Stone bust of Quetzalcoatl
Mexica*, AD 1325-1521
From Mexico
This sculpture represents the Mexica god Quetzalcoatl. His name
in Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Mexica, means Feathered
(quetzal feather) Serpent. The serpent's coils of the sculpture are
covered with feathers and the face of the god (or an impersonation)
emerges wearing the curved shell ear ornaments characteristic of
representations of this god.
The cult of Quetzalcoatl was widespread throughout Mesoamerica,
although it was known by different names at different periods.
While his various aspects and origins are far from clear,
Quetzalcoatl is said to have been one of the Mexica creator
gods.
According to the Mexica creation myth there were four suns
or worlds before the present one, each of them created and
destroyed in a different way. When the fourth sun was destroyed by
floods the gods decided to create a new one. To create a new race
of humans, Quetzalcoatl descended to the lower levels of the
Underworld. He managed to trick Mictlantecuhtli and retrieved the
bones of the people of the fourth sun. With those bones and some of
his blood he gave life to the humans that inhabited the present
world.
*The people and culture we know as 'Aztec' referred to
themselves as the Mexica (pronounced Me-shee-ka).
M. E. Miller and K. Taube, An illustrated dictionary of t (London, Thames and Hudson, 1997)
C. McEwan, Ancient Mexico in the British (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)