Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl (IPA: ) is an Aztec sky and creator god. The name is a combination of quetzal, a brightly colored Mesoamerican bird, and , meaning serpent. Quetzalcoatl is often referred to as The Feathered Serpent and was connected to the planet Venus. Today Quetzalcoatl is the most well-known Aztec deity, and is often thought to have been the principal Aztec god. However, Quetzalcoatl was just one god in a pantheon of gods, not considered superior to the others.
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Noun
1. an Aztec deity represented as a plumed serpent
(hypernym) deity, divinity, god, immortal

[Aztec] "Feathered Snake". One of the major deities of the Aztec, Toltecs, and other Middle American peoples. He is the creator sky-god and wise legislator. He organized the original cosmos and participated in the creation and destruction of various world periods. Quetzalcoatl ruled the fifth world cycle and created the humans of that cycle. The story goes that he descended to Mictlan, the underworld, and gathered the bones of the human beings of the previous epochs. Upon his return, he sprinkled his own blood upon these bones and fashioned thus the humans of the new era. He is also a god of the wind (the wind-god Ehecatl is one of his forms), as well as a water-god and fertility-god. He is regarded as a son of the virgin goddess Coatlicue and as the twin brother of Xolotl. As the bringer of culture he introduced agriculture (maize) and the calendar and is the patron of the arts and the crafts. In one myth the god allowed himself to be seduced by Tezcatlipoca, but threw himself on a funera...
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Quetzalcoatl, Quetzocohuatl (Toltec, Nahautl?) The name of a great teacher, according to the traditions of the Toltecs, who came to them from Tullan or Yucatan and dwelt for twenty years among the people, teaching them to follow a virtuous life, to cease all wars and violent deeds of any kind, to abolish human and animal sacrifices and instead to give offerings of bread and flowers. He taught the people, likewise, the art of picture-writing and the science of the calendar and the artistry of the workers in metals for which Cholula later became famed.
Quetzalcoatl was described as a being of another race, a "white" man with noble features, long black hair and full beard, dressed in flowing robes, whereas the Toltecs were dark-skinned and nearly beardless. Legend tells that he departed to the land of Tlapallan; others say he went to Coatzacualco on the Atlantic coast. Native tradition there still keeps up the divine name of Gucumatz, which among the Quiche means feathered serpent -- Quetzalcoatl in Aztec having the same meaning.
In Mexican religion Quetzalcoatl is regarded as a great deity, a god of the air. In the Quiche cosmogony, as told in the Popol Vuh Gucumatz is one of the first deities to appear, and holds the position of a minor creator.
Quetzalcoatl's "wand and other 'land-marks' show him to be some great Initiate of antiquity, who received the name of 'Serpent' on account of his wisdom, long life and powers. To this day the aboriginal tribes of Mexico call themselves by the names of various reptiles, animals and birds" (TG 269).