Quetzalcoatl was also the patron god of arts and knowledge.
Sein Bruder und Gegner war Tezcatlipoca. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. As the morning star, he was known by the title Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, meaning "lord of the star of the dawn". https://www.ancient.eu/Quetzalcoatl/. According to legend, the Aztec people initially only had access to roots and wild game. [13] In Mazatec legends the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, who is also represented by Venus, bears a close relationship with Quetzalcoatl.[14].
The existence of such worship can be seen through studies of the iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs are frequent. Ashamed of what he had done, Topilitzin-Quetzalcoatl departed Tula and set out for the sea. In the 16th century, Spaniards conquered the Aztec Empire.
His older brothers were Xipe Totec and Tezcatlipoca while his younger brother was Huitzilopochtli.
Evan Meehan, “Quetzalcoatl,” Mythopedia, accessed , https://mythopedia.com/aztec-mythology/gods/quetzalcoatl/.
After his eventual escape, Quetzalcoatl combined the now slightly shuffled bones with his blood and corn to create the first humans of the fifth age.6 The Aztecs used this allegory to explain why people came in all different heights. He is the god intelligence and self-reflection, a patron of priests. [34] 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. After waiting for 600 years this aged couple instructed Quetzalcóatl to create the world. The famed Aztec Feathered Serpent God. The pressure of the northern immigrants brought about a social and religious revolution, with a military ruling class seizing power from the priests. Each of these four sons presides over one of the four cardinal directions. As an ever-growing archive, our mission is to catalog the world’s mythology on the web for all to enjoy. There are several stories about the birth of Quetzalcoatl. The belief that he would return from the east in a One Reed year led the Aztec sovereign Montezuma II to regard the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés and his comrades as divine envoys, because 1519, the year in which they landed on the Mexican Gulf coast, was a One Reed year. Counted among the most important of Aztec gods (and Mesoamerican divine entities), Quetzalcoatl, regarded as the son of the primordial god Ometecuhtli (in some stories, Quetzalcoatl is regarded as the son of the virgin goddess Chimalman), was venerated as the creator of mankind and earth. "[4], The earliest known documentation of the worship of a Feathered Serpent occurs in Teotihuacan in the first century BC or first century AD.
But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life and ministry.
In order to do this, Quetzalcoatl had to sneak into the underworld of Mictlan and trick Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, the Lord and Lady of Death, into giving him the bones they guarded. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethnopolitical groups in Mesoamerican history.
The pair of gods had created the earth and the sky when they transformed themselves into huge snakes and ripped in two the female reptilian monster known as Tlaltcuhtli (or Cipactli), one part becoming the earth and the other the sky. Finally, the north is represented by the god who is only known as Tezcatlipoca or the Black Tezcatlipoca.
Accessed on . Quetzalcóatl, Mayan name Kukulcán, (from Nahuatl quetzalli, “tail feather of the quetzal bird [Pharomachrus mocinno],” and coatl, “snake”), the Feathered Serpent, one of the major deities of the ancient Mexican pantheon.
Quetzalcoatl and either Huitzilopochtli or Tezcatlipoca (depending upon the myth) were responsible for the creation of the cosmos. Quetzalcoatl’s many attributes and functions are as numerous as his birth stories.
Franciscans such as Toribio de Benavente "Motolinia" saw elements of Christianity in the pre-Columbian religions and therefore believed that Mesoamerica had been evangelized before, possibly by Thomas the Apostle, who, according to legend, had "gone to preach beyond the Ganges". 3.1 Environment; 4 History. He was also associated with the creation of mankind, so he also possibly occupied the role of creator in the Aztec mythology. in History from Georgia State University.
The Aztec believed that Tezcatlipoca ruled of the fifth age, and while they thought that the fifth sun was the last sun, it was not a foregone conclusion that Tezcatlipoca would remain in charge. “Quetzalcoatl.” Mythopedia, https://mythopedia.com/aztec-mythology/gods/quetzalcoatl/. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. After a long and difficult journey, Quetzalcoatl reached the maize and brought a kernel back to the Aztec people.7, Other versions of the legend featured Quetzalcoatl discovering a great mountain of seeds that he could not move by himself. Ancient History Encyclopedia.