Quetzalcoatl Trivia
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50 free Quetzalcoatl trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Quetzalcoatl trivia quiz covers the Feathered Serpent of Mesoamerica from the Olmec stela of 900 BC to the pterosaur named after him in 1975. It starts with what the name means, which forces and crafts the god ruled over, the conch-shell wind jewel he wears, and the animals that stood for him. It then follows the myths: the four accounts of his birth, the four Tezcatlipocas of the cardinal directions, the descent into Mictlan to make humanity from old bones and his own blood, the gift of maize and cacao, and the night of pulque with his sister that ended in a stone chest and a funeral pyre. The second half is places, cousins and controversies. Teotihuacan's temple and its sacrificial burials, Cholula's pyramid, Xochicalco's day sign 9 Wind, the Maya Kukulkan and the shadow serpent at Chichen Itza, the twin Xolotl and the axolotl, the Toltec ruler Ce Acatl Topiltzin, the year One Reed, and the long argument over whether Moctezuma really greeted Cortés as a returning god. It ends with Thomas the Apostle, the Book of Mormon, the resplendent quetzal on Guatemala's flag and Quetzalcoatlus of Texas. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Quetzalcoatl and the related deities, sites and creatures, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Toltec legend, the priest-king Quetzalcoatl refused to offer his gods what?
Human victims
Human victims: as priest-king of Tula he is said to have offered only snakes, birds and butterflies, a striking stand in a world where sacrifice was the norm.
Q 02Aztec temples to Quetzalcoatl in his wind-god guise were built in what unusual shape?
Round
Round: circular walls were thought to please the wind god because they gave the wind no sharp corners to strike, and his temple in Tenochtitlan was built that way.
Q 03Quetzalcoatl was the patron god of which Aztec group?
The priesthood
The priesthood: as god of learning he was honoured in the calmecac, the temple schools where noble boys trained for the priesthood, and the school in Tenochtitlan was dedicated to him.
Q 04Quetzalcoatl's 'wind jewel' pendant was a cross-section sliced from what?
A conch shell
A conch shell: sliced across to show its spiral, the pendant hangs on his chest in most images, and scholars have read it as a sign of whirling wind or of new life.
Q 05Aztec tradition credited Quetzalcoatl with inventing books and what else?
The calendar
The calendar: he was the god of learning, and in the schools where he was honoured noble boys were drilled in reading, writing and the count of days.
Q 06Besides his plumed-snake form, Quetzalcoatl was often pictured as a man with what feature?
A beard
A beard: he was often drawn as a bearded man, which helped later writers cast the bearded Cortés as the god come back, a tale many historians now doubt.
Q 07The world's largest pyramid by volume, raised in Mexico to Quetzalcoatl, now has what standing on its summit?
A Catholic church
A Catholic church: the mound was so overgrown when the Spanish arrived that they are said to have taken it for a hill, and the chapel they built on top still stands.
Q 08The oldest known carving of a feathered serpent, at La Venta on Mexico's Gulf coast, was made by which people?
The Olmec
The Olmec: their crested rattlesnake rearing behind a seated man at La Venta began an image that Teotihuacan, the Toltec and the Aztecs would each inherit in turn.
Q 09Which city's great temple of Quetzalcoatl drew pilgrims in the centuries before the Spanish arrived?
Cholula
Cholula: pilgrims had come to his temple there since about 1200, and Cortés's men killed thousands in the city on their march inland to the Aztec capital.
Q 10What did the Maya call their equivalent of Quetzalcoatl?
Kukulkan
Kukulkan: Maya writers also gave the name to a lord said to have come to rule Chichen Itza, so god and man blurred, while the K'iche' Maya called their plumed creator Gukumatz.
Q 11At Chichen Itza's El Castillo, a serpent of shadow seems to slither down the stairs at which points in the year?
The equinoxes
The equinoxes: late-afternoon sun throws triangles of shadow down the north stair to a carved snake's head at its foot, though the effect lasts for weeks and may not be by design.
Q 12Counting the top platform as a final step, El Castillo's four stairways add up to what number?
365
365: with about 91 steps on each stairway and the platform as the last, the pyramid counts out the days of the solar year.
Q 13After Chichen Itza declined, which city became the new centre of the feathered-serpent cult?
