Quetzalcoatl
| Quetzalcoatl | |
|---|---|
| Children | None |
| Equivalents | |
| Maya equivalent | Kukulkan (God H) |
| Mixtec equivalent | Ñuhu-Tachi |
| Inca equivalent | Viracocha |
Quetzalcoatl (
Quetzalcoatl wears around his neck the breastplate ehēcacōzcatl, "the spirally voluted wind jewel". This talisman was a conch shell cut at the cross-section and was likely worn as a necklace by religious rulers, as such objects have been discovered in burials in archaeological sites throughout Mesoamerica,
The earliest known documentation of the
Etymology
The name Quetzalcoatl comes from the Nahuatl language and means "Precious serpent" or "Quetzal-feathered Serpent".[15] In the 17th century, Ixtlilxóchitl, a descendant of Aztec royalty and historian of the Nahua people, wrote, "Quetzalcoatl, in its literal sense, means 'serpent of precious feathers' but in the allegorical sense, 'wisest of men'."[16]
Feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerica
In Mesoamerican history, many different ethnopolitical groups worshiped a feathered-serpent deity. Evidence of such worship comes from the iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs occur frequently. On the basis of the different symbolic systems used in portrayals 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 depictions
The earliest known iconographic depiction of the deity appears on
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The first culture to use the symbol of a feathered serpent as an important religious and political symbol was that of Teotihuacan. At temples such as the aptly named "Quetzalcoatl temple" in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently and alternate with a different kind of serpent head. The earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but already among the Classic Maya, images of the deity began acquiring human features, such as the beard (see the Borgia codex illustration below) that he was sometimes depicted with.
In the iconography of the classic period, Maya serpent imagery is also prevalent: a snake often appears as the embodiment of the sky itself, and a vision serpent is a shamanic helper presenting Maya kings with visions of the underworld.
The archaeological record shows that after the fall of Teotihuacan that marked the beginning of the epi-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology around 600 AD, the cult of the feathered serpent spread to new religious and political centers in central Mexico, centers such as Xochicalco, Cacaxtla and Cholula.[12] Feathered-serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites. Cholula remained the most important center of worship of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec/Nahua version of the feathered-serpent deity, in the post-classic period.
During the epi-classic period, a dramatic spread of feathered serpent iconography is evidenced throughout Mesoamerica, and during this period images begin to figure prominently at sites such as
Represented as the plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl was also seen as a manifestation of the wind, one of the most powerful forces of nature; a text in the Nahuatl language captures this relationship:
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."[17]
Quetzalcoatl also became linked with rulership and priestly office; additionally, among the Toltec, the name was used as a military title and its representation as an emblem.[18][need quotation to verify]
In the post-classic
Interpretations
On the basis of the Teotihuacan iconographical depictions of the feathered serpent, archaeologist Karl Taube has argued that the feathered serpent was a symbol of fertility and of internal political structures - contrasting with the War Serpent symbolizing the outwards military expansion of the Teotihuacan empire.[20] 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
- the feathered serpent, god of vegetational renewal
The feathered serpent was furthermore connected to the planet
While not usually feathered, classic Maya serpent iconography seems[original research?] related to the belief in a sky-, Venus-, creator-, war- and fertility-related serpent deity. In an example from Yaxchilan, the Vision Serpent has the human face of the young maize-god, further suggesting a connection to fertility and vegetational renewal; the Maya Young Maize god was also connected to Venus.
In Xochicalco, depictions of the feathered serpent accompany the image of a seated, armed ruler and the hieroglyph for the day sign 9 Wind. The date 9 Wind is known to be associated with fertility, Venus and war among the Maya and frequently occurs in relation to Quetzalcoatl in other Mesoamerican cultures.
On the basis of the iconography of the feathered-serpent deity at sites such as Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Chichén Itzá, Tula and Tenochtitlan combined with certain ethnohistorical sources, historian David Carrasco has argued that the preeminent function of the feathered-serpent deity throughout Mesoamerican history was as the patron deity of the urban center - a god of culture and civilization.[22]
In Aztec culture
To the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was, as his name indicates, a feathered serpent. He was a creator deity having contributed essentially to the creation of mankind. He also had anthropomorphic forms, for example in his aspects as Ehecatl the wind god. 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 cycle-of-year names: Quetzalcoatl was tied to the year Ce Acatl (One Reed), which correlates to the year 1519.[23]
Myths
Attributes
The exact significance and attributes of Quetzalcoatl varied somewhat between civilizations and through history. There are several stories about the birth of Quetzalcoatl. In a version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl was born by a virgin named
According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of
Most Mesoamerican beliefs included cycles of suns. Often our current time was considered the fifth sun,
It is also suggested that he was a son of
In the
He is also attributed with having brought the cacao plant from a sacred mountain to the Toltec people, teaching the women how to make traditional drinking chocolate.[31]
Belief in Cortés as Quetzalcoatl
Since the sixteenth century, it has been widely held that the
Much of the idea of Cortés being seen as a deity can be traced back to the Florentine Codex written down some 50 years after the conquest. In the Codex's description of the first meeting between Moctezuma and Cortés, the Aztec ruler is described as giving a prepared speech in classical oratorial Nahuatl, a speech which, as described in the codex written by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún and his Tlatelolcan informants, included such prostrate declarations of divine or near-divine admiration as:
You have graciously come on earth, you have graciously approached your water, your high place of Mexico, you have come down to your mat, your throne, which I have briefly kept for you, I who used to keep it for you.
