Quetzalcoatl in Late Aztec Sculptures

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) is often characterized as a wind god, but in Aztec sculptures, the traits of the wind god Ehecatl, principally the buccal mouth mask, are not found mixed with feathered serpent imagery. The mix is found in pictorial manuscripts, and alluded to in written sources. In late Aztec times, feathered serpent images are associated with the rulers Ahuitzotl and Motecuhzoma and refer to the legendary Toltec ruler, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl (Our Lord Quetzalcoatl), the prototype of Aztec Rulership. If there is any natural association, it seems to be with water, notably the great flood of 1499 in the reign of Ahuitzotl.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23140