The myths concerning Quetzalcoatl are numerous and conflicting. In the first place I shall provide a careful précis of the more important, their prolixity rendering full quotation impossible.
Sahagun’s account of Quetzalcoatl may be summarized as follows: The arts had their inception with Quetzalcoatl. His houses were made of chalchiuites, silver, white, and red shells, and rich feathers. His folk were nimble and swift in passage from one place to another, and were called tlanquacemilhiyme.[74] He gave his commands to the people for a hundred leagues round by means of a crier stationed on the mountain Tzotzitepetl.[75] He had wealth in abundance, provision in plenty, and in his time maize was so large in the head that a man might not carry more than one stalk in his clasped arms. Pumpkins were in circumference as great as a man is high, and the stalks of the wild amaranth grew like trees. Cotton grew in all colours—red, scarlet, yellow, violet, white, green, blue, black, grey, orange, and tawny. In the city of Tollan, where Quetzalcoatl dwelt, were many birds of rich plumage and sweet song. The servants of Quetzalcoatl were wealthy and had abundance of all things, and food was plentiful with them. Their master did penance by pricking his legs and drawing blood with the spines of the maguey and by washing at midnight in a fountain. But sorcerers came against Quetzalcoatl and his people, the Toltecs, and these, we are told, were the gods Tezcatlipocâ, Uitzilopochtli, and Tlacuepan. Tezcatlipocâ visited the house of Quetzalcoatl in the guise of an old man, but was told that he was sick, and was at first refused entrance. Later, however, he was admitted, Quetzalcoatl observing that he had waited for him for many days. Tezcatlipocâ then produced a draught of medicine which, he assured the sick king, would intoxicate him, ease his heart, and carry his thoughts away from the trials and fatigues of death and departure.[76] This [[124]]latter phrase roused Quetzalcoatl to ask where he must go, for that he had a premonition of departure seems clear. “To Tollantlapallan,” replied Tezcatlipocâ, “where another old man awaits thee. He and you shall speak together, and on thy return thou shalt be as a youth, yea as a boy.” With little goodwill Quetzalcoatl quaffed the medicine, and having once tasted of it he drank more deeply, so that at last he became intoxicated and maudlin. That which he had drunk was the wine made from the maguey-plant, called teoncetl (“drink of the gods”). And so great a longing to depart came upon him that at length he arose and went from Tollan.[77] Ere departing, Quetzalcoatl burned his houses of shells and silver and buried many precious things in the mountains and ravines. He turned the cocoa-trees into mezquites and dispatched all the birds of brilliant plumage in Anahuac, three hundred miles away. On his journey to the coast he came to the hill Quauhtitlan, where he found a great tree, under which he rested. Gazing into a mirror, as he reclined under its shade, he said, “I am very old,” named the place Ueuequauhtitlan after his saying,[78] and stoned the tree. The stones he cast at it sank into its trunk, and were to be seen remaining there for long afterwards. Preceded by flute-players, he recommenced his journey, but once more became weary, and rested on a stone by the wayside. Looking towards Tollan, he wept, and his tears pitted the stone on which he sat, and the imprints of his hands and thighs also remained thereon. That place he called Temacpalco. Reaching a great river, he halted until a stone bridge was built over it, and having crossed, he called the place Tepanaoya. Certain sorcerers now met him, and asked him whither he was bound, why he had left his city of Tollan, and who would now do penance there. Quetzalcoatl replied that he must go, that he was called to Tlapallan by the Sun. The sorcerers requested him to leave behind his knowledge of the mechanical arts, the smelting of silver, the working [[125]]of precious stones, and masonry, painting, and feather-work. These he left with them perforce. But his treasure of jewels he cast into the fountain of Cozcaapan hard by. Another magician whom he met insisted upon his drinking a draught which he could give “to none of the living.” Intoxicated, he slept, and when he awoke, tore his hair. That place was called Cachtoca. Pursuing his journey, he passed between a mountain of snow and a volcano, where his hump-backed and dwarfish servants perished from the excessive cold. Bitterly he bewailed their death in song. Passing on, leaving signs of his progress on every hand, and sliding down the mountains, he tarried here and there, building a tlachtli court at one place, the markings of which were visible in deep gashes on the hills. Once he transfixed a tree with a dart or with another tree, so that it resembled a cross. In other localities he constructed subterranean houses (mictlancalco), and elsewhere balanced a great rolling-stone, and on all these spots he conferred names. At length he came to the sea-shore, where he commanded that a raft of snakes (coatapochtli) should be constructed for him. In this he seated himself as in a canoe, put out to sea, and set out for Tlapallan.[79]
Torquemada’s account of the Quetzalcoatl myth somewhat resembles that of Sahagun, due, no doubt, to the circumstance that he had access to the unpublished MS. of that author, from which he borrowed in a wholesale manner. The points of difference are these: Quetzalcoatl was high-priest of Tollan, whence he migrated to Cholula. The ruler of Tollan was one Huemac, but Quetzalcoatl was its chief in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters. In drinking the magic potion of Tezcatlipocâ, Quetzalcoatl desired to render himself immortal. He left the impress of his body on a stone situated on a mountain near the city of Tlalnepantla (or Temacpalco), two leagues from Mexico, as the natives declared to Torquemada himself. Met by the sorcerers Tezcatlipocâ and the others who tried to hinder his going, he refused to stay his progress, and said that he must pass on to the sun-land. [[126]]Father Sahagun, remarks Torquemada, when at Xochimilco, was asked by the natives, who were keenly desirous of knowledge on the point, where Tlapallan