Quetzalcoatl

Cipactli lunged through the water and destroyed every thing the gods tried to make. Each time the Four Tezcatlipocas began their work, the gigantic crocodile ate or ruined it. The gods became frustrated and decided that Cipactli had to die.

Black Tezcatlipoca dangled his foot in the water as bait. Cipactli seized it and bit it off while she chewed. As the monster fed, her brothers attacked. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca seized Cipactli and ripped her apart. They made the world from her corpse. Her remains formed the land and its features. They also made Tlaloc, the rain god, and the first people from her body.

One account gives a different detail. Tezcatlipoca tore off the jaw of the crocodile monster and used it to make the earth. In both versions, the world arose after Cipactli's destruction. The creature that had prevented creation became its material.

Tezcatlipoca's missing foot remained part of the later struggle between the gods who sought the office of the sun. The White Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and the Black Tezcatlipoca were brothers and rivals. Because Tezcatlipoca had lost his foot while fighting Cipactli, he became the first sun. Quetzalcoatl resented this position and knocked him from the sky with a stone club. The contest between them continued through the changing ages known as the rival Suns.

Quetzalcoatl entered Mictlan to recover the bones of the former human race. A great flood had swept over the earth, and the people had become fish. When the waters withdrew, no humans remained on the surface. The gods agreed to create a new and longer lasting race, and chose Quetzalcoatl to lead the work. He knew that the human bones lay in caverns beneath the earth, so he began the descent through Mictlan's layers. His dog, Xolotl, helped him reach the lowest level. Nine rivers formed the final obstacle before the realm's ruler.

Quetzalcoatl met Mictlantecuhtli, the skull headed lord of the dead. He asked for the bones and explained that the gods wished to place people on the earth. Mictlantecuhtli agreed on one condition. Quetzalcoatl had to sound a shell horn and circle the realm four times. The demand was a trick. The shell had no holes and could not be played. Quetzalcoatl nevertheless found a way to sound it and completed the circuit. Mictlantecuhtli then allowed him to take the bones, although he had never intended to surrender them.

As Quetzalcoatl tried to leave, Mictlantecuhtli sought to stop him. Quetzalcoatl escaped with the bones, but fell into a pit and dropped them. Some broke, which the Aztecs associated with the different sizes of human beings. He recovered them and continued towards the earth.

Quetzalcoatl passed through Tamoanchan, a sacred paradise of forests and flower covered meadows, and sought the aged mother goddess Cihuaoatl. He mixed the bones with blood taken from his own body. Through this offering, he created the present human race and populated the barren earth, fulfilling the plan made by the gods after their return from the great bonfire at Teotihuacan.

Tezcatlipoca entered the presence of Quetzalcoatl, the priest king. He carried a polished obsidian mirror called a tezcatl. He addressed Quetzalcoatl as lord and priest. Then he urged him to look into the mirror and see his own flesh as others saw it.

Quetzalcoatl looked into the mirror. He did not see the pure and wise ruler whose reign had brought prosperity to his realm. He saw an aged or mortal face. The reflection appeared wrinkled and covered with foul sores. The sight horrified him.

Quetzalcoatl wondered how his subjects could look upon him without fear. He thought that they might rightly flee from him. The image damaged his confidence in his appearance and authority. It made him feel unfit to remain among his people, even though he had ruled them as their priest king.

Tezcatlipoca used the mirror to deceive his adversary. The Smoking Mirror exposed Quetzalcoatl to shame and left him open to further tricks. The act formed part of the continuing conflict between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. The mirror had shown Quetzalcoatl a face that weakened his confidence in standing before his people and in continuing his rule.

Quetzalcoatl ordered the rites of Tollan to cease offering human beings to the gods. Flowers, birds, butterflies, and other nonhuman gifts were to take their place. Rival priests opposed the order and challenged the religious system established by the ruler and high priest.

The account presents Quetzalcoatl as Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, the first great ruler of the Toltecs and the human manifestation of the god Quetzalcoatl. The Toltecs settled at Tula, also called Tollan, shortly after AD 900. Topiltzin claimed the title of the Feathered Serpent. Some accounts treat him as a heroic ruler who later left Mexico and sailed east. There, he was said to have become one with his divine counterpart. Other traditions place Quetzalcoatl among the morning and evening stars.

As priest-king, Quetzalcoatl was associated with priests, artists, wisdom, love, and truth. He was described as pure in character, and his realm flourished during his reign. His temple-palace stood above a mighty river that passed through Tula. It had four radiant apartments, facing the cardinal quarters. The eastern chamber was yellow with gold, the western blue with turquoise and jade, the southern white with pearls and shells, and the northern red with bloodstones. Each night at midnight, the king descended into the river to bathe.

The refusal of human sacrifice formed part of this religious order. The rival priests resisted it, but the account gives no later compromise or result. It does not state whether the rites changed again or how the conflict ended.

Quetzalcoatl arrived in Cholula as a civilising ruler. His arrival began the tradition of Cholula as a place ordered under his authority. The account presents him as a ruler who brought the city into a defined religious and civic relationship with him. It does not describe a battle, a journey, or an act of conquest connected with his arrival.

After reaching Cholula, Quetzalcoatl established his temple there. The temple became the fixed centre of his worship in the city. Its establishment gave his presence a permanent place, rather than leaving his authority connected only with his arrival or rule. The account also states that he established a priesthood. This priesthood belonged to the temple and maintained the religious order associated with Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatl then made Cholula his principal sacred centre. The city became the chief place linked with his worship and priesthood. His rule, temple, and religious officials were joined to Cholula as one tradition. The sequence is direct: Quetzalcoatl arrived, established his temple, created its priesthood, and gave Cholula first place among his sacred centres. The account provides no further names, ceremonies, teachings, or conflicts. Its central claim is that Cholula became the main religious seat of Quetzalcoatl after his arrival and establishment of authority there.