Feathered Serpent

1184 Words3 Pages

There are numerous civilizations and beliefs that stand out from the Mesoamerican era. European conquistadors on Mexican land. The feathered being holds various names, but most of us know it as Quetzalcoatl. I find it fascinating that even centuries after the disappearance of the Aztecs, the modern Western world knows about the Quetzalcoatl. We are gonna look at how and why the feathered serpent came to be one of the most important gods in Mesoamerican cultures.

The cult of the serpent in Mesoamerica is ancient. The roots of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, can be traced all the way back to the Olmec civilization, which existed from around 13th to the 5th centuries BC. A representation of the feathered serpent can be found on a famous …show more content…

He began to be associated with Ehecatl, the wind god, who represents the forces of nature, and is also associated with the Venus morning star. Quetzalcoatl became a representation of the rain, the celestial water and their associated winds. He eventually was transformed into one of the main gods of creation. By the time of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl would be considered the originator of the arts, poetry and all knowledge. The feathered figure would become inseparable from the image of one of their most important gods. blended with other deities of their own beliefs. However, the Quetzalcoatl we will be talking about only emerged several centuries later, during the Late Classical …show more content…

We can identify elements found within the carved representations of Quetzalcoatl themselves. The feathers that surround the serpent’s head tell us that it is in fact the feathered-serpent. The feathers themselves represent the flowering crops to depict that he is the god that brings the harvest to the city. of represents infinity and the swirling cosmos as he is a creator god and the morning star Venus. In a more general sense, the Temple is thought to have represented a big part of the daily life of the civilization of Teotihuacan. If all the heads on the faces of the pyramid were left untouched, the combined four faces would have totalled 260 Feathered-Serpent an indication of what day it

Open Document