Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, is the most well-known figure in all the mythology of Mexico and Central America. His image can be seen on numerous monuments, in friezes, mosaics and in paintings. He is as identifiable a motif to Mesoamericans as the Statue of Liberty is to U.S. citizens. He has also been thought to be an historical figure: a great law giver and civilizer; inventor of the calendar or Book of Fate; a compassionate king. In the Codex Chimalpopoca, Quetzalcoatl is described as beneficent and incapable of doing harm: He would never agree [to those who tried to persuade him to homicide and human sacrifice], because he loved his vassals the Toltecs, and his sacrifice was always of snails, birds, and butterflies (Mexican and Central American Mythology, p. 77). So admired is Quetzalcoatl that there have been wild claims as to his origin. It has been suggested that he came from the Mediterranean -- an ancient Greek relative of Homer no doubt -- or from Ireland or China. Perhaps due to some tempting correlations between Mexican mythology and Christian theology, he has even been thought to be the apostle Thomas.
Quetzalcoatls name is composed of two words: quetzal, which is the name of a rare bird with green feathers that dwells in the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala; and coatl, the Nahua word for snake. Although the Nahua-speaking people of the high plateau named the deity Quetzalcoatl (which the Maya call Kukulcan), the quetzal bird belongs to Maya lands. He was envisioned by both Nahua and Maya as cosmically complete -- at once water, earth, and bird. He is the wind god, messenger of the gods, and road sweeper. As the discoverer of maize, he is the savior of humanity, if not its co-creator.
As bird, Quetzalcoatl may represent the heavens and the heavenly characteristics of human potential. As serpent, he appears corporeal as his spirit descends into matter to become instinctive and organic. He is said to be born of a virgin. His mother, Coatlicue, presses a feather to her breast and becomes divinely inseminated. Given this mythology of his virgin birth and god-as-man nature, one can understand the overzealous desire of Spanish missionaries to link him to Christian belief. Yet stranger things have happened in other mythologies, the Greek for instance. Though not a virgin birth, Zeus manages to deliver his daughter, Athena (fully grown and helmeted) through his skull. He also bears his son, Dionysus, in his leg from which the child is born.
Suffering, redemption, and resurrection seem to play important themes underscoring the story of Quetzalcoatl. Throughout most of his earthly existence he is plagued by the temptations and trickery of Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, who is metaphorically a polar image of himself. In the end, having succumbed to temptation, Quetzalcoatl is repentant and his heart is consumed by a bonfire that he builds for this purpose. From the ashes, his heart rises to the heavens to become the morning star, Venus. As the planet passes below the horizon and reappears, symbolically Quetzalcoatls spirit transcends matter to illuminate its higher self. In this regard, Quetzalcoatl purged his own heart in fire and became deified through suffering to light the world. Later the Aztec would feed human hearts to his successor, Huitzilpochtli, for much the same purpose, however less philosophical. Yet the idea of a deified heart, a heart that brings light and shines through the face -- despite its perversions as represented in human sacrifice -- is an interesting one. The Nahua peoples believed that we are born with a physical heart and face, but that we have to create a deified heart and a true face. (Mexican and Central American Mythology, p. 74). To create the deified heart, the face must reflect a true nature unhampered by destructiveness. Such a face could be envisioned as the face of love, which today is probably more attributed to an assortment of biochemical reactions sparked by infatuation rather than divine inspiration. But since inspiration, divine or otherwise, can more often than not be gleaned from myths and legends, Quetzalcoatls story serves as an allegory for human suffering, responsibility and integrity.