QUETZALCOATL. Quetza Icoatl, which means " Feathered Serpent," was one of the deities of the ancient Mexicans. He was not originally a god of the Aztecs, but was adopted by them from the Toltecs, whom they drove out. His worship was more humane than that of the Aztec gods, Huitzilopochtli (q.v.) and Tezcatlipoca.
(q.v.). And legend relates that it was resented and resisted by Tezcntlipoca. The myth represents that Quetzalcoatl suffered a kind of persecution. " It tells that he was once high-priest at Tula, in Anahuac, where, ever clothed in white, he founded a cultus, and gave beneficent laws to men, teaching them also the arts of agriculture, metal-work, stone-cutting, and civil govern ment; the while a king named Huemac held with him the secular rule. and framed the law book of the nation. But the God Tezcatlipoea came to earth in the guise of a young merchant, who deceived the king's daughter, and again in the guise of an old man, who persuaded Quetzalcoatl to drink a mystic drink, Whereupon he was seized with an irresistible impulse to wander away " (J. M. Robertson). Quetzalcoatl wandered about for a time, and at length disappeared. His worshippers expected him to return, and when Cortes came, the appearance of the white man was regarded by the Aztecs as a fulfil ment of their expectation. According to Robertson. Quetzalcoatl was god of the air. D. Drinton and A.
Reville see iu him the east-wind which brings the bene ficent rain, but is driven away for a time and then again returns. Lewis Spence, on the other hand, points out that Quetzalcoatl was " Lord of the Dawn." He holds him to have been a culture-god. It is probable, he thinks, that " Quetzalcoatl was one of those early introducers of culture who sooner or later find a place among the deities of the nation they have assisted in its early struggles towards civilisation. By the strife between Tezcatlipoea and Quetzalcoatl is typified the struggle between culture and barbarism." The wor shippers of Quetzalcoatl did not approve of human sacri fice. E. B. Ty]or thinks too that Quetzalcoatl was a real, and not a mythical, personage. Lewis Spence points out that he is represented sometimes as quite European in appearance, with fair beard, blue eyes, and white com plexion. To J. M. Robertson, who is fond of finding parallels to a Christian Christ who, according to him. never existed, Quetzalcoatl is not a man who was con verted into a god. but a god who was converted into a man : he is the " Mexican White Christ." See Lewis Spence; J. M. Robertson, "The Religions of Ancient Mexico " in R.S.IV.: Reinach, O.; J. M. Robertson, P.C.