One often comes across the myth of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake god / bearded white man, of the Aztecs, that was said to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and civilized the natives in Mesoamerica, and once is task was done, he sailed back, eastwards, promising to return. The story continues; it says that when the Spaniards reached the shores of Mexico in April, 1519, on the Caribbean Sea, the locals assumed that they were the returning Quetzalcoatl.
It is always a good idea to read the original sources to separate truth from fiction.
Quetzalcoatl
Mesoamericans revered a god named Quetzalcoatl, whose name combines the Nahuatl words for feather and snake. (I have posted extensively about snake myths in America, and civilizing god-men like Amalivaca, or Viracocha). The god is said to have been represented by Venus, and also by a white, bearded man. Furthermore, there was a historic record of supreme priests of the Totlec region, who wre named after him. One of them, Ce Ácatl Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl (999-1051 AD) was the king of Tula and we have written records about his reign (see this Source, in Spanish).
Cortés' Letter to the King of Spain
Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) recorded his conquest of the Aztec empire in Mexico in a series of letters (Cartas del famoso conquistador Hernán Cortés al emperador Carlos quinto, in Spanish) that he sent to the King of Spain, Charles I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Charlex V, to justify his conquest of Mexico. He had no permission to do so, so he wrote these letters to soothe the king, and justify his actions.
The text of the second letter written by Cortés also records his encounters with the Aztec leader, Emperor Moctezuma II (Cortés calls him Muteczuma), who told him the story of their origin. I cite him below (my translation), Moctezuma told Cortés that:
""For a long time, we have known from the records of our ancestors that neither I nor any of those who inhabit this land are natives of it; rather, we are foreigners who came here from very distant lands (1). We also know that our people were brought here by a lord —whose vassals they all were— who returned to his own country. He came back again after a very long time —so long, in fact, that those who had remained behind had already married native women of the land, had large families, and had established settlements where they lived. When he wished to take them with him, they refused to go or to accept him as their lord, so he returned home. We have always held the belief that his descendants would come to subjugate this land and us, treating us as their vassals. Given the direction from which you say you come —where the sun rises (2)— and the things you tell us about the great lord or king who sent you here, we believe and are certain that he is our rightful lord; especially since you tell us that he has known of us for a long time. Therefore, rest assured that we shall obey you and acknowledge you as our lord, in the place of that great lord of whom you speak."
The two footnotes to this text, were added by the editor of the 1870 edition, and read as follows: " (1) By tradition, the Mexicans came from the north, by way of the province of Quivira, and their stopping points are known with certainty; as evident proof of this, the conquest of the Mexican empire was carried out by the Toltecs—or people of Tula—which was the seat of the court. (2) This was a mistaken belief held by the Indians, for their ancestors came from the north; and even when coming from the Yucatán Peninsula, they truthfully spoke of it as lying to the east of Mexico."
The Mexican commentary is reasonable, why suppose a transatlantic voyage?
Did Cortés write about Quetzalcoatl to establish that the natives were not the lords of the land, but vassals of a white lord (Christian? European?)? This would help show that their right to owning the land was weak, and justified the Spanish conquest.
Cortés has Moctezuma say that it is likely that the king of Spain is their "rightful lord."
The Bearded White Man
We have another source about Quetzalcoatl, written by a Catholic friar, Bartolomé de las Casas (c.1474-1566). He defended the natives against the exploitation of the Spanish conquerors, and, in his work Apologética, Historia Sumaria... (see p.644-45) he describes Quetzalcoatl, as a god-man:
"But the most celebrated, greatest, and most revered of all the gods —according to universal repute— was the great god of the city of Cholula (located two leagues from the present-day city of Puebla de los Ángeles), known as Quetzalcoatl.
According to their histories, he came to Cholula from the region of Yucatán; he was a white man of tall stature, with a broad forehead, large eyes, long black hair, and a rounded beard. They exalted him as their supreme god and held him in the deepest love, reverence, and devotion...
They claim he stayed with them for twenty years, after which he returned along the path he had come, taking with him four virtuous young noblemen from Cholula. From Coatzacoalcos, a province over a hundred leagues away toward the sea, he sent them back with instructions; among other teachings, he told them to assure the people of Cholula that, in times to come, white men with white beards, like himself, would arrive by sea from the direction of the sunrise, guided by the stars. He said these men would become lords of those lands and were his brothers.
The Indians always expected this prophecy to be fulfilled; when they saw the Christians, they immediately called them gods—sons and brothers of Quetzalcoatl, though once they witnessed and experienced their deeds, they no longer regarded them as celestial beings...
Others say the people of Cholula always believed he would return to rule and comfort them; when they saw the Spaniards' ships sailing in, they said their god Quetzalcoatl was returning and bringing the temples where he would dwell across the sea. Yet, when the men disembarked, they said: "These are many gods ('tequeteteuh' in their language); this is not our god Quetzalcoatl." "
In a future post I will explore the possibility that Quetzalcoatl's depiction as being white was a manipulation by the Spanish conquerors: the "black" Quetzalcoatl hypothesis. Pictured below.
Quetzalcoatl was Saint Thomas, the apostle
Another account written by Friar Diego Duran (1537-1588) in his Historia de las Indias de Nueva Españ, which assimilates Quetzalcoatl, named Topitlzin (an alternate name for the god), with Saint Thomas, one of Jesus' apostles (see p. 73 and following): "There is a fine likeness of him which I saw painted on very old paper preserved in Mexico City; it depicts a man of advanced years with a venerable bearing: a long beard, streaked with gray and red; a somewhat long nose, marked by bumps or perhaps eroded; a tall stature; and long, very straight hair. He sits with great composure..." in the following pages, he is described as the exploits, civilizing efforts. Duran mentions that the natives told him that the saint had left a book, written in strange symbols, that they later burned out of superstition. Duran wonders if it was written in Hebrew (p. 76), he also reported that a native told him that "He had gone toward the sea and nothing more was ever heard of him, nor is it known where to which port he went; it is only known that he went to alert his bretheren, the Spaniards, about this land, and that he brought them back to exact vengeance; and thus, because these Indians held a long-standing prophecy regarding the arrival of strangers, they remained constantly on the alert." Vengance because the natives had insulted his chastity by placing a whore in his room, a woman named Xodviquetzal. He was so offended that he decided to return to his homeland.
The mythical history of Saint Thomas the Apostle in America appeared in the 16th century. It was probably made up by the Catholic church to justify the priority of Christianity over the natives. Nevertheless, there are stories about Saint Thomas in Kerala, India, and a short note written by Eusebius of Caesarea (see 3.1.1.) c.320 AD, telling about his presence there shortly after the death of Jesus (c.50 AD). Did St. Thomas follow the route of the Phoenicians from the Levant, to India and eastwards to America? See my post on Crawford's theory.
My next post will look into the myth about Saint Thomas in South America, in Paraguay, Brazil, and Patagonia.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
