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Dragon Myth Entry

Mesoamerican

Quetzalcoatl

Mesoamerica

Here, the serpent wears feathers and carries wind, divinity, and thought. Quetzalcoatl - known to the Maya as Kukulkan - is not merely a beast: it is a god of knowledge, creation, and the dawn.

Associated With

Wind, knowledge, divinity, creation, Venus the morning star

Atmosphere

Here, the serpent wears feathers and carries wind, divinity, and thought.

Print Museum CardQuetzalcoatl illustration

Name

Quetzalcoatl

Mesoamerican

Region

Mesoamerica

Teotihuacan to the Postclassic Aztec period

Atlas Context

This entry is part of Where Dragons Dwell, an interactive atlas of dragon myths and sacred serpent traditions across world cultures.

Sources & Further Reading

Every reference below was verified against a live URL or a standard published edition. Primary texts and foundational ethnographic records are marked primary; modern academic studies and museum resources follow.

  • The Florentine Codex (Digital Florentine Codex, Getty)

    Primary

    Bernardino de Sahagún with Nahua elders and scribes · 1577

    Fully digitized 16th-century Nahuatl–Spanish encyclopedia of Mexica culture; a core primary source on Quetzalcoatl.

  • Feathered serpent head, Teotihuacan (The Met)

    Museum

    c. 200–600 CE

    Feathered-serpent imagery at Teotihuacan, centuries before the Aztecs.

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Quetzalcoatl”

    Scholarship

    current online edition

    Covers the deity from Teotihuacan through Toltec and Aztec periods: wind, Venus, calendar, and crafts.

  • Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire

    Scholarship

    David Carrasco · 1982 (rev. 2000)

    University of Chicago Press study of Quetzalcoatl as deity and Tollan's priest-king ideal.