[13] In Mazatec legends the astrologer deity Tlahuizcalpanteuctli, who is also represented by Venus, bears a close relationship with Quetzalcoatl.[14]. In one of the Aztec accounts of creation, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca joined forces to create the world. The Nahuatl word quetzalli means "long green feather" (Molina: ), but later came to be applied also to the bird who give these feathers: the Resplendent Quetzal. In one version of the Aztec creation account[19] the myth of the Five Suns, the first creation, "The Sun of the Earth" was ruled by Tezcatlipoca but destroyed by Quetzalcoatl when he struck down Tezcatlipoca who then transformed into a jaguar. (Read and Gonzalez 223) This version of the creation myth would play an important role i… Quetzalcoatl was associated with the wind god Ehecatl and is often depicted with his insignia: a beak-like mask. The gods were: Huitzilopochtli (south), Quetzalcoatl (east), Tezcatlipoca (west), and Xipe Tote (north). The existence of such worship can be seen through studies of iconography of different Mesoamerican cultures, in which serpent motifs are frequent. For I am blind, I am deaf, I am an imbecile, and in excrement, in filth hath my lifetime been... [22], According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presides over one of the four cardinal directions. [29] To attract her, Tezcatlipoca used his foot as bait, and Cipactli ate it. [42], In 1971 Tony Shearer published a book called Lord of the Dawn: Quetzalcoatl and the Tree of Life, inspiring New Age followers to visit Chichen Itza at the summer solstice when dragon-shaped shadows are cast by the Kulkulcan pyramid.[43]. The Nahuatl nouns compounded into the proper name "Quetzalcoatl" are: Nicholson 2001, Carrasco 1982, Gillespie 1989, Florescano 2002, Lafaye 1987, Townsend 2003, Martínez 1980, Phelan 1970, (in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl languages), Proposed Book of Mormon geographical setting, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, "Evidence of Mushroom Worship in Mesoamerica", "New Taxonomical and Ethnomycological Observations on, "Readings in Classical Nahuatl: The Death of Quetzalcoatl", "The Complete New York City Horror Movie Marathon! Transformed into giant snakes, the two gods attacked and dismembered the female reptilian m… On the basis of the different symbolic systems used in portrayals of the feathered serpent deity in different cultures and periods, scholar… Tezcatlipoca is the offspring of the creator couple, who produced four sons: Red Tezcatlipoca, Black Tezcatlipoca, Qeutzalcoatl, and Huitzilopochtli (the patron god of the Aztecs). Quetzalcoatl became the ruler of the subsequent creation “Sun of Water”, and Tezcatlipoca destroyed the third creation “The Sun of Wind” by striking down Quetzalcoatl. Tezcatlipoca was believed to be the son of the primordial androgynous god Ometeotl. In the aspect in which he is mainly portrayed, Tezcatlipoca is the Destroyer figure. Other legends posited that Quetzalcoatl was the son of the goddess Chimalma. It is possible that he is either the same god that the Olmec and Maya reference with their "jaguar deity" or that Tezcatlipoca is a latter, more expanded version of the foundations the Olmec and Maya set, as the Aztecs often took inspiration from earlier cultures. One of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, he is associated with a wide range of concepts, including the night sky, the night winds, hurricanes, the north, the earth, obsidian, enmity, discord, rulership, divination, temptation, jaguars, sorcery, beauty, war, and strife. [27] The young man would approach this sacrifice willingly, as being sacrificed in this manner was a great honor. They maintained a major pilgrimage and commercial center at Cholula, Puebla which the Spaniards compared to both Rome and Mecca because the cult of the god united its constituents through a field of common social, political, and religious values without dominating them militarily. [22] Sacred hymns were also chanted at ceremonies to honor the gods. The first culture to use the symbol of a feathered serpent as an important religious and political symbol was Teotihuacan. The first documented worship of Quetzalcoatl is found in Theotihuacan during the first century BC or first century AD. [8], In the era following the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, a number of records conflated Quetzalcoatl with Ce Acatl Topiltzin, a ruler of the mythico-historic city of Tollan. [25] Sometimes, slaves were purchased for the ceremony, and in this case, were bathed carefully to erase impurities. [18] When the ritual called for it, priests would also dress up as Tezcatlipoca himself and accompany other similarly outfitted gods or goddesses. Quetzalcoatl was the third son of the dual creator god Ometeotl. On the basis of the different symbolic systems used in portrayals of the feathered serpent deity in different cultures and periods, scholars have interpreted the religious and symbolic meaning of the feathered serpent deity in Mesoamerican cultures. This confederacy engaged in almost seventy-five years of nearly continuous conflict with the Aztec Empire of the Triple Alliance until the arrival of Cortés. Quetzalcóatl was the son of the primordial androgynous god Ometeotl. Tezcatlipoca: | | ||| | Tezcatlipoca as depicted in the Codex Borgia. Some followers of the Latter Day Saints movement believe that Quetzalcoatl was historically Jesus Christ, but believe his name and the details of the event were gradually lost over