Originally a local god to the indigenous peoples of modern day Mexico, Quetzalcoatl (most commonly translated as “Feathered Serpent”) was said to have created man from fragments of a “jewel bone” comingled with drops of his own blood. The Toltec civilization – a somewhat catchall designation for various pre-Aztec populations of the region – adopted Quetzalcoatl as both a mythological hero and a deity; some scholars speculate that the attributes of the former could stem from a real life priest king, said to have been born of a virgin, who ruled an early Toltec tribe for twenty some odd years.

There is no shortage of Toltec sites in Central Mexico dedicated to the worship of Quetzalcoatl; it is first documented at the ancient city of Teotihuacan as early 900 BC. Though the sprawling complex is best known for its Pyramids of the Sun and Moon, its third major structure is the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, built around a 600 by 1900-foot courtyard and situated along the city’s fabled Avenue of the Dead.

In 900 AD, the Toltecs built another sacred site, the Temple of the Plumed Serpent, at Xochicalco and are said to have been building an entire city, entitled Milta, in tribute to the Quetzalcoatl – said to be a “bringer of civilization” – before construction was abandoned for unknown reasons.

The Olmec civilization, situated in Mexico’s more tropical south, too adopted worship of the god. Their largest city, Cholula, was at one time second in population only to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now known as Mexico City). It was there that in the 9th century AD, in honor of Quetzalcoatl, they constructed the Great Pyramid of Cholula – a structure that at 1476 x 1476 feet is larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza.

With the ascension of the Aztecs in the 12th century, “the feathered serpent” was elevated to multiple posts in their pantheon of deities; he was concurrently revered as the god of wind, the zodiac, the moon, and knowledge. As the Aztec’s divine priest, he represented the mirror image of their warrior god Tezcatlipoca - who, in their mythology, was said to have seduced Quetzalcoatl through a deception. After uncovering the ruse, he burned himself to death and was reborn as “the morning star.” According to the legend, he would return to his people by sea in the Aztec year of 1-Reed – which by the Western calendar would repeatedly fall in 1363, 1467 and 1519.

It was in the last of those years, 1519, when Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes landed at Vera Cruz. Modern wisdom tells that the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, believing the conquistador with fantastic technology to be Quetzalcoatl reborn, allowed Cortes and his men freely enter his kingdom. It was a case of mistaken identity that would not only lead the Aztec civilization to its certain doom, but also set the course of Central American history for the next five centuries.

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