and:
You have graciously arrived, you have known pain, you have known weariness, now come on earth, take your rest, enter into your palace, rest your limbs; may our lords come on earth.
The exact intent of these words is uncertain. The rhetorical style of classic Nahuatl was full of subtle nuances and is still not well understood. Restall argues that if Moctezuma's politely offered his throne to Cortés, it may have been meant as the exact opposite since politeness in Aztec culture was a way to assert dominance and show superiority.[37] This speech, which has been widely referred to, has been a factor in the widespread belief that Moctezuma was addressing Cortés as the returning god Quetzalcoatl.
Other parties have also promulgated the idea that the Mesoamericans believed the conquistadors, and in particular Cortés, to be awaited gods: most notably the historians of the
The legend of the returning lords, originated during the Spanish-Mexica war in Cortés' reworking of Moctezuma's welcome speech, had by the 1550s merged with the Cortés-as-Quetzalcoatl legend that the Franciscans had started spreading in the 1530s. (Restall 2001 p. 114)[full citation needed]
Some scholarship maintains the view that the Aztec Empire's fall may be attributed in part to the belief in Cortés as the returning Quetzalcoatl, notably in works by David Carrasco (1982), H. B. Nicholson (2001 (1957)) and John Pohl (2016). Carrasco's work was revised in 2000, and the new edition provides a valuable overview of the controversy about Cortes and Quetzalcoatl.[40] However, a majority of Mesoamericanist scholars, such as Matthew Restall (2003, 2018[37]), James Lockhart (1994), Susan D. Gillespie (1989), Camilla Townsend (2003a, 2003b), Louise Burkhart, Michel Graulich and Michael E. Smith (2003), among others, consider the "Quetzalcoatl/Cortés myth" as one of many myths about the Spanish conquest which have risen in the early post-conquest period.
There is no question that the legend of Quetzalcoatl played a significant role in the colonial period. However, this legend likely has a foundation in events that took place immediately prior to 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 Plumed Serpent: the Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico", demonstrated the existence of a powerful confederacy of Eastern Nahuas, Mixtecs and Zapotecs, along with the peoples they dominated throughout southern Mexico between 1200 and 1600 (Pohl, Fields, and Lyall 2012, Harvey 2012, Pohl 2003). They maintained a major pilgrimage and commercial center at Cholula, Puebla which the Spaniards compared to both 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 almost seventy-five years of nearly continuous conflict with the Aztec Empire of the Triple Alliance until the arrival of Cortés. Members of this confederacy from Tlaxcala, Puebla, and Oaxaca provided the Spaniards with the army that first reclaimed the city of Cholula from its pro-Aztec ruling faction, and ultimately defeated the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). The Tlaxcalteca, along with other city-states across the Plain of Puebla, then supplied the auxiliary and logistical support for the conquests of Guatemala and West Mexico while Mixtec and Zapotec caciques (Colonial indigenous rulers) gained monopolies in the overland transport of Manila galleon trade through Mexico, and formed highly lucrative relationships with the Dominican order in the new Spanish imperial world economic system that explains so much of the enduring legacy of indigenous life-ways that characterize southern Mexico and explain the popularity of the Quetzalcoatl legends that continued through the colonial period to the present day.[citation needed]
Contemporary use
Latter Day Saints movement
According to the
Quetzalcoatl is not a religious symbol in the Latter-day Saint faith, and is not taught as such, nor is it in their doctrine that Quetzalcoatl is Jesus.[41] However, in 1892 one president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, John Taylor, wrote:[42]
The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure
Lamanitishsource, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life and ministry.— Mediation and Atonement, p. 194
Latter-day Saint author Brant Gardner, after investigating the link between Quetzalcoatl and Jesus, concluded that the association amounts to nothing more than folklore.