time. info)), in honorific form: Quetzalcōātzin) is a deity in Aztec culture and literature whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means "Precious serpent" or "Quetzal-feathered Serpent". Tezcatlipoca and his followers came to Earth from another world thousands of years ago, along with his enemy Quetzalcoatl to monitor the evolution of the human race if mankind had developed on the wrong track here would use their vast powers to destroy the world and permit after its reconstruction, then return to Quetzalcoatl into outer space. Vengeance . The earliest depictions of the feathered serpent deity were fully zoomorphic, depicting the serpent as an actual snake, but already among the Classic Maya, the deity began acquiring human features. It has been suggested that these stories recall the spread of the feathered serpent cult in the epi-classic and early post-classic periods.[6]. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca represent the bright and dark aspects of the Creator. The priests of Tezcatlipoca often wore the ornaments of the god and wore specific garments for different rituals. [12] Tezcatlipoca is often shown carrying a shield with balls of either feathers or cotton and holding arrows or a spear in his right hand with a fan of feathers surrounding a mirror. According to many Aztec legends, Tezcatlipoca and his brother the god Quetzalcoatl created the world. While these stories vary, some said Mixcoatl(the Aztec god of the hunt) impregnated the goddess Chimalma by shooting an arrow from his bow. This marriage, occurring after a full year of abstinence, symbolized a period of fertility which followed the drought. [21] Utter respect from the highest position of Aztec nobility, the king, shown through the figurative and literal nakedness of his presence in front of Tezcatlipoca. The earliest iconographic depiction of the deity is believed to be found on Stela 19 at the Olmec site of La Venta, depicting a serpent rising up behind a person probably engaged in a shamanic ritual. Quetzalcoatl became the ruler of the subsequent creation "Sun of Water", and Tezcatlipoca destroyed the third creation "The Sun … Over time, Quetzalcoatl's appearance, clothing, malevolent nature, and status among the gods were reshaped to fit a more Christian framework. Tlaloc, the god of rain, then became the sun. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethno-political groups in Mesoamerican history. Although probably not exactly a depiction of the same feathered serpent deity worshipped in classic and post-classic periods, it shows the continuity of symbolism of feathered snakes in Mesoamerica from the formative period and on, for example in comparison to the Maya Vision Serpent shown below. "[28] He would then be wed to four young women, also chosen in advance and isolated for a full year and treated as goddesses. Due to the lack of surviving images, some have chosen to describe Tezcatlipoca as the 'invisible god'. In the post-classic Nahua civilization of central Mexico (Aztec), the worship of Quetzalcoatl was ubiquitous. Although the exact definition of the momoztli is unknown, with definitions varying from "mound", "stone seat" and "temple", there is an overall consensus that it is a general holy place to worship the gods, specifically mentioned as "his [Tezcatlipoca's] viewing place".[15]. Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wind, air, and learning, wears around his neck the "wind breastplate" ehēcacōzcatl, "the spirally voluted wind jewel" made of a conch shell. Tezcatlipoca's main feast was during Toxcatl, the fifth month of the Aztec calendar. He was known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of maize (corn) to mankind, and sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection. Envious of the calm enjoyment of the god and his people the Toltecs, three wicked “necromancers” plotted their downfall. This view has been questioned by ethno-historians who argue that the Quetzalcoatl-Cortés connection is not found in any document that was created independently of post-Conquest Spanish influence, and that there is little proof of a pre-Hispanic belief in Quetzalcoatl's return. Tezcatlipoca was often described as a rival of another important god of the Aztecs, the culture hero, Quetzalcoatl. [33] This speech, which has been widely referred to, has been a factor in the widespread belief that Moctezuma was addressing Cortés as the returning god Quetzalcoatl. The legend of Quetzalcoatl is spoofed in the Adult Swim CGI series Xavier: Renegade Angel. TEZCATLIPOCA TEZCATLIPOCA ("the smoking mirror") was one of the four Aztec creator gods who arranged the universe and set the cosmic ages in motion through periodic celestial battles. At temples such as the aptly named "Quetzalcoatl temple" in the Ciudadela complex, feathered serpents figure prominently and alternate with a different kind of serpent head. Tezcatlipoca is one of the Aztec gods with Quetzalcoatl governing the cycle of Creation.. In the Aztec ritual calendar, different deities were associated with the cycle-of-year names: Quetzalcoatl was tied to the year Ce Acatl (One Reed), which correlates to the year 1519. In the example from Yaxchilan, the Vision Serpent has the human face of the young maize god, further suggesting a connection to fertility and vegetational renewal; the Maya Young Maize god was also connected to Venus. In a version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl was born by a virgin named Chimalman, to whom the god Onteol appeared in a dream. But she was crushed by Tezcatlipoca's words who accused her of just pretending to be kind. In the iconography of the classic period, Maya serpent imagery is also prevalent: a snake is often seen as the embodiment of the sky itself, and a vision serpent is a shamanic helper presenting Maya kings with visions of the underworld. is a Divine Spirit of Aztec mythology from Mesoamerica. Everyone, including commoners, high priests, and the king, were involved in some aspect of the Toxcatl ceremonies.