Mayapan
Mayapan: its builders copied Chichen Itza, serpent columns and all, and its main pyramid, also called the Castillo, is a rougher imitation of the famous one.
Q 21Which crop was Quetzalcoatl said to have given to humanity?
Maize
Maize: in the myth he spotted an ant carrying a kernel, turned himself into an ant as well, and followed it into the mountain where the grain lay hidden.
Q 22Which plant, whose seeds the Aztecs spent as money, was held to be Quetzalcoatl's gift?
Cacao
Cacao: the beans bought food and goods, and the chocolate made from them was no sweet but a bitter, frothy drink, often spiced with chilli and mostly kept for the upper classes.
Q 23In the Codex Chimalpopoca, what did Tezcatlipoca trick Quetzalcoatl into drinking?
Pulque
Pulque: the fermented agave sap left him drunk enough to break his vows with his priestess sister, and in shame he abandoned his city of Tula.
Q 14Which god was Quetzalcoatl's twin and his companion in the underworld?
Xolotl
Xolotl: god of twins and of the misshapen, he is said to have gone down to the land of the dead with Quetzalcoatl to help bring back the bones of humankind.
Q 15Quetzalcoatl's twin was commonly depicted with the head of which animal?
A dog
A dog: the Aztecs believed dogs guided their dead masters through the underworld and across its river, and dog remains have turned up in their burials.
Q 16In the myth of the four Tezcatlipocas, brother gods of four colours, which colour was Quetzalcoatl?
White
White: the creator pair set four sons over the four directions, and he took the white west while the black north went to Tezcatlipoca himself, his lifelong rival.
Q 17What does the name Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl's great rival, mean?
Smoking mirror
Smoking mirror: he was shown with a mirror of black obsidian where one foot should be, and in such a mirror he was said to see everything that went on in the world.
Q 18Which virgin is said to have conceived Quetzalcoatl, in one story by swallowing an emerald?
Chimalman
Chimalman: in another telling the hunter god Mixcoatl shot arrows at her and she caught every one in her bare hand, and the two later married.
Q 19To bring the stolen bones to life as the people of the fifth sun, Quetzalcoatl added what?
His own blood
His own blood: he bled himself over the crushed bones, and because they had broken in a fall on the way out, people were said to come in different sizes.
Q 20What is the name of the Aztec underworld from which Quetzalcoatl retrieved the bones?
Mictlan
Mictlan: in the myth its lord would give up the bones only if Quetzalcoatl sounded a trumpet that had no holes, so he had worms bore it and set bees buzzing inside.
Q 24After burning himself on a pyre, what was Quetzalcoatl said to become?
The morning star
The morning star: he rose as Venus, the legend says, and because that planet sinks from view and then comes back, he stood for death and resurrection.
Q 25In one Aztec creation story, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca became giant snakes and tore a sea monster in two to make what?
Earth and sky
Earth and sky: the torn monster lived on, the story goes, and cried out for human blood in return, which is one way the Aztecs explained the need for sacrifice.
Q 26Later chronicles merged the god Quetzalcoatl with which legendary Toltec priest-king of Tula?
Ce Acatl Topiltzin
Ce Acatl Topiltzin: rulers and high priests often took their patron god's name, so tales of the Toltec king and of the god he served ran together, and historians still argue over how much is real.
Q 27In the Aztec story of earlier worlds, the age called the Wind Sun ended in hurricanes and its people became what?
Monkeys
Monkeys: that age belonged to Quetzalcoatl in his guise as the wind, and the spider monkey, quick as a gust, stayed one of his animals.
Q 28Which Aztec year, tied to Quetzalcoatl, fell in 1519 when Cortés landed?
One Reed
One Reed: the god himself bore that date as a name, and later writers made much of the match, claiming the emperor feared the strangers were Quetzalcoatl come home.
Q 29Which Aztec emperor supposedly took Cortés for the returning Quetzalcoatl?
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma II: no account free of Spanish influence tells the tale, and many historians now think it was made up afterwards to explain how so few men toppled an empire.
Q 30Which book, compiled by a friar from Nahua accounts, records the welcome speech said to hail Cortés as a god?
The Florentine Codex
The Florentine Codex: Bernardino de Sahagún's Nahua informants set the speech down decades after the event, and some historians think its courtly politeness was misread as surrender.