Quetzalcoatl is a deity in Mesoamerican culture and literature whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means “feathered serpent” or “quetzal-feathered serpent”. The worship of a Feathered Serpent was first documented in the Teotihuacan in the first century B.C. or the first century AD. This period lies in the period from the Preclassic to the beginning of the Classical period (400 BC – 600 AD) of Mesoamerican chronology, and veneration of the figure seems to have spread throughout Mesoamerica by the Late Classical period (600–900 AD).
| Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Name | Quetzalcoatl |
| Nahuatl name | Quetzalcōātl |
| Alternative names | “Feathered Serpent”, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl |
| Metamorphoses | Feathered serpent |
| Place | Ilhuicatl-Teteocan |
| Original period | Postclassic era |
| Relatives | Ehecatl, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, Nacxitl, Nanahuatzin, Tonatiuh |
| Syncretism equivalents | Kukulkan/Gucumatz and Tohil (Maya) Dzahui (Mixtec) |
| Cult | |
|---|---|
| Cult region | Aztec Empire |
| Temples | Great Pyramid of Cholula, Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent (Teotihuacan), Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl (Tenochtitlan) |
| God of wisdom and intelligence | |
|---|---|
| Father | Ometecuhtli |
| Mother | Omecihuatl |
| Siblings | Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe Totec Quetzalpetlatl (incestuous sister of Quetzalcoatl) |
| Spouse | Cihuacoatl |
| God of rebirth and priests | |
|---|---|
| Father | Mixcoatl |
| Mother | Chimalma |
| Siblings | Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, Xolotl |
| Symbols | |
|---|---|
| Animal | Quetzal |
In the postclassic period (900 to 1519 AD), the cult of the feathered serpent was based on the main Mexican religious center of Cholula. It is in this period that the deity is known to have been called “Quetzalcoatl” by his Nahua followers. In Maya territory, it was roughly equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, names that also roughly translate as “feathered serpent” in different Mayan languages.
Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind, air and learning, wears around his neck the “wind breastplate” ehecailacocozcatl, “the jewel of the wind in a spiral and volute” made of a shell. This talisman was a shell cut into cross-section and was probably used as a necklace by religious rulers, as they were discovered in burials at archaeological sites throughout Mesoamerica and probably symbolized patterns witnessed in hurricanes, dust vortices, shells, and eddies, which were elemental forces that had meaning in Aztec mythology. In the codex drawings, Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were depicted wearing an ehecailacocozcatl around each of their necks. Also, there was at least a large stock of offerings with knives and idols adorned with the symbols of more than one god, some of which were adorned with wind jewelry.
In the era that followed the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, several sources confuse Quetzalcoatl with Ce Acatl Topiltzin, a ruler of the mythical-historical city of Tollan. It is a matter of much debate among historians to what degree or if in any way these narratives about this legendary Toltec ruler describe historical events. In addition, early Spanish sources written by clerics tend to identify the god-ruler Quetzalcoatl from these narratives with Hernán Cortés or the Apostle Thomas—an identification that is also the source of a diversity of opinions about the nature of Quetzalcoatl.
Among the Aztecs, whose beliefs are best documented in historical sources, Quetzalcoatl was related to the gods of wind, the planet Venus, the dawn, merchants, and the arts, crafts, and knowledge. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, learning, and knowledge. Quetzalcoatl was one of several important gods in the Aztec pantheon, along with the gods Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, and Huitzilopochtli. Two other gods represented by the planet Venus are Quetzalcoatl’s ally Tlaloc, who is the rain god, and Quetzalcoatl’s twin and psychoponer, who is called Xolott.
Animals considered to represent Quetzalcoatl include resplendent quetzals, rattlesnakes (coatl meaning serpent in Nahuatl), crows, and macaws. In his Ehecatl form he is the wind and is represented by spider monkeys, ducks and the wind itself. Also, in his form as the morning star, Venus, he is also depicted as a harpy eagle. In Mazatec legends, the astrological deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, who is also represented by Venus, has a close relationship with Quetzalcoatl.
Feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerica
The feathered serpent has been worshipped by many different ethnopolitical groups in Mesoamerican history. The existence of such a cult can be seen through studies of the iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which snake motifs are frequent. Based on the different symbolic systems used in the depictions of the feathered serpent deity in different cultures and periods, scholars have interpreted the religious and symbolic meaning of the feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerican cultures.
