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Aztec mythology
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl meaning 'Feathered Snake.' One of the major deities of the Aztec,
Toltecs, and other Middle American peoples. He is the creator sky-god and wise
legislator. He organized the original cosmos and participated in the creation and
destruction of various world periods. Quetzalcoatl ruled the fifth world cycle and
created the humans of that cycle. The story goes that he descended to Mictlan, the
underworld, and gathered the bones of the human beings of the previous epochs.
Upon his return, he sprinkled his own blood upon these bones and fashioned thus the
humans of the new era. He is also a god of the wind (he wind-god Ehecatl is one of
his forms), as well as a water-god and fertility-god.
He is regarded as a son of the virgin goddess Coatlicue and as the twin brother of
Xolotl. As the bringer of culture he introduced agriculture (maize) and the calendar
and is the patron of the arts and the crafts.
In one myth the god allowed himself to be seduced by Tezcatlipoca, but threw
himself on a funeral pyre out of remorse. After his death his heart became the
morning-star, and is as such identified with the god Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. In
dualistic Toltec religion, the opposing deity, Tezcatlipoca ('Smoking Mirror'), a god of
the night, had reputedly driven Quetzalcoatl into exile. According to yet another
tradition he left on a raft of snakes over the sea. In any case, Quetzalcoatl, described
as light-skinned and bearded, would return in a certain year. Thus, when the Spanish
conqueror Hernán Cortés appeared in 1519, the Aztec king, Montezuma II, was easily
convinced that Cortés was in fact the returning god.
The Aztec later made him a symbol of death and resurrection and a patron of priests.
The higher priests were called Quetzalcoatl too. The god has a great affinity with the
priest-king Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, who ruled the Toltecs in Tula in the 10th
century. The cult of Quetzalcoatl was widespread in Teotihuacan (50 km northeast of
Mexico City), Tula (or Tullán, capitol of the Toltecs in middle Mexico), Xochilco,
Cholula, Tenochtitlan (the current Mexico City), and Chichen Itza.