Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent, precious serpent, precious twin) In Toltec mythology, wind god. He discouraged human sacrifice, recommending flower offerings instead. Historians debate to what degree, or whether at all, these narratives about this legendary Toltec ruler describe historical events. He lived a life of fasting and prayer. A stunning reconstruction of an Aztec headdress, The sunflower - one of Mexicos gifts to the world, The ancient Voladores ceremony is still performed today, In Aztec poetry warriors die - to return again and again, Read a lovely story about Aztec companion spirits, Molluscs were both useful and symbolic in the Mexica empire, An Aztec stone jaguar head lurks in Mexico City, Theres only one Aztec drawing of the (fig) paper tree. After many trials and tribulations he was able to escape Mictlan and carry the bones to Tamoanchan, home of the gods. As a result, the heavens themselves fell, and the sun and stars were alike quenched. The two then realized that their struggle had to end, so they united their efforts and raised again the sky, resting it on two mighty trees, the Tree of the Mirror (tezcaquahuitl) and the Beautiful Great Rose Tree (quetzalveixochitl) on which the concave heavens have ever since securely rested. The earth still had no sun to light it, and the four brothers met again. Quetzalcoatl was often represented as the life-giving wind, with a beak or mask protruding from his face. Several bouquets of offering flowers have been discovered 59 feet below temple of the god Quetzalcatl - a pyramid that still stands in the Mexican ruined city of Teotihuacan 'In total there are. His calendrical name was 9 Wind.Parents: The dual creator Ometeotl (Two Lord), also known as Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl (Two Lord and Two Lady)Siblings: Tezcatlipoca and Camaxtle. Based on Mesoamerican folklore, Quetzalcoatl is the one who created the world and all of mankind, and was regarded as the god of wind and rain. Let your friend be your guide in Quetzalcoatl's space. 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. They may have encouraged the still-popular legend that Moctezuma mistook Cortes for Quetzalcoatl. His people lived well. When Spanish conquistador Hernn Corts arrived in the 16th century, the Aztecs believed that their hero had returned to them as he had promised, a belief that helped seal their doom. Another Quetzalcoatl is a culture hero, a high priest of the city of Tula. For many years he ruled the city and at last began to build a very great temple. In another act as creator, Quetzalcoatl threw his semen at a rock and from it grew a bat that approached the fertility goddess Xochiquetzal (Quetzal Flower), biting her between the legs. Historian Matthew Restall concludes that: The legend of the returning lords, originated during the Spanish-Mexica war in Corts' reworking of Moctezuma's welcome speech, had by the 1550s merged with the Corts-as-Quetzalcoatl legend that the Franciscans had started spreading in the 1530s. Quetzalcatl, Mayan name Kukulcn, (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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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 hero (not the god) Quetzalcoatl either came as a stranger to the Aztecs from an unknown land or was born in Tula, where he reigned as priest-king. A Shakespearean sonnet v a Nahua song-poem No-one surpassed the Mixtecs in the applied arts, Short introduction to Mexica/Aztec religion, Do you know the names of all the Aztec gods?, What happened to the Aztec gods after the Conquest? Album: Esperanto Slang [ALBUM]Track: 11 of 12Title: Quetzalcoatl OfferingArtist: Captain PlanetLabel: Bastard Jazz RecordingsCat#: BJLP06Formats: DigitalDigital Release: 6th October 2014Physical Release: 13th October 2014About This Release:Globe-trotting beatmaker Captain Planet returns to soundsystems worldwide with his hotly anticipated sophomore album Esperanto Slang, a transformative LP which further illuminates the \"Gumbo Funk\" producer's fluency in breaking boundaries between genres and bridging continents through rhythm. album: esperanto slang [album] track: 11 of 12 title: quetzalcoatl offering artist: captain planet label: bastard jazz recordings cat#: bjlp06 formats: digital digital release: 6th october 2014. [need quotation to verify] Codex drawings pictured both Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl wearing an ehcaczcatl around the neck. Much of the idea of Corts being seen as a deity can be traced back to the Florentine Codex written down some 50 years after the conquest. Two groups underscoring the excellence of folkloric styles who are among the seven dance ensembles being presented at this year's Utah Arts Festival are Ballet Folklorico Quetzalcoatl de Utah (June 24, Festival Stage, 6 p.m.) and Carnaval de Barranquilla Utah (June 25, The Round, 12:45 p.m.), which is part of inaugural UAF's Emerging . In the Codex's description of the first meeting between Moctezuma and Corts, 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 Sahagn 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. Physical offerings include copal incense, feathers, Mexican chocolate, and shells. They brought spirits with them: Toltec Quetzalcoatl became Mayan Kukulcan. How can a man remain among them filled as I am with foul sores, his face wrinkled and his aspect loathsome? In his guise as Ehecatl-Quetzlcoatl, Lord of the Winds, he values the breath and air. Why did Quetzalcoatl have so many guises? While not usually feathered, classic Maya serpent iconography seems[original research?] This confederacy engaged in almost seventy-five years of nearly continuous conflict with the Aztec Empire of the Triple Alliance until the arrival of Corts. Some he left in Cholula and others in Cempoal. He was a patron of many crafts such as writing, and metal and stone work and represented workers of these crafts. Quetzalcoatl ( Ketsarukoatoru), often referred to as Lucoa ( Rukoa), is a supporting character of Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon