Chapter 3 Part 6, Quetzalcoatl as Lord of the Winds

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section eleven, Chapter three, Part six of American hero Myths.
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visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Lindis HENRIESA Jones. American
hero Myths, A study in the Native religions of the

(00:23):
Western Continent by Daniel Garrison Brinton, Chapter three, Part six.
Ketselkowattle as Lord of the winds. As I have shown
in the introductory chapter, the light God, the Lord of
the East, is also master of the cardinal points and
of the winds which blow from them, and therefore of

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the air. This was conspicuously so with Ketselkuattal. As a divinity.
He is most generally mentioned as the god of the
air and winds. He was said to sweep the roads
before Tallach, god of the rains, because in that climate,
heavy downpours are preceded by violent gusts. Torquemada names him

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as God of the air and states that in Cholulah
this function was looked upon as his chief attribute, and
the term was distinctly applied to him. Nanihehekatli, lord of
the four winds, In one of the earliest myths, he
is called Yawali Ehekatal, meaning the wheel of the winds,

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the winds being portrayed in the picture writing as a
circle or wheel, with the figure with five angles inscribed
upon it the sacred pentagram. His image carried in the
left hand this wheel, and in the right a scepter
with the end recurved. Another reference to this wheel or

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mariner's box, was in the shape of the temples which
were built in his honor as God of the winds.
These we are informed, were completely circular, without an angle anywhere. Still,
another symbol which was sacred to him as Lord of
the four winds, was the cross. It was not the
Latin but the Greek cross with four short arms of

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equal length. Several of these were painted on the mantle
which he wore in the picture writings, and they are
occasionally found on the sacred jades which bear other of
his symbols. This has often been made use of by
one set of writers to prove that Ketzucuwato was some
Christian teacher, and by others as evidence that these native

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tales were of a date subsequent to the conquest. But
a moment's consideration of the meaning of this cruciform symbol,
as revealed in its native names, shows where it belongs
and what it refers to. These names are three and
their significance are the rain God, the tree of our life,

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the God of strength. Footnote. The Aztec words are Kiawito teoto,
chiaoweil rain, teotal god, Tonaka quahuitl from two our naka
flesh or life, Quahwhito tree, chicawaliito teato from chicawalze strength

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or courage, and teotal God. These names are given by
ixil chotil history, chichimeka capitolo one end footnote. As the
rains fertilize the fields and ripen the food crops, so
he who sends them is indeed the prop or tree
of our subsistence, and thus becomes the giver of health

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and strength. No other explanation is needed or is in
fact allowable. The winds and rains come from the four
cardinal points. This fact was figuratively represented by a cruciform figure,
the ends directed toward each of these. The god of
the four winds bore these crosses as one of his emblems.

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The sign came to be connected with fertility, reproduction, and
life through its associations as symbol of the rains, which
restore the parched fields and aid in the germination of seeds.
Their influence in this respect is most striking in those
southern countries where a long dry season is followed by

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heavy tropical showers, which in a few days changed the
whole face of nature from one of parched sterility to
one of a wealth of vegetable growth. As there is
a close connection in meteorology between the winds and the rains,
so in Aztec mythology there was an equally near one
between ketzilkowatal as the god of the winds, and the

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gods of rain Tallaloch and his sister or wife or
mother child to Whetlicue. According to one myth, these were
created by the four primeval brother gods and placed in
the heavens, where they occupy a large mansion divided into
four apartments, with a court in the middle. In this

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court stand four enormous vases of water and an infinite
number of very small slaves. The rain drops stand ready
to dip out the water from one or the other
vase and pour it on the earth. In showers. Klaluk
means literally the wine of the earth, the figure being
that as man's heart is made glad and his strength

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revived by the joyous spirit of wine, so is the
soil refreshed and restored by the rains. LaLiLi earth oak
from oakley, the native wine made from the Maguey, enormous
quantities of which are consumed by the lower classes in
Mexico at this day, and which was well known to

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the ancients. Another derivation of the name is from tlali
and onok, being to be hence resident on the earth.
This does not seem appropriate end footnote. Kullaloch Ta Kutli,
the Lord of the Wine of the Earth, was the
proper title of the male divinity who sent the fertilizing

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showers and thus caused the seed to grow in barren places.
It was he who gave abundant crops and saved the
parched and dying grain after times of drought. Therefore, he
was appealed to as the giver of good things of
corn and wine, and the name of his home Kalalokan,
became synonymous with that of the terrestrial paradise. His wife