Iconographic representations of Quetzalcoatl
The earliest iconographic representation of the deity is believed to be found on Stela 19 at the Olmec site of La Venta, depicting a serpent that rises behind a person likely engaged in a shamanic ritual. This depiction is believed to have been made around 900 BC. While probably not exactly a description of the same feathered deity worshipped in classical and postclassical periods, it shows the continuity of the symbolism of feathered serpents in Mesoamerica since the formative period and, for example, in comparison to the vision of the Mayan Serpent shown below.
The first culture to use the symbol of a feathered serpent as an important religious and political symbol was Teotihuacan. In temples such as the aptly named “temple of Quetzalcoatl” in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents appear prominently and alternate with a different type of serpent’s head. Early depictions of the feathered serpent were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as a real snake, but already among the Classic Maya, the deity began to acquire human characteristics.
In the iconography of the classical period, the image of the Mayan serpent is also predominant: a snake is often seen as the embodiment of heaven itself, and a visionary serpent is a shamanic helper who presents Mayan kings with visions of the underworld.
The archaeological record shows that after the fall of Teotihuacan, which marked the beginning of the epi-classical period in Mesoamerican chronology, around 600 A.D., the cult of the feathered serpent spread to the new religious and political centers in central Mexico, centers such as Xochicalco, Cacaxtla and Cholula. The iconography of the feathered serpent is prominent in all these locations. Cholula is known to have remained the most important center of worship of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec/Nahua version of the feathered serpent deity, in the Postclassical period.
During the Epiclassical period, a dramatic diffusion of feathered serpent iconography is evidenced throughout Mesoamerica, and during this period begins to figure prominently in places such as Chichén Itza, El Tajín and throughout the Maya area. Colonial documentary sources from the Maya region often speak of the arrival of foreigners from the central Mexican plateau, often led by a man whose name translates as “Feathered Serpent.” It has been suggested that these stories recall the spread of the feathered serpent cult in the epi-classical and post-classical periods.
Represented as the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl also manifested in the wind, one of the most powerful forces in nature, and this relationship was captured in a text in the Nahuatl language:
Quetzalcoatl; yn ehecatl ynteiacancauh yntlachpancauh in tlaloque, yn aoaque, yn qujqujiauhti. Auh yn jquac molhuja eheca, mjtoa: teuhtli quaqualaca, ycoioca, tetecujca, tlatlaiooa, tlatlapitza, tlatlatzinj, motlatlaueltia. Quetzalcoatl—he was the wind, the guide and road sweeper of the rain gods, of the masters of the water, of those who brought rain. And when the wind rose, when the dust rumbled, and it crack and there was a great din, became it became dark and the wind blew in many directions, and it thundered; then it was said: “[Quetzalcoatl] is wrathful.”
Quetzalcoatl was also connected with the government and the priestly office; In addition, among the Toltecs it was used as a military title and emblem.
In the postclassical Nahua civilization of central Mexico (Aztec), the worship of Quetzalcoatl was ubiquitous. The rituals of the cult may have involved the ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms (psilocybes), considered sacred. The most important center was Cholula, where the largest pyramid in the world was dedicated to his worship. In Aztec culture, depictions of Quetzalcoatl were entirely anthropomorphic. Quetzalcoatl was associated with the wind god Ehecatl and is often depicted with his insignia: a beak-like mask.
Interpretations
Based on Teotihuacan’s iconographic depictions of the feathered serpent, archaeologist Karl Taube argued that the feathered serpent was a symbol of fertility and internal political structures that contrasted with the War Serpent that symbolized the outward military expansion of the Teotihuacan empire. Historian Enrique Florescano also analyzing Teotihuacan iconography argues that the Feathered Serpent was part of a triad of agricultural deities: the Goddess of the Cave symbolizing motherhood, reproduction and life, Tlaloc, god of rain, lightning and thunder and the feathered serpent god of the renewal of vegetation. The feathered serpent was, moreover, connected to the planet Venus because of the importance of this planet as a sign of the beginning of the rainy season. For the Teotihuacan and Mayan cultures, Venus was also symbolically linked to war.
