50 Fun Facts About Quetzalcoatl

According to Ixtlilxóchitl, what was the allegorical meaning of the name Quetzalcoatl?

Literally the Nahuatl name means 'serpent of precious feathers'; the 17th-century historian was a descendant of Aztec royalty.

Which planet was Quetzalcoatl associated with?

As Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, lord of the star of the dawn, he was the planet at sunrise; his twin was its evening aspect.

Quetzalcoatl was the patron god of which Aztec group?

The two most important priests of the Templo Mayor were titled Quetzalcoatl Tlamacazqui.

What was the ehecacozcatl that Quetzalcoatl wears around his neck?

The spiral cross-section may have symbolised hurricanes, dust devils and whirlpools; rulers were buried wearing them.

In his form as Ehecatl, Quetzalcoatl was the god of what?

In that aspect he is represented by spider monkeys and ducks.

In his aspect as the dawn star, Quetzalcoatl was depicted as which bird?

The Mazatec astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpanteuctli, also linked to Venus, is closely related.

When is the earliest known worship of a Feathered Serpent documented at Teotihuacan?

The cult spread across Mesoamerica by the Late Classic period of 600 to 900 AD.

The earliest depiction of the deity, around 900 BC, is on a stela at which Olmec site?

Stela 19 shows a serpent rising behind a figure apparently engaged in a shamanic ritual.

Which city was the main centre of Quetzalcoatl worship in the Postclassic period?

The world's largest pyramid there was dedicated to him; the Spaniards compared the pilgrimage centre to Rome and Mecca.

What did the Maya call their equivalent of Quetzalcoatl?

The K'iche' name Gukumatz also translates roughly as feathered serpent.

What happens at El Castillo, Chichen Itza, around the equinoxes?

The late-afternoon sun casts triangular shadows on the northwest balustrade; whether it was designed is uncertain.

How many steps does El Castillo have on each of its four sides?

With the temple platform counted as one more, the total comes to 365, one for each day of the year.

Which Maya city became the centre of the revived feathered-serpent cult after Chichen Itza?

Its temples were decorated with feathered-serpent columns.

Who was Quetzalcoatl's twin, the evening star?

The dog-headed psychopomp is also represented by Venus and lends his name to the axolotl.

Quetzalcoatl's twin was commonly depicted with the head of which animal?

As a psychopomp he guided the dead; the salamander called the axolotl is named after him.

In the myth of the four Tezcatlipocas, which direction and colour were his?

Huitzilopochtli was the blue south, Xipe Totec the red east and Tezcatlipoca himself the black north.

What does the name Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl's great rival, mean?

He was the god of night, sorcery, judgment and the Earth.

Which virgin is said to have conceived Quetzalcoatl, in one story by swallowing an emerald?

Other tales say Ometeotl appeared to her in a dream or that Mixcoatl's arrow struck her womb.

From what did Quetzalcoatl create the people of the fifth sun?

He fetched the bones from the underworld with Cihuacoatl's help and bled from his earlobes, calves, tongue and penis.

What is the name of the Aztec underworld from which Quetzalcoatl retrieved the bones?

Most Mesoamerican beliefs held that ours is the fifth sun, the earlier four destroyed by flood, fire and the like.

Which crop was Quetzalcoatl said to have given to humanity?

He was also credited with inventing books and the calendar.

Which plant did Quetzalcoatl bring from a sacred mountain to the Toltecs?

He taught the women how to make the traditional chocolate drink.

In the Codex Chimalpopoca, what did Tezcatlipoca trick Quetzalcoatl into drinking?

Drunk, he cavorted with his celibate priestess sister Quetzalpetlatl; the next morning he burned himself in a stone chest.

After his self-immolation, what did Quetzalcoatl's heart become?

His ashes rose into the sky first, then his heart followed.

Which mushrooms may have been ingested in the worship of Quetzalcoatl?

The hallucinogenic mushrooms were considered sacred.