In media
Quetzalcoatl was fictionalized in the 1982 film Q as a monster that terrorizes New York City.[45][46] The deity has been featured as a character in the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Beyblade: Metal Fusion, Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (the latter two depicting Quetzalcoatl as a female dragon deity); the Megami Tensei video game franchise; the video games Fate/Grand Order, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy XV, Sanitarium, Smite (as an alternate costume for his Mayan counterpart, Kukulkan), and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine; as the main antagonist in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"; and in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel books. Quetzelcoatl also appeared on (Season 3) of the Animal Planet mockumentary Lost Tapes in an episode entitled "Q the Serpent God".[47]
In 1971 Tony Shearer published a book called Lord of the Dawn: Quetzalcoatl and the Tree of Life, inspiring New Age followers to visit Chichen Itza at the summer solstice when dragon-shaped shadows are cast by the Kulkulcan pyramid.[48]
The legend of Quetzalcoatl is spoofed in the
Quetzalcoatl appears in the
Quetzalcoatl also features in several songs by The Mountain Goats, an indie folk-rock band, such as Quetzalcoatl eats Plums and Quetzalcoatl is Born, both released as part of the album Zopilote Machine, released in 1994.
Other uses
Mexico's flagship airline Aeroméxico has a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner painted in a special Quetzalcoatl livery.
The pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was named after the deity.
See also
- Five Suns, a legend of Quetzalcōātl and his brothers
- Kukulkan
- Quetzalcoatlus, a pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous named after Quetzalcoatl
- Thoth
- Hermes
- Mercury (mythology)
- Ningishzida
Notes
- Classical Nahuatl: Quetzalcōātl [ket͡saɬˈkoːaːt͡ɬ] (Modern Nahuatl pronunciationⓘ), in honorific form: Quetzalcōātzin).
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 970-07-3149-9.
- ^ Jacques Soustelle (1997). Daily Life of the Aztecs. p. 1506.
- ^ "Quetzalcoatl". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021.
- ^ "Quetzalcoatl". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
- ^ Smith 2003 p. 213
- ^ De Borhegyi, Stephan F. (1966). "The Wind God's Breastplate". Expedition. Vol. 8, no. 4.
This breastplate, the insignia of the wind god, called in Nahuatl the ehēcacōzcatl, (the 'spirally voluted wind jewel') was made by cutting across the upper portion of a marine conch shell, and drilling holes for suspension by a cord. Such conch shell breastplates were either hung on the sculpture of the god himself or were worn by the high priests, the earthly representatives of this god. According to such sixteenth century Spanish authorities as Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, [...] the title of Quetzalcoatl was reserved for the high priests or pontiffs among the Aztecs and other inhabitants of Mexico. Only they were entitled to wear the emblem of ehēcacōzcatl, the insignia of this god. Such marine shell breastplates are therefore extremely rare. Of the few that survived the Spanish Conquest, most were destroyed by overly zealous friars; only a handful have been turned up by archaeologists.
- ^ "Personified knives". mexicolore.co.uk.
- ^ "Study the... WIND GOD". mexicolore.co.uk.
- ^ de Borhegyi, Carl (30 October 2012). "Evidence of Mushroom Worship in Mesoamerica". The Yucatan Times. Archived from the original on 12 September 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ^ "The god with the longest name?". mexicolore.co.uk.
- ^ "Teotihuacan: Introduction". Project Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico/ ASU. 20 August 2001. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
- ^ a b c Ringle et al. 1998
- ^ Nicholson 2001, Carrasco 1982, Gillespie 1989, Florescano 2002
- ^ Lafaye 1987, Townsend 2003, Martínez 1980, Phelan 1970
- ^ The Nahuatl nouns compounded into the proper name "Quetzalcoatl" are: quetzalli, signifying principally "plumage", but also used to refer to the bird—resplendent quetzal—renowned for its colourful feathers, and cohuātl "snake".
- ^ Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl (2019). History of the Chichimeca Nation: Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Seventeenth-Century Chronicle of Ancient Mexico.
- ^ Sahagún, Bernardino de (1950). Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Book 1, Ch. 5, p. 2.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 978-0-500-28791-0.
- ^ Guzman, Gaston (2012). "New Taxonomical and Ethnomycological Observations on Psilocybe S.S. (Fungi, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetidae, Agaricales, Strophariaceae) From Mexico, Africa, and Spain" (PDF). Acta Botanica Mexicana. 100: 88–90. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^ Florescano 2002 p. 8
- ^ Florescano 2002 p. 821.
- ^ a b Carrasco 1982
- ^ Townsend 2003 p. 668
- ^ a b c J. B. Bierlein, Living Myths. How Myth Gives Meaning to Human Experience, Ballantine Books, 1999
- ^ Smith 2003
- ISBN 978-0226467887.
- ^ Carrasco 1982 p. 145
- ISBN 978-0195149098.
