec Empire.
One item on display, the Temalacatl gladiatorial sacrifice stone, epitomises the gods' demands.
A captive warrior was bound to the stone armed with only a feather to fend off four Aztecs.
After the gladiator's death, a priest removes the warriors heart and wears the skin for 20 days to honour the god of spring and renewal Xipe Totec.
Museum Victoria CEO Dr Patrick Greene said many Westerners struggle to understand the Aztecs way of life and their reverence for balance and duality.
"The gods were believed to have sacrificed themselves and so man had to sacrifice himself as well," Dr Greene told AAP on Tuesday.
"And yet it is mixed with delicacy as well. It was believed that those sacrificed would ascend to the heavens and be reborn as butterflies and bees."
But humans aren't the only species to be offered up to the higher powers.
After the funeral of a dog owner, their pet pooch would be sacrificed to lead its' masters soul through the nine levels of the underworld.
The exhibition focuses on six major themes: Aztec origins; religious beliefs and rituals; war and conquest; royal power and family life; markets, trade and agriculture; and finally the fall of the 196-year old Empire.
To accompany the artefacts, Melbourne Museum has also constructed a scale model of the Aztecs' spiritual home The Templo Mayor.
* The Aztecs exhibition opens in Melbourne on April 9 and runs through to August 10 before heading to Sydney in mid-September.
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