Quetzalcoatl

Type: Amphiptere  

Origin: Quetzalcoatl was adored first in Yucatan then in theToltec and Aztec empires in what is today Mexico.

Quetzalcoatl was the child of the virgin Chimalman and the god Citlallatonac ("the morning"). He was the priest-king of Tula, the City of the Sun. Scientists think that the myth of Quetzalcoatl started with a bird, the Quetzal, a couroucou which has a long trail of multicolored feathers. This bright green bird has tail feathers of over two feet long, and when it flies, the bird looks like a shimmering serpent.   

Description: a winged and feathered multi-colored serpent dragon. Quetzalcoatl sometimes appeared before his subjects arched across the sky, an incomparable sight with the serpent’s iridescent body gleaming in the sunlight. At other times when he wanted to mingle with mortals unrecognized, he appeared as an old man with a white beard and broken walking stick or as a young man in a feathered cloak.

Myth :Quetzalcoatl came forth from within the serpent just as the Morning Star rose to herald the break of day and, by causing the sun to rise in the morning, he was worshipped by the Toltec Mexicans as the one who brought fertility to the land and light to his people. He taught them the art of agriculture,  including the cultivation of the maize plant, how to dig into the earth to mine gold and precious stones, the secrets of the zodiac, and the movements of the planets and the stellar system. He was the inspiration behind poetry, learning and all works of art from the simplest sketch to the most elaborate piece of jewellery.

Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca had originally created the world out of the goddess Tlalteutli by ripping her apart and fashioning the world from her pieces. She had to be appeased by human sacrifice in order to continu giving the corn that sustained life.

There is also a myth in which Quetzalcoatl traveled to the underworld with his dog-headed brother Xolotl to steal bones, from which humanity was recreated after its destruction .

His brother, Tezcatlipoca, engineered his downfall by showing Quetzalcoatl his old, wrinkled face in the mirror. Quetzalcoatl, overcome with sadness, got drunk and slept with his sister, the Moon Goddess Tlazoteotl, thereby losing his purity. In despair, he left Tula and destroyed it. He had his attendants build a funeral pyre, which he threw himself into and was consumed. Eight days later, he was reborn as the planet Venus. He rules over the underground land where the sun hides at night, until the day that he will return and restore the city of Tula.

The aztecs minsinterpreted the prophecy and welcomed instead Cortes and the conquistadors in 1519. The bloody spanish fanatics eventually exterminated the Aztecs and their culture.