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Quetzalcoatl: Aztecs
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According to Mayan legend Kulkulkan, the Plumed Serpant, (called Quetzalcoatl by the Toltecs and later the Aztecs) arrived in Central America in a boat from across the sea. The Mayans regarded him as the great organizer who founded cities, formulated laws and invented the Mayan calendar. The Aztecs revered him as a god of light. He was a bearded white man. Other Central American deities were Votan, a great civilizer who was white and bearded and Itzamana a pale skinned, bearded Mayan God of medicine. The Central American Indians did not have beards.
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The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl is unique among the religious traditions of the ancient Mesoamerican world. He was the god of the wind, the sky god, the morning star, and the high priest. He was the feathered serpent, the white bearded priest, the whirlwind and Venus. He is present in almost all aspects of Aztec spiritual life. Quetzalcoatl is a deity that will intrigue many historians, theologians and people who are interested in ancient mythology for centuries to come. Quetzalcoatl represents a basic need of all cultures.
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The exact significance and attributes of Quetzalcoatl varied somewhat between civilizations and through history. Quetzalcoatl was often considered the god of the morning star, and his twin brother Xolotl was the evening star (Venus). As the morning star he was known by the title Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, meaning "lord of the star of the dawn." He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Quetzalcoatl was ... the patron of the priests and the title of the Aztec high priest.
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The name Quetzalcoatl literally means "feathered snake". The Nahuatl word quetzalli means "long green feather" (Molina: ), but later came to be applied ... to the bird who give these feathers: the Resplendent Quetzal. Quetzal feathers were a rare and precious commodity in the Aztec culture. So the combination of quetzalli "precious feather" and coatl "snake" has often been interpreted as signifying a serpent with the feathers of Quetzal. The meaning of his local name in other Mesoamerican languages is similar. The Maya of Yucatán knew him as Kukulk'an; the K'iche-Maya of Guatemala, as Guk'umatz, both names can be translated as "feathersnake".
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To the Toltecs, who flourished in the region from the 800s to the 1100s, Quetzalcoatl was the deity of the morning and evening stars and the wind. When the Aztecs rose to power in the 1400s, they brought Quetzalcoatl into their pantheon and made him a culture hero, a bringer not just of life but ... of civilization. These old myths merged with legends about a priest-king named Quetzalcoatl, possibly a real historical figure. Later as groups from central Mexico migrated into southern Mexico and the Yucatán peninsula, blending with the local Maya population, the Feathered Serpent took his place in the Mayan pantheon under the name Kukulcan.
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The translation of Quetzalcoatl means literally Plumed Serpent. A more understandable translation would be feathered serpent. This point is interesting in that he very rarely appears in this form. He is more often depicted in many of his other roles, specifically as Topiltzin the high priest (Brundage 102-03). The significance of this will appear later in the paper, but suffice it to say the name is in itself misleading when referring to this complex deity of the Aztecs.
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