Toltec and Aztec god and legendary ruler of Mexico, usually referred to as the Plumed, or Feathered, Serpent, the translation of his Nahuatl name.

In the 10th century AD the Toltecs transformed what had been a god of soil fertility, worshiped in Teotihuacán before the 9th century, into a deity associated with the morning and evening star, Venus.

The Aztecs later made him a symbol of death and resurrection and a patron of priests.

The opposing deity in the dualistic Toltec religion was Tezcatlipoca, the god of the night sky. He was believed to have driven Quetzalcoatl from his capital, Tula, into exile, from which, according to prophecy, Quetzalcoatl, described as light-skinned and bearded, would return in a certain year.

Thus, when the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés appeared in 1519, the Aztec king, Montezuma II, was easily convinced that Cortés was the returning god.

The legend of the exile of Quetzalcoatl may reflect changes in Toltec religion from agricultural ceremonies to the practice of human sacrifice (also adopted by the Aztecs), or it may have been based on the exile from Tula of a priest-king named Quetzalcoatl in the 10th century.

Giraudon/Art Resource

The art of the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas sometimes included the codex, a manuscript on which they illustrated stories. This page of the Codex Borbonicus, of Aztec origin, shows the Aztec gods Tezcalipoca, at center left, and Quetzalcoatl, in the form of a green serpent devouring a man. The story recorded here may relate the importance of human sacrifice in Aztec religion, as well as to the Aztec legend that Quetzalcoatl, the exiled god, would one day return to rule the Aztec people.

"Quetzalcoatl," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.