With which Toltec ruler of Tollan did post-conquest records conflate Quetzalcoatl?

The name means Our Prince One-Reed; historians debate whether the tales describe real events.

In which century did Aztec tradition place the Toltec ruler Our Prince One-Reed?

The Aztecs saw the Toltecs as their ruling predecessors on the central plateau.

Quetzalcoatl's year Ce Acatl, One Reed, matched which year of the European calendar?

That coincidence fed the later story that Cortés was taken for the returning god.

Which Aztec emperor supposedly took Cortés for the returning Quetzalcoatl?

Most modern scholars regard the story as a post-conquest myth.

Which text, written 50 years after the conquest, is the main source for the Cortés-as-god idea?

Bernardino de Sahagún's informants recorded Moctezuma's flowery welcome speech.

What does Matthew Restall suggest the emperor's polite offer of his throne may have meant?

In Aztec culture, politeness was a way to show superiority; the Nahuatl oratory is still poorly understood.

Which apostle did some Franciscans identify with the original Quetzalcoatl?

They believed he had preached beyond the Ganges and that Mesoamerica had been evangelised before.

Some Latter Day Saints have identified Quetzalcoatl with whom?

LDS president John Taylor wrote in 1892 that the two must be the same being; the church does not teach it as doctrine.

A 2012 exhibition on the god's legacy was shown at museums in which two US cities?

The Children of the Plumed Serpent revealed a confederacy of Nahuas, Mixtecs and Zapotecs centred on Cholula.

Which pterosaur was named after Quetzalcoatl in 1975?

Douglas Lawson described it from wing fragments found in Texas in 1971; it may be the largest flying animal ever.

The resplendent quetzal is the national animal of which country?

It appears on the flag and coat of arms and gives its name to the currency.

Which 1982 film fictionalised Quetzalcoatl as a monster terrorising New York City?

Tony Shearer's 1971 book Lord of the Dawn had earlier sent New Age followers to Chichen Itza at the solstice.

How many sacrificial burials were found at Teotihuacan's Temple of the Feathered Serpent?

They date to between 150 and 200 CE and are thought to have marked the temple's construction and dedication.

At Xochicalco the feathered serpent accompanies which day sign?

The date is linked with fertility, Venus and war and recurs with Quetzalcoatl across Mesoamerica.

According to Karl Taube, what did the feathered serpent at Teotihuacan symbolise?

Enrique Florescano instead sees him as one of a triad of agricultural deities alongside Tlaloc and the Goddess of the Cave.

Why was the feathered serpent linked to the planet he shares with his twin?

To the Maya and Teotihuacan, Venus was also symbolically connected with warfare.

David Carrasco argued the deity's chief role across Mesoamerica was as what?

He drew on iconography from Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Chichen Itza, Tula and Tenochtitlan.

Among the Toltecs, the name Quetzalcoatl was also used as what?

It was also linked with rulership and priestly office more generally.

Which three centres took up the feathered-serpent cult after Teotihuacan fell around 600 AD?

The images then spread to Chichen Itza, El Tajín and across the Maya area in the epi-classic period.

Which two gods besides Quetzalcoatl were also represented by the same planet?

Tlaloc was his ally and the god of rain; Xolotl his twin.

How did the earliest depictions of the feathered serpent differ from the later Nahua images?

The Classic Maya were already adding human features such as a beard.

Which goddess, mother of four hundred star-children, bore Quetzalcoatl in one account?

Her four hundred children formed the Milky Way.

Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl is usually shown wearing what distinctive item?

The mask marks his aspect as the wind god.

Who bore the title Quetzalcoatl Tlamacazqui in Tenochtitlan?

Among the Aztecs the god's name doubled as a priestly title.

The Spaniards compared the god's main pilgrimage centre to which two cities?

The cult of the god united a confederacy of Eastern Nahuas, Mixtecs and Zapotecs without dominating them militarily.