The Dragon Stone

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Location:
Aztec Regions, South/Central America

Description:
Quetzalcoatl is a Toltec and Aztec god. He is the feathered (or plumed) serpent, god of civilization. He is shown both as a feathered serpent and as a human man wearing feathers.

Quetzalcoatl is important in Aztec mythology for being the god that created humans in this world. There had been four suns before this one. Each had been destroyed and a new sun has taken its place. When the fourth sun was destroyed in a flood the gods created the fifth. Quetzalcoatl went down into the underworld to retrieve the bones of the people of the fourth sun.

The underworld was ruled by Mictlantecuhtli, god of death. He did not want to give up the bones, so tried to trick Quetzalcoatl. The deal was that if Quetzalcoatl could travel around the underworld four times, blowing a conch, he could take the bones. The trick was he had not drilled any holes in the shell so that it would not sound.

Quetzalcoatl called upon worms to make the holes and bees to go into the trumpet to make sound. In doing so, he completed the task and took the bones. Michlantechutli allowed this at first but then changed his mind. He ordered a hole dug. As Quetzalcoatl approached the hole, a quail popped out and startled him. He fell into the hole, shattering the bones in the fall. This is why people are not all the same size today!

Quetzalcoatl revived and carried on with the bones. They were given to the goddess Cihuacoatl. She ground the bones into power. Quetzalcoatl mixed his blood in with the bone power and the people of today were formed from the mixture.

There are alternative versions of this story. The hole is not always dug by Michlantechutli's minions... sometimes Quetzalcoatl meets the quail by chance and the quail is held responsible for gnawing at the bones and damaging them. Some version do not have a hole. The quail is sent directly to attack Quetzalcoatl. The journey to the underworld can have Quetzalcoatl's twin brother, Xolotl, with him. The bones are not always ground up by Cihuacoatl before being mixed with Quetzalcoatl's blood. The bones being broken are also used as an explaination for why humans are mortal. Like many myths, over time the story has been elaborated and changed by the tellers.

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