Quetzalcoatl is known as the Feathered Serpent, likely from his teaching to be as wise as the serpent and as harmless as a bird. Quetzalcoatl, in its literal sense, means ‘serpent of precious feathers’, but in the allegorical sense, ‘wisest of men’.”
“There are several stories about the birth of Quetzalcoatl. In a version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl was born by a virgin named Chimalman, to whom the god Ometeotl appeared in a dream.”
J. B. Bierlein, Living Myths. How Myth Gives Meaning to Human Experience, Ballantine Books, 1999
Quetzalcoatl was often considered the god of the morning star, and his twin brother Xolotl was the evening star. Quetzalcoatl went to Mictlan (the underworld) and created mankind from the bones of the previous races (with the help of his consort Cihuacoatl), using his own blood. He was known sometimes as a symbol of death and resurrection.
Quetzalcoatl was also the patron of the priests and the title of the twin Aztec high priests. Quetzalcoatl becomes an evangelizer, and the noble and chaste foe of human sacrifice (which was encouraged by the Devil); he promoted a belief in a creator god, prophesied the Conquest, and promised to return to restore his own righteous rule.
Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America
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.”
Sahagún, Bernardino de (1950). Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Book 1, Ch. 5, p. 2.