was, and replied that he did not know, as he had then not been long among them. The fountain in which Quetzalcoatl cast his jewels was now called Coaapan, “in the snake-water.” He then passed on to Cholula, where he was adored as a god. When he had resided there for twenty years, he was expelled by Tezcatlipocâ. Setting out once more for Tlapallan, accompanied by four virtuous youths, he embarked at Coatzacoalco. Bidding farewell to his disciples, he assured them that at a future time there would come by way of the sea, where the sun rises, certain white men with white beards, like him, and that these would be his brothers and would rule the land. These disciples became the rulers of the four provinces of Cholula. Quetzalcoatl was god of the air, and during his life on earth was devoted to the careful observance of the older forms of worship, but instituted many new rites, ceremonies, and festivals and made the calendar. Barren women prayed to him. He swept the road, so that the Tlaloque might rain. For a month or so before the rainy season stormy winds blew throughout New Spain. The Cholulans preserved as relics green stones that had belonged to him, on one of which was carved a monkey’s head. A great temple to him was founded at Cholula.[80]
Elsewhere Torquemada descants on the Quetzalcoatl myth as follows: A body of men came from the north by way of Panuco, dressed in long robes of black linen, cut low at the neck, with short sleeves. They came to Tollan, but finding the country there too thickly peopled, passed on to Cholula, where they were well received. Their chief was Quetzalcoatl, a man with ruddy complexion and long beard. These people multiplied and sent colonists to the Mixtec and Zapotec countries, raising the great buildings at Mitla. They were cunning handicraftsmen, not so good at masonry as at jewellers’ work, sculpture, and agriculture. Tezcatlipocâ and Huemac conceived an enmity to Quetzalcoatl, and as [[127]]he did not wish to go to war with them, he and his folk removed to Onohualco (Yucatan, Tabasco, and Campeche).[81]
Motolinia says of Quetzalcoatl that when Iztacmixcoatl, the Mexican Adam, married his second wife Chimalmat, she bore him Quetzalcoatl, who grew up chaste and temperate. He instituted fasting and mortification, and never married. He founded the custom of drawing blood from the ears and tongue in penitence. A certain Chichemecatl fastened a leather strap to his arm, near the shoulder, and from that time this Chichemecatl was known as Acolhuatl, and became the ancestor of the Colhua. Quetzalcoatl was god of the air and many temples were raised to him.[82]
Mendieta has much to say of Quetzalcoatl, but in a synopsis of his account we retain only such circumstances as have not been already alluded to: Many different traditions regarding Quetzalcoatl existed, some saying that he was the son of Camacotli (Camaxtli), god of hunting and fishing, and of his wife Chimialuna; others that Chimialuna, when sweeping one day, found a chalchihuitl stone, by virtue of which she became miraculously pregnant and gave birth to Quetzalcoatl, who came either from Tollan or Yucatan. The people came to love him, not only because he taught them handicrafts, and desired no offerings but those of bread, flowers, and perfumes. He forbade all war and disturbance. Pilgrims came to his shrine at Cholula from all parts of Mexico, even the enemies of Cholula, and the lords of distant lands built them chapels and idols there. Among all the gods only Quetzalcoatl was called Lord, and men swore by him. The gods thought it well that the people should have some means of writing by which they might direct themselves, and two of their number, Oxomoco and Cipactonal, who dwelt in a cave in Cuernavaca, especially considered the matter. Cipactonal thought that her descendant Quetzalcoatl should be consulted, and she called him into counsel. He, too, thought the idea of a calendar good, and the two addressed themselves to the task of making the tonalamatl. To Cipactonal was given the privilege of choosing [[128]]and writing the first sign. She painted the cipactli animal, and called the sign ce cipactli (“one cipactli”). Oxmoco then wrote ome acatl (“two cane”), and Quetzalcoatl “three house,” and so on, until the thirteen signs were completed.[83]
Another form of the Quetzalcoatl myth given by Mendieta is in substance as follows: Tezcatlipocâ let himself down from the upper regions by means of a spider’s web, and coming to Tollan engaged in a game of tlachtli (the native ball game) with Quetzalcoatl, in the midst of which he transformed himself into a tiger. Those who watched the game were panic-stricken, and cast themselves pell-mell into a ravine, and were drowned in a river which flowed therein. Tezcatlipocâ then harassed Quetzalcoatl from city to city, until he drove him to Cholula, and latterly to Tlapallan, where he died, and where his followers burnt his body, thus inaugurating the custom of burning the dead.[84]
The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says regarding Quetzalcoatl:
“Quetcalcoatl they say was he who created the world; and they bestowed upon him the appellation of Lord of the Wind, because they said that Tonacatecotli when it appeared good to him breathed and begat Quecalcoatle. They erected round temples to him without any corners. They said that it was he (who was also lord of these thirteen signs which are here represented) who formed the first man. They celebrated a festival on the sign of four earthquakes, to the destroyer with reference to the fate which again waited the world; for they said that it had undergone four destructions and would again be destroyed. He alone had a human body like that of men; the other gods were of an incorporeal nature.
“After the deluge the custom of sacrificing commenced. Topilcin Quetcalcoatle was born on the day of seven canes; and they celebrated on this same day of seven canes a great festival in Cholula, to which they came from all parts of the country and the cities and brought great presents to the lords and papas of the temple; and they did the same on [[129]]the day on which he disappeared or died, which was the day of One Cane. These festivals happened at the expiration of every period of fifty-two years.