Although not normally feathered, the classic iconography of the Mayan serpent seems related to the belief in a serpent deity related to the sky, to Venus, to the creator, to war, and to fertility. In Yaxchilan’s example, the Visionary Serpent has the human face of the young corn god, further suggesting a connection with fertility and vegetation renewal; the Mayan god Young Maize was also linked to Venus.
In Xochicalco, the depictions of the feathered serpent are accompanied by the image of a seated armed sovereign and the hieroglyph of the day sign of the Wind. It is known that the day of the wind is associated with fertility, Venus and with the war between the Maya, often occurring in relation to Quetzalcoatl in other Mesoamerican cultures.
Based on the iconography of the feathered serpent deity in places such as Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Chichén Itzá, Tula, and Tenochtitlan combined with certain ethnohistorical sources, historian David Carrasco argued that the preeminent function of the feathered serpent deity throughout Mesoamerican history was to be the patron deity of the urban center, a god of culture and civilization.
Quetzalcoatl in Aztec culture
To the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was, as his name implies, a feathered serpent, a flying reptile (much like a dragon), who was a boundary maker (and transgressor) between earth and sky. He was a creative deity, having contributed essentially to the creation of mankind. He also had anthropomorphic forms, for example in his aspects as Ehecatl, the god of wind. Among the Aztecs, the name Quetzalcoatl was also a priestly title, as the two most important priests of the Aztec Templo Mayor were called “Quetzalcoatl Tlamacazqui”. In the Aztec ritual calendar, different deities were associated with the names of the year cycle: Quetzalcoatl was linked to the year Ce Acatl (A Reed), which correlates with the year 1519.
Myths
Attributes
The exact meaning and attributes of Quetzalcoatl varied somewhat between civilizations and history. There are several stories about the birth of Quetzalcoatl. In one version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl was born of a virgin named Chimalman, to whom the god Onteol appeared in a dream. In another story, the virgin Chimalman conceived Quetzalcoatl by swallowing an emerald. A third story narrates that Chimalman was struck in the womb by an arrow fired by Mixcoatl and nine months later she gave birth to a child named Quetzalcoatl. A fourth story narrates that Quetzalcoatl was born to Coatlicue, who already had four hundred children who formed the stars of the Milky Way.
According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presides over one of the four cardinal directions. Over the West presides the White Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, the god of light, justice, mercy and wind. Over the South presides the Blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. In addition, over the East presides the Red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, the god of gold, agriculture and spring.
And over the North presides the Black Tezcatlipoca, known by no other name than Tezcatlipoca, the god of judgment, night, deceit, sorcery, and the Earth. Quetzalcoatl was often considered the god of the morning star, and his twin brother Xolotl was the evening star (Venus). As the morning star, it was known by the title Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, which means “lord of the dawn star.” He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the donor of corn to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of priests and the title of Aztec high priests. Some legends describe it as opposed to human sacrifice while others describe it as practicing it.
Most Mesoamerican beliefs included cycles of sun. Often our present time was considered the fifth sun, the previous four were destroyed by flood, fire and the like. Quetzalcoatl went to Mictlan, the underworld, and created the humanity of the fifth world from the bones of the previous races (with the help of Cihuacoatl), using his own blood, from a wound he inflicted on his earlobes, calves, tongue, and penis to imbue the bones with new life.
This also suggests that he was the son of Xochiquetzal and Mixcoatl.
In the Codex Chimalpopoca, it is said that Quetzalcoatl was coerced by Tezcatlipoca to get drunk on pulque, playing with his sister, Quetzalpetlatl, a celibate priestess, and neglecting his religious duties (Many scholars conclude that this passage implies incest). The next morning, Quetzalcoatl, feeling shame and regret, had his servants build a stone chest, adorn it in turquoise, and then lay it down in the chest and set it on fire. His ashes rose into the sky and then his heart followed, becoming the morning star (see Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli).
