Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl; yn ehecatl ynteiacancauh yntlachpancauh in tlaloque, yn aoaque, yn qujqujiauhti. Auh yn jquac molhuja eheca, mjtoa: teuhtli quaqualaca, ycoioca, tetecujca, tlatlaiooa, tlatlapitza, tlatlatzinj, motlatlaueltia.
Quetzalcoatl—he was the wind, the guide and road sweeper of the rain gods, of the masters of the water, of those who brought rain. And when the wind rose, when the dust rumbled, and it crack and there was a great din, became it became dark and the wind blew in many directions, and it thundered; then it was said, Quetzalcoatl is wrathful.
Quetzalcoatl is depicted as a snake, a man, and a combination of the two. As the Feathered Serpent he flew through the skies. There is no truth to the idea that Cortes was mistaken for Quetzalcoatl, in any event the behavior of Cortes and his men would have swiftly disabused even the dullest ruler of such a notion. As far as the Aztec pantheon he is a pretty good god. The name 'Aztec' is derived from the ancient legendary homeland Atzlan, it does not show up in writings until the writings of Francisco Sentero Clavijero Echegaray int the 1700s, two centuries after the conquest. Mexica is also not correct, that is a broad term for many tribes who left the Toltec Empire when it crumbled. The people now called Aztecs were the Tenochans, of the city Tenochtitlan, site of present day Mexico City. Feathered Serpent is often depicted eating a man, very similar to the Biscione emblem of the Visconti of Milan, who knew a thing or two about heartless savagery.
Nahuatl is the language of the Nahua of Central Mexico, and has 1.7 million speakers today.
Comments
Post a Comment