- ^ Oldworldgods, Oldworldgods (15 July 2021). "All You Need To Know About The Ancient Aztec Gods and Goddesses". Oldworldgods. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
- ^ "Readings in Classical Nahuatl: The Death of Quetzalcoatl". pages.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- ^ Runners, Cocoa (23 December 2021). "Gift of the Gods: Chocolate in the Aztec Empire". Cocoa Runners. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
- ^ Gillespie 1989
- ^ Townsend 2003a
- ^ Townsend 2003b
- ^ Restall 2003a
- ^ Restall 2003b
- ^ a b Restall, Matthew (2018). When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History. New York: Harper Collins. p. 345.
- ^ Martinez 1980
- ^ Phelan 1956
- ^ Carrasco, David. Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire: Myths and Prophecies in the Aztec Tradition. O'brien Pocket Series. University Press of Colorado, 2001.
- ^ Wirth 2002
- ^ Taylor 1892 p. 201
- ^ Blair 2008
- ^ Gardner 1986
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1 January 1982). "Q Movie Review & Film Summary (1982)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
- The Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
- ^ "Lost Tapes Schedule Fallback". 25 September 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-61069-044-7.
General bibliography
- OCLC 20141678.
- OCLC 33983234.
- OCLC 0226094871.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - David Carrasco. Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire: Myths and Prophecies in the Aztec Tradition. O'brien Pocket Series. University Press of Colorado, 2001.
- ISBN 978-0-8061-6398-7.
- Florescano, Enrique (1999). The Myth of Quetzalcoatl. Translated by Lysa Hochroth. Raúl Velázquez (illus.). Baltimore, MD: OCLC 39313429. Translation of El mito de Quetzalcóatl, original Spanish-language.
- Gardner, Brant (1986). "The Christianization of Quetzalcoatl". Sunstone. 10 (11). Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- OCLC 60131674.
- Harvey, Doug (2012). "How a Feathered God Presided Over a Golden Age of Mexican Art". Humanities: The Magazine of the National Endowment of the Humanities. Vol. 33, no. 5. pp. 34–39.
- Hodges, Blair (29 September 2008). "Method and Skepticism (and Quetzalcoatl...)". Life on Gold Plates. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012.
- James, Susan E (Winter 2000). "Some Aspects of the Aztec Religion in the Hopi Kachina Cult". OCLC 15876763.
- OCLC 48249030.
- Lafaye, Jacques (1987). Quetzalcoatl and Guadalupe: The Formation of Mexican National Consciousness, 1531–1813. Translated by Benjamin Keen. Chicago: ISBN 0-226-46788-0.
- Lawrence, D.H. (1925). The Plumed Serpent.
- Locke, Raymond Friday (2001). The Book of the Navajo. Hollaway House.
- OCLC 24703159. (in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl languages)
- Martínez, Jose Luis (1980). "Gerónimo de Mendieta (1980)". Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl. 14.
- ISBN 0-87081-547-4.
- Nicholson, H.B. (2001). The "Return of Quetzalcoatl": did it play a role in the conquest of Mexico?. Lancaster, CA: Labyrinthos.
- Phelan, John Leddy (1970) [1956]. The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World. ISBN 9780520014046.
- Pohl, John M.D. (2003). "Creation Stories, Hero Cults, and Alliance Building: Postclassic Confederacies of Central and Southern Mexico from A.D. 1150–1458". In Michael Smith; Frances Berdan (eds.). The Postclassic Mesoamerican World. University of Utah Press. pp. 61–66.
- Pohl, John M.D. (2016). "Dramatic Performance and the Theater of the State: The Cults of the Divus Triumphator, Parthenope, and Quetzalcoatl". In John M.D. Pohl; Claire L. Lyons (eds.). Altera Roma: Art and Empire from Mérida to México. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. pp. 127–146.
- Pohl, John M.D.; Virginia M. Fields & Victoria L. Lyall (2012). "Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico: Introduction". Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico. Scala Publishers Ltd. pp. 15–49.
- OCLC 51022823.
- S2CID 142522307.
- Ringle, William M.; Tomás Gallareta Negrón; George J. Bey (1998). "The Return of Quetzalcoatl". Ancient Mesoamerica. 9 (2). Cambridge University Press: 183–232. S2CID 162783081.
- OCLC 48579073.
- Taylor, John (1892) [1882]. An Examination into and an Elucidation of the Great Principle of the Mediation and Atonement of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Deseret News. p. 201.
- Townsend, Camilla (2003). "No one said it was Quetzalcoatl: Listening to the Indians in the conquest of Mexico". History Compass. 1 (1): **. .
- Townsend, Camilla (2003). "Burying the White Gods: New perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico". The American Historical Review. 108 (3). .
- Wirth, Diane E (2002). "Quetzalcoatl, the Maya maize god and Jesus Christ". S2CID 193717645. Archived from the originalon 17 February 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
External links
Media related to Quetzalcoatl at Wikimedia Commons