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or sister Chauchiwitelchiue, she of the emerald skirts, was goddess
of flowing streams, brooks, lakes and rivers. Her name probably
has reference to their limpid waters. It is derived from chauchiwital,
a species of jade or precious green stone, very highly
esteemed by the natives of Mexico and Central America, and

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worked by them into ornaments and talismans, often elaborately engraved
and inscribed with symbols by an art now altogether lost.
According to one myth, Ketsekowattal's mother took the name Chilchiwitel
when she ascended to heaven. By another, he was engendered
by such a sacred stone, and by all he was

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designated as the discoverer of the art of cutting and
polishing them, and the patron deity of workers in this branch.
The association of this stone and its color, a bluish
green of various shades, with the God of Light and
the air, may have reference to the blue sky where
he has his home, or to the blue and green

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waters where he makes his bed. Whatever the connection was,
it was so close that the festivals of all three Pelaloch,
child Chiwitlique, and Keselkowatl were celebrated together on the same day,
which was the first of the first month of the
Aztec calendar in February. Footnote Sahagun Historia Libro II Capitulo I.

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A worthy but visionary Mexican antiquary. Don J. M. Melgar
has recognized in Aztec mythology the frequency of the symbolism
which expresses the fertilizing action of the sky the sun
and rains upon the earth. He thinks that in some
of the manuscripts, as the Codex Borgia, it is represented

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by the rabbit fecundating the frog. See his examine comparativo
entre losigno symbolicos delas theogonias i cosmogonias antiguas ilosque existen
in Los Manuscritos Mexicanus, page twenty one, Vera Cruz, eighteen
seventy two en footnote. In his character as God of Days,

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the deity brings back the diurnal suns and thus the
seasons and years. Kesocowa was the reputed inventor of the
Mexican calendar. He himself was said to have been born
on chey Acatl, one cane which was the first day
of the first month, the beginning of the reckoning, and
the name of the day was often added to his own,

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as the count of the days really began with the beginning.
It was added that heaven itself was created on this
same day chey Acatl. In some myths, Ketsukuwato was the
sole framer of the calendar. In others, he was assisted
by the first created pair Sipoctli and Osomuco, who, as

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I have said, appeared to represent the sky and the earth.
A certain cave in the province of Quernava Qua Nac
was pointed out as the scene of their deliberations. Sipoctonal
chose the first name, Osomuco the second, and Ketsukuwato the third,
and so on in turn. Footnote Mendieta, his story Ecclesiastia Indiana,

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Libro II, Capitolo fourteen, unatonta fixione comments the worthy chronicler
upon the narrative comoson las de masque cree and Cerca
de sustiosis. This has been the universal opinion. My ambition
in writing this book is that it will be universal
no longer end footnote. In many mythologies, the gods of

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light and warmth are by a natural analogy, held to
be also the deities which preside over plenty, fertility, and reproduction.
This was quite markedly the case with Ketzucouato. His land
and city were the homes of abundance. His people, the Toltecs,
were skilled in all arts, all of which they had

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been taught by Ketzucoato himself. They were moreover very rich.
They lacked nothing. Food was never scarce, and crops never failed.
They had no need to save the small ears of corn,
so all the use they made of them was to
burn them in heeding their baths. As thus the promoter

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of fertility in the vegetable world, he was also the
genius of reproduction in the human race. The ceremonies of marriage,
which were in use among the Aztecs, were attributed to him,
and when the wife found she was with child, it
was to him that she was told to address her thanks.
One of her relatives recited to her a formal exhortation

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which began as follows, my beloved little daughter, precious as
sapphire and jade, tender and generous, our lord who dwells
everywhere and reins his bounties on whom he pleases has
remembered you. The God now wishes to give you the
fruit of marriage, and has placed within you a jewel

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a rich feather. Perhaps you have watched, and swept and
offered incense for such which good works. The kindness of
the Lord has been made manifest, and it was decreed
in heaven and hell before the beginning of the world,
that this grace should be accorded you. For these reasons,
Our Lord Ketsukowatl, who is the author and creator of things,

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has shown you this favor. Thus has resolved he in heaven,
who is at once both man and woman, and is
known under the names twice Master and twice mistress. Footnote
Sahagoon Historia, Libro six, Capitolo twenty five. The bisexual nature

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of the Mexican gods referred to in this passage is
well marked in many features of their mythology. Ketsukuwatl is
often addressed in the prayers as father and mother, just
as in the Egyptian ritual Chenoum was appealed to as
father of fathers