Belief in Cortés as Quetzalcoatl
Since the sixteenth century, it has been widely considered that the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II initially believed that the landing of Hernán Cortés in 1519 would be the return of Quetzalcoatl. This view has been questioned by ethno-historians who argue that the Quetzalcoatl-Cortés connection is not found in any document created independently of post-conquest Spanish influence, and that there is little proof of a pre-Hispanic belief in the return of Quetzalcoatl. Most of the documents expounding this theory are of entirely Spanish origin, such as Cortés’ letters to Charles V of Spain, in which Cortés endeavors to present the naivety of the Aztecs in general as a great help to their conquest of Mexico.
Much of the idea of Cortés being seen as a deity can be traced back to the Florentine Codex, written some 50 years after the conquest. In the Codex description of the first meeting between Montezuma and Cortés, the Aztec ruler is described as giving a speech prepared in the classical oratorio of Nahuatl, a discourse which, as described in the codex written by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and his informants Tlatelolcan, included such prostrate declarations of divine or quasi-divine admiration as:
“You graciously came ashore, graciously approached your water, your high place in Mexico, you came down to your carpet, your throne, which I kept for you briefly, I who used to keep for you.”
and:
“You have graciously come, you have known pain, you have known weariness, now come to earth, rest, enter your palace, rest your limbs; Let our lords come on earth.”
Subtleties and an imperfect scholarly understanding of the high Nahuatl rhetorical style make it difficult to determine exactly these comments, but Restall argues that Montezuma is offering his throne politely to Cortés (if he ever made the speech, as reported) may well be understood as the exact opposite of what was intended: politeness in Aztec culture was a way of asserting dominance and demonstrating superiority. This speech, which has been widely referred to, has been a factor in the widespread belief that Montezuma was addressing Cortés as the returning god Quetzalcoatl.
Other parties also promulgated the idea that the Mesoamericans believed that the conquerors, and in particular Cortés, were awaited gods: most notably historians of the Franciscan order, such as Fray Gerónimo de Mendieta. Some Franciscans at this time held millenarian beliefs and some of them believed that the coming of Cortés to the New World ushered in the final era of evangelization before the coming of the millennium. Franciscans like Toribio de Benavente “Motolinia” saw elements of Christianity in the pre-Columbian religions and therefore believed that Mesoamerica had been evangelized before, possibly by St. Thomas, that the legend had “gone to preach beyond the Ganges.” The Franciscans then compared the original Quetzalcoatl with St. Thomas and imagined that the Indians had long awaited his return to participate again in the kingdom of God. Historian Matthew Restall concludes that:
The legend of the returning lords, originated during the Spanish-Mexican War in Cortés’ rework of Moctezuma’s welcome speech, had, by 1550, merged with the legend of Cortés-Quetzalcoatl that the Franciscans began to spread in the 1530s. (Restall 2001: 114)
Some scholars maintain that the fall of the Aztec Empire can be attributed in part to the belief in Cortés as the return of Quetzalcoatl, notably in works by David Carrasco (1982), H.B. Nicholson (2001 (1957)) and John Pohl (2016). However, most Mesoamericanist scholars such as Matthew Restall (2003), James Lockhart (1994), Susan D. Gillespie (1989), Camilla Townsend (2003a, 2003b), Louise Burkhart, Michel Graulich and Michael E. Smith (2001) among others, consider the “myth of Quetzalcoatl-Cortés” as one of the many myths about the Spanish conquest that emerged in the early post-conquest period. It should be noted that the idea that Cortés or the Spaniards as a group or individuals represented a specific god (e.g., Quetzalcoatl) or gods, in general, is not present among other Mesoamerican peoples (Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Maya, Quiche, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, etc.).
There is no doubt that the legend of Quetzalcoatl played a significant role in the colonial period. However, this legend probably has a basis in events that occurred immediately before the arrival of the Spaniards. A 2012 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art, “The Children of the Feathered Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico,” demonstrated the existence of a powerful confederation of Eastern Nahuas, Mixtecs, and Zapotec peoples along with the peoples who dominated throughout southern Mexico between 1200-1600 (Pohl, Fields and Lyall 2012, Harvey 2012, Pohl 2003).
They maintained a large pilgrimage and commercial center in Cholula, Puebla, which the Spaniards compared to Rome and Mecca, because the cult of the god united its constituents through a field of common social, political, and religious values without dominating them militarily. This confederacy engaged in nearly seventy-five years of almost continuous conflict with the Aztec Empire of the Triple Alliance until the arrival of Cortés. Members of this confederation of Tlaxcala, Puebla, and Oaxaca provided the Spanish with the army that first claimed the city of Cholula from their pro-Aztec ruling faction and finally defeated the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City).
