Ancient Mexican-Aztec God Quetzalocoatl

A few hundred year before the arrival of Cortes, the Aztecs wandered into the Valley of Mexico, and, in a series of extraordinary brutal wars, conquered the other tribes living there. It is reported that the Aztecs, who in comparison to the people they conquered were no better tan barbarians, had a capacity for learning much from those they conquered. From the more warlike tribes they acquired knowledge of warfare. their more cultivated habits derived from the example of:

. . . the Toltecs, the civilized people whose symbol was Quetzalcoatl, the inventor of arts and of science, the protector of knowledge . . . (Soustelle, 220).

The Aztec conquest of this area and the Toltec civilization was completed sometime after the year 1300 and, since the Spanish expedition under Cortes did not arrive until 1520, this gave the Aztecs roughly two centuries of dominance in Mexico. During this period, captives of other tribes were often sacrificed to the Aztec Gods. The Aztec religion (incorporating Quetzalcoatl and a number of other religious deities from other tribes) was supreme in Mexico during this period.

It is now known what origin of this myth of Quetzalcoatl actually was, although many historians have made educated guesses t

. . .
d almost until the moment of Cortes' arrival) the Aztecs made tens of thousands of sacrifices to Quetzalcoatl and the other Gods. For the most part, those sacrificed were prisoners of war, this being considered vastly preferable to the sacrifice of the Aztecs themselves. However, most historical accounts hold that these sacrifices had nothing to do with inter-tribal hatred, being merely the expression of a religious belief that this was every bit as natural an occurrence as warfare itself. As one account has stated: All the relevant descriptions . . . convey the impression not of a dislike between the sacrificer and the victim or of anything resembling a lust for blood, but of a strange fellow--feeling or rather--and this is vouched for by the text--of a kind of mystical kinship . . . (Soustelle, 99). In this manner, the tribal religion that worshipped Quetzalcoatl can be said to have glorified death, even to the point of glorifying the relationship between murderer and murderee. Those victimized by the Aztecs were perceived, in this manner, to be in the same relation to their conquerors as the Aztecs were to the gods like Quetzalcoatl. In this way, the aztecs created a series of religious beliefs that were very well suit
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
God Quetzalcoatl, Quetzalcoatl Gods, Valley Mexico, Smoking Mirror, Montezuma II, Plumed Serpent, Serpent God, Aztecdominated Mexico, Serpent Quetzalcoatl, Aztec Gods, god quetzalcoatl, religious beliefs, aztecs gods, feathered serpent, age wind, aztecs gods quetzalcoatl, aztec gods, aztec religion, aztecs created, smoking mirror, quetzalcoatl actually, quetzalcoatl feathered serpent, rise fall aztecs,
Approximate Word count = 2224
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)