[23]. According to the Book of Mormon, the resurrected Jesus Christ descended from heaven and visited the people of the American continent, shortly after his resurrection. [21] The king would stand "naked, emphasizing his utter unworthiness," speaking as nothing but a vessel for the god's will. 1 Profile 1.1 Background 1.2 Personality 1.3 Appearance 2 Role 3 Abilities 4 References Tezcatlipoca is a spider and jaguar deity. [39], Quetzalcoatl was fictionalized in the 1982 film Q as a monster that terrorizes New York City. In Aztec mythology he was the brother of Quetzalcoatl, Huizilopochtli and Xipe Totec. "[8] Tezcatlipoca appears on the first page of the Codex Borgia carrying the 20 day signs of the calendar; in the Codex Cospi he is shown as a spirit of darkness, as well as in the Codex Laud and the Dresden Codex. [36] However, in 1892 one president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, John Taylor, wrote:[37]. Represented as the plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl was also manifest in the wind, one of the most powerful forces of nature, and this relationship was captured in a text in the Nahuatl language: Quetzalcoatl; yn ehecatl ynteiacancauh yntlachpancauh in tlaloque, yn aoaque, yn qujqujiauhti. Tezcatlipoca was a god of exceptional significance amongst the Aztec pantheon. According to Fray Diego Durán it was "lofty and magnificently built. There were several priests dedicated to the service of Tezcatlipoca, one of them was probably the one Sahagún calls "huitznahuac teohua omacatl", others were the calmeca teteuctin who were allowed to eat the ritual food offered to Tezcatlipoca, others accompanied the Ixiptlatli impersonator of Tezcatlipoca in the year prior to his execution. After a slapstick-style chase scene, Xavier winds up as the Sun God and commits "sacricide" (sacrificial suicide), ending the skit. In the Aztec ritual calendar the Tonalpohualli Tezcatlipoca ruled the trecena 1 Ocelotl ("1 Jaguar")—he was also patron of the days with the name Acatl ("reed").[8]. Since the sixteenth century, it has been widely held that the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II initially believed the landing of Hernán Cortés in 1519 to be Quetzalcoatl's return. In later myths, the four gods who created the world, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli and Xipe Totec were referred to respectively as the Black, the White, the Blue and the Red Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca joined forces to create the surface of the earth but later became fierce enemies in the city of Tollan. However, this legend likely has a foundation in events that took place immediately prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. Often our current time was considered the fifth sun,[citation needed] the previous four having been destroyed by flood, fire and the like. Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of the priests and the title of the twin Aztec high priests. The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. There are several stories about the birth of Quetzalcoatl. [5] That period lies within the Late Preclassic to Early Classic period (400 BC – 600 AD) of Mesoamerican chronology; veneration of the figure appears to have spread throughout Mesoamerica by the Late Classic period (600–900 AD).[6]. [6] Feathered serpent iconography is prominent at all of these sites. [citation needed], In the Codex Chimalpopoca, it is said Quetzalcoatl was coerced by Tezcatlipoca into becoming drunk on pulque, cavorting with his older sister, Quetzalpetlatl, a celibate priestess, and neglecting their religious duties. Although she is a jaguar You… In Aztec culture, depictions of Quetzalcoatl were fully anthropomorphic. Latter-day Saint author Brant Gardner, after investigating the link between Quetzalcoatl and Jesus, concluded that the association amounts to nothing more than folklore. A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethnopolitical groups in Mesoamerican history. Those people who survived the deluge were turned into fish.[29]. [13], Many of the temples now associated with Tezcatlipoca are built facing East-West, as Olivier quotes Felipe Solis: "the sacred building of the war god [Tezcatlipoca] was in direct relation with the movement of the sun, in the same manner of the Great Temple was, their façades being towards the West". Tier: At most 1-A. Some legends describe him as opposed to human sacrifice[24] while others describe him practicing it.[25][26]. [27] During the last 20 days before being sacrificed, the ixiptla had their appearance transformed back to that of a warrior. Among the Aztecs, whose beliefs are the best-documented in the historical sources, Quetzalcoatl was related to gods of the wind, of the planet Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts, crafts and knowledge. [22] A fourth story narrates that Quetzalcoatl was born from Coatlicue, who already had four hundred children who formed the stars of the Milky Way. One of Tezcatlipoca’s brothers was Quetzalcoatl. 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