Myths and Legends:Journeys Through Time
Quetzalcoatl
If you dig through all of the mythologies out there, sooner or later you start to realize that there are many similarities between the gods and goddess. In ever mythology there is at least one head honcho…Greek mythology has Zues, the Romans have Jupiter, Egyptian mythology has Ra (or Osiris, sometimes Set depending on which mythos you’re looking at), Norse mythology has Odin, Indian mythology has Shiva etc. These guys always have a wife who is a diety in her own right (Hera, Juno, Isis, Frieda, Shakti etc) and there is always one very well known god or demi-god; Heracles, Persues, Horus, Kali-ma and so on. There are also the villianous gods or goddess; Pluto/Hades, Yama, Set etc. Every culture in the world has their own mythology, their own pantheon of deities that they prayed to or continue to pray to in order to get them through day to day living. Some cultures started out believing in and praying to multiple dieties and slowly over time narrowed it down to one important deity, whereas some cultures still believe in all of the deities…but only pray or ask favors of the most important deities, or deity they happen to need the most at that moment. Even within the same culture…the mythologies are different. Similar…but wholly different on their own. This is shown to especially be true in the Southern American or Mesoamerican culture. The Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs and Nahua all have very similary mythology. Their most important and well known figure is Quetzalcoatl (pronounced ket-sahl-koh-aht-l or ketsallcoahtull). Translated it means feathered serpent and there is an actual bird called the Resplendant Quezatl bird which is associated with the snake god, viewed as a god of the air, symbolized air and light and was with Quetzalcoatl and who’s tail feathers…which are very long, vibrant green and a symbol of spring growth, were plucked and used in headdresses…often to depict Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl himself was the creator god and god of wind. Descriptions of Quezatlcoatl vary from a pale skinned man with golden hair, an old or young man with grey hair or to the Aztecs…a dragon of sorts. All across the Mesoamerican mythologies, the story of Quetzalcoatl differs greatly. Some versions agree on what his job was, some agree on what he looked like and all pretty much agree that he existed, had a twin brother and was the son of the top god Ometecuhtli. Quetzalcoatl also played a great role in history when Hernan Cortes conquered South America and over took the Aztecs and Mayans. Initially the history states that the Aztec king Moctezuma II believed Cortes to be a reincartion or physical appearance of Quezaltcoatl due to his dark/golden hair and pale skin. However in recent years, this idea has come under debate as when it comes to written history…history in general…it’s written by whoemever won the war. All in all though, mythology, as diverse as it is….all mythologies have many, many similarities…they’re just different enough to make a person go “Hm…I didn’t know that!”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resplendent_Quetzal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Pr-Sa/Quetzalcoatl.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Quetzalcoatl