Analysis Of Moctezma

Moctezuma’s Headdress: To Embody a God In the 16th century, iridescent green feathers, gold, and gemstones were gathered to create a symbolic gesture, a headdress, which would help transform the Aztec ruler into the incarnation of the God Quetzalcoatl. The headdress is believed to once belong to Moctezuma II. He was the Aztec emperor when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés took siege of Tenochtitlan in 1521, and effectively destroyed the once great empire of Mesoamerica. Moctezuma’s unquestioning spiritual beliefs allowed for this easy invasion, and the once symbol of godliness, fertility, and freedom, became a trophy and one of the countless artifacts sent to Europe. Today, this spiritual piece is once again at the center of a controversy between two countries. Moctezuma’s headdress is nearly 500 year old, and remarkably well preserved. It is 46 inches high and 69 inches wide. The headdress’s outermost layer, and most predominant layer, is made up of 400 iridescent green tail feathers from the male Resplendent Quetzal, a bird from the montane cloud forests of Central America. “The Aztecs venerated the Resplendent Quetzal as the god of

The Spanish portrayed Moctezuma as a “cruel, power-hungry tyrant who wantonly destroyed whatever displeased him” (Cohen, 1972). This may have been their way of justifying the conquest of the Aztecs. However, in Fray Bernardino de Sahagun’s General History of the Things of New Spain , a work written using firsthand accounts of the Spanish invasion of Tenochtitlan, portrays Moctezuma with a “unquestioning religious orientation and credulous mind”(Cohen,1972). One can envision Moctezuma standing before his people adorned with this headdress, the sunlight shimmering off the gold. The richness of color in the feathers articulates nature’s grandeur, a tie to the spiritual and natural world. It would have been a sight to behold. A man transformed into a