The Tlaxcalteca, along with other city-states across the Puebla plain, provided auxiliary and logistical support for the conquests of Guatemala and western Mexico, while the Mixtec and Zapotec chieftains won monopolies in the overland transportation of the Manila galleons trade through Mexico, and formed highly lucrative relations with the Dominican order in the new world economic system of the Spanish empire that explains much of the enduring legacy of the forms of life indigenous people that characterize southern Mexico and explain the popularity of the legends of Quetzalcoatl that have continued through colonialism to the present day.
Contemporary usage
Latter-day Saints
Some Mormons believe that Quetzalcoatl was historically Jesus Christ, but believe that His name and the details of the event were gradually lost over time. According to the Book of Mormon, the resurrected Christ came down from the clouds and visited the people of the American continent shortly after his resurrection. Quetzalcoatl is not a religious symbol in the faith of Latter-day Saints, and is not taught as such, nor is it in their doctrine. A President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, John Taylor, wrote:
The life story of the Mexican deity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, in fact, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the story of the former was transmitted to us through an impure Lamanise source, which unfortunately disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior’s life and ministry”.
(Mediation and Atonement, 194.)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints author Brant Gardner, after investigating the link between Quetzalcoatl and Jesus, concluded that the association is nothing more than folklore. In a 1986 article for Sunstone, he noted that during the Spanish conquest, Native Americans and Catholic priests who sympathized with them felt pressure to link Native American beliefs to Christianity, making Native Americans seem more human and less savage. Over time, Quetzalcoatl’s appearance, dress, malevolent nature, and status among the gods were reshaped to suit a more Christian structure.
Quetzalcoatl in the media
Quetzalcoatl was fictionalized in the 1982 film Q as a monster terrorizing New York City. The deity was featured as a character in the manga and anime Yu-Gi-Oh! The 5D Dragon Maiden, Beyblade and Miss Kobayashi ( the latter representing Quetzalcoatl as a female dragon deity); the Persona video game franchise; the Fate/Grand Order video games, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy XV, Smite (as an alternate costume for her Mayan counterpart, Kukulkan), and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine; and in the last of the books The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Quetzalcoatl also appeared in (Season 3) of the Animal Planet documentary, Lost Cassettes, in an episode titled Q the Serpent God.
In 1971, Tony Shearer published a book called Lord of the Dawn: Quetzalcoatl and the Tree of Life, inspiring New Agers to visit Chichen Itza on the summer solstice, when dragon-shaped shadows are cast by the Kulkulcan pyramid.
Quetzalcoatl in popular culture
In the episode “Bird of Paradise” of “Godzilla: The Series”, Godzilla faces Quetzalcoatl, The King of the Monsters defeats him, as in the other episodes. Beginning during the crisis at Standing Rock in 2016, in parallel with the phrase “Mni Wiconi” (“Water is Life”), support from the Mexican, Mexican-American and Mexican indigenous populations included the use of the Spanish phrase “Agua es Vida.” Often depicted with this phrase was Tlaloc or Quetzalcoatl as a serpent, or sometimes both. Quetzalcoatl being the teotl of life, and Tlaloc being the teotl of rain and sustenance, they have often been paired with each other since pre-Columbian times, and this practice continues to this day, as has been seen in support of the Standing Rock Lakota and other contemporary struggles for water rights. Also mentioned in the anime Kobayashi san no maid dragon, known as Lucoa san.
Quetzalcoatl terminology
It is only since the colonial period that Quetzalcoatl and the rest of the Nahua pantheon are understood as “gods”. Traditionally, it belongs to what is known collectively as the teteoh (plural form of “teotl”, a Nahuatl word of ambiguous meaning). Teotl itself is an abstract notion that refers to energy or power. The term is not understood to exercise power like the gods, but rather to be manifestations of the energy that surrounds and composes all things. Quetzalcoatl is one of the main teteoh, as are all the Four Tezcatlipocas, as well as his parents Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl.
References (sources)
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