Quetzalcóatl (mythology)

Author: Traditional Aztec

Time Period: 501 CE–1000 CE

Country or Culture: Mexico

Genre: Myth

Overview

When Aztec mythology was chronicled in written accounts during the sixteenth century, it offered a diverse spiritual and religious tradition, populated by a range of deities and competing beliefs. It was a mythology carried forth by visual art and oral narratives, morphing from city to city and from one century to the next. Within all of this, the god Quetzalcóatl was one of several figures who consistently arose as an important and powerful founder, even as the specifics of his representation evolved over time. As often as not, however, the roots of the Aztec Quetzalcóatl were grounded in Toltec culture. The Toltecs were seen as the spiritual predecessors of Aztec civilization, having previously occupied the land on which Aztec cities were to one day flourish. Aztec society idealized Toltec life, with perhaps the most dramatic idealization coming through the story of Quetzalcóatl and his founding of the city of Tollán.

In the myth, Quetzalcóatl is a powerful god who assumes the role of founder and leader of Tollán. Prior to his rule, the people of Tollán had lived in the wilderness, scrounging for food and barely supporting themselves. When he arrives, he fetches the maize of the mountains for them, and with this agricultural knowledge, they are able to build the city-state. There, Quetzalcóatl continues to impart cultural lessons, sharing the knowledge of arts and crafts that allows the city to thrive, utopian in its peace and prosperity. This continues for many years until the arrival of Tezcatlipoca, a god of war and destruction. Tezcatlipoca tricks Quetzalcóatl and drives him from the city, ending the blessed period of an idealized Tollán and initiating a period of warfare and sacrifice. Quetzalcóatl, exiled from his own city, goes on a long journey to the sea, promising to return one day and to reestablish the paradise that Tollán offered.

Tollán was a real Toltec city during the tenth century, and its peaceful ruler, Topiltzin, assumed the name of Quetzalcóatl during his legendary reign. The myths of Quetzalcóatl and of Tezcatlipoca were popular before Topiltzin’s rule, but for Aztec civilization, the line between this historical fact and the ancient myths often blurred. The centuries that mark the height of Aztec culture were a time when warfare and violent sacrifice defined the dominant cities. In this civilization, Quetzalcóatl and Topiltzin were both powerful myths, suggesting that the impossible dream of peace might have one day been made real. In the years following the invasion by the Spanish and the colonization of Mesoamerica, the promise of Quetzalcóatl gained even greater prominence, becoming a favorite myth among writers and artists in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Quetzalcóatl has become the most recognizable Aztec deity, his mythology more familiar to modern audiences than that of any other Aztec figure. Both real and imagined, historically present and remembered through fantasy, Quetzalcóatl offers an important point of access to the complex and varied spiritual traditions of the ancient Aztecs.

Summary

The god Quetzalcóatl lives in the great city of Tollán. There, he teaches the people all manner of crafts that had previously been unknown, including the building of statues, the painting of symbols into books, and astrology. The only craft that Quetzalcóatl does not teach is the craft of war. Because of this, Tollán is a peaceful place, and the people there make their offerings to Quetzalcóatl with bread and perfumes rather than sacrificing human lives, as is the practice in other cities.

Quetzalcóatl himself lives in a splendid house, built out of precious metals with chambers of gold, emerald, seashell, and jasper. About the house, birds chirp melodious songs. Outside the house grows gigantic maize, so big that the people of Tollán are never hungry. Alongside the maize grow giant pumpkins and cotton in splendid colors so that the people of Tollán never even have to dye it. The maize itself had not always been there but was brought by Quetzalcóatl years before. Before that, people knew the grain to be deep in the mountains, and other gods had even tried to fetch it for them. None succeeded until Quetzalcóatl took the form of a black ant in order to find it, laboring hard to bring the grain back to the people. With this grain, they were able to plant their first crops, build their city, and learn their first crafts. It is because of this that the people honor Quetzalcóatl.

“‘One has come who will drive me hence; perhaps it were better that I went before he drives me, and drank from a fountain in the Land of the Sun, whence I may return, young as a boy.’ So he [Quetzalcóatl] said, and his servants saw him burn down his house of silver with its green precious stones and its thatch of bright plumage, and its door-posts of white and red shells.”

The people live in peace until one day Tezcatlipoca arrives at the city, lowering himself down upon them with spider webs. Tezcatlipoca is a wicked god who spends his time spreading deceit and warfare among humans. As he descends, Tezcatlipoca blows a freezing breath across the city, killing all the flowers in it. When Quetzalcóatl feels this wind, he knows that someone is coming to drive him out of the city. Instead of staying and resisting, he decides to leave for the Land of the Sun, where he can drink from a fountain of youth. As he burns down his home in Tollán and sends away his beautiful birds, he makes a promise to return one day as a young man and to then protect his people.

Before Quetzalcóatl can leave, however, Tezcatlipoca challenges him to a ball game. While they play with all of the city watching, Tezcatlipoca transforms himself into a jaguar and attacks Quetzalcóatl, humiliating him. Quetzalcóatl has no choice but to flee from the city, unable as he is to overpower the fierce jaguar god. As Quetzalcóatl runs, the magical dwarfs who often accompany him join by his side, allowing him to run even faster. Eventually, deep in the mountains, he collapses under a tree. Resting there, he looks into a mirror and sees that he is an old man, unable to defend himself or his city. He tosses the mirror aside in frustration and angrily throws rocks at the tree that shelters him.

As Quetzalcóatl continues his journey, his dwarfs kept him company, playing music in an attempt to lift his spirits. However, he soon grows weary again, collapsing by a creek. Looking down upon his distant city, he weeps. Both his tears and his wringing hands permanently imprint the stones there. Rising and continuing on his way again, he meets some of the men from Tollán on the path, and he teaches them new crafts, revealing the last skills that he had kept secret from them. Still, he keeps on, abandoning his precious gems into a fountain where they rest to this day. He eventually crosses mountains of snow and fire so intense that his companions all die. Totally alone, he composes a sad song in their memory.

Finally, Quetzalcóatl comes down from the mountain and arrives at the sea. Some people believe that at the shore he crafts a raft out of snakes and, climbing onto the raft, sails away toward the sunset. On this journey, he eventually reaches the Country of the Sun, where he drinks the Water of Immortality, which returns him to his youthful state of strength and power. As such, he will someday return to challenge Tezcatlipoca, reclaiming his city. Others, however, say that at the shore he throws down his bright robe and colorful mask, heaving himself into a fire so that he is consumed into ashes. Many birds fly out of those ashes, and his heart rises into the sky, becoming the Morning Star. These people say that Quetzalcóatl is now the Lord of the Dawn.

Bibliography

Carrasco, David. Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1982. Print.

Colum, Padraic. “Quetzalcoatl.” Myths of the World. New York: Grosset, 1930. 298–300. Print.

Florescano, Enrique. The Myth of Quetzalcoatl. Trans. Lysa Hochroth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1999. Print.

Harris, Wilson. “Quetzalcoatl and the Smoking Mirror (Reflections on Originality and Tradition).” Review of Contemporary Fiction 17.2 (1997): 12. Print.

Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. Print.

Lafaye, Jacques. Quetzalcóatl and Guadalupe: The Formation of Mexican National Consciousness. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1976. Print.

Lawrence, D. H. “Quetzalcoatl Looks Down on Mexico.” Selected Poems. Ed. Kenneth Rexroth. New York: Viking, 1959. 122–25. Print.