and a main protagonist of Kobayashi-san-chi no Maid Dragon: Lucoa wa Boku no xx Desu. As his body burned his heart rose to heaven, and after four days he became the planet Venus, the Morning Star. On a lone voyage, he went to find the bones of the dead in the underworld, known as Mictlan. He called his attendants and asked that his sister Quetzalpetlatl come to him. As the morning and evening star, Quetzalcatl was the symbol of death and resurrection. He became a tool for evangelists who identified his second-coming from the east with the arrival of the conquistadors. The conflict between the two cultures is told in W. H. Prescotts The History of the Conquest of Mexico and in the novels The Fair God by Lew Wallace and Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger, which was made into a film. His sea voyage to the east should probably be connected with the invasion of Yucatn by the Itz, a tribe that showed strong Toltec features. Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses Written by :Judika Illes Copyright 2009 by Judika Illes. Evidence of such worship comes from the iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs occur frequently. The conch shell is symbolic of the ancestral bones from which Quetzalcoatl created humankind as we know it. quetzalcoatl offerings. Regardless, Quetzalcoatl was ashamed and devastated. yourself as you are seen by others. And with that he handed him the mirror. He ground the bones and mixed them with his blood, creating the first humans of the 5th (and current) sun. Quetzalcoatl said that the heavens and the stars had already warned him that after four years he must leave, and he would therefore obey. Quetzalcatl became the god of the morning and evening star, and his temple was the centre of ceremonial life in Tula. Legend says that Ce Acatl Topiltzin and the Toltecs left Tula after being tricked and shamed by Quetzalcoatls brother, the deity Tezcatlipoca. Sahagn (Book III, chapter III) also made special mention of their devotion to him. [18][need quotation to verify]. His temple at Teotihuacn dates to the third century CE. [38] Some Franciscans at this time held millennarian beliefs[39] and some of them believed that Corts' coming to the New World ushered in the final era of evangelization before the coming of the millennium. Quetzalcoatl offering is a painting by Michael Carrizosa which was uploaded on July 16th, 2019. Bird, Snake, Dog, Wind, Priest, Roadsweeper even Planet! He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge. means of adding another half to the sun. Quetzalcoatl gave her some of the medicine. At last he reached Tlapallan, and on the day he arrived he fell sick and died. Codex Magliabechiano, fol.61r(Click on image to enlarge), Pic 6: Designs for Quechtin, or blankets. Tezcatlipoca, force of chaos, arrived to shake things up. He is also known for structuring art and culture and was looked upon as the organizer of society. What does he call my own flesh? He suffered a crisis of faith and felt he must leave. Updates? in the Teotihuacan civilization, but . Ruler of the. There is another, better-known account in the Annals of Cuauhtitlan. I shall be seen no more: I shall no longer frighten my people. But Tezcatlipoca said he could conceal the defects on Quetzalcoatls face. After some time Quetzalcoatl took a stick and with a blow of it knocked Tezcatlipoca from the sky into the waters. He then made himself the sun. No credit card needed. Entwined in the annals of history, both god and historical figure became one. [24], According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presided over one of the four cardinal directions. In the Maya area he was approximately equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, names that also roughly translate as "feathered serpent" in different Mayan languages. Since the sixteenth century, it has been widely held that the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II initially believed the landing of Hernn Corts in 1519 to be Quetzalcoatl's return. [19] The most important center was Cholula, where the world's largest pyramid was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl-worship. Codex Fjervary Mayer, fol.35(Click on image to enlarge), Pic 12: Quetzalcoatl (upper right). In Nhuatl, the word Xolotl was often associated with the concept of twins and physical deformity, so statues of the deity often portray a dog with twin heads, or ragged ears and running sores. He said: We will give him a drink to dull his reason, and we will show him his own face in a mirror, and surely he will be lost. Then Tezcatlipoca brewed an intoxicating drink, the pulque, and taking a mirror he wrapped it in a rabbit skin and went to Quetzalcoatls house. In the Legend of the Suns, their battles saw them topple each other as regents of individual worlds. 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. Children born during 1 Reed were thought to be ill-fortuned, and the calendar foretold that all they gained in life would be taken by the wind (Sahagn, book III, chapter VIII). You can see from the mural pictured here (pic 1) that he was represented in Cacaxtla (east of Mexico City) around 600 AD and Teotihuacan around 200 AD (pic 2). Carrasco's work was revised in 2000, and the new edition provides a valuable overview of the controversy about Cortes and Quetzalcoatl. He lived a life of fasting and prayer. The business-strike 5 Pesos featuring the stone head of Quetzalcoatl was a mass-production issue that was produced from 1980 until 1985. Did Motecuhzoma really think Corts was a god? Quetzalcoatl ground up those bones like corn, mixing the flour-like powder with his own blood to harvest a new crop of people. 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). 22(Click on image to enlarge), Pic 8: Bust of Quetzalcoatl (R), British Museum; drawing of Quetzalcoatl-Ehcatl (R) based on the Codex Borbonicus(Click on image to enlarge), Pic 9: Quetzalcoatl-Tlahuizpantecuhtli, god of Venus. Look now at your flesh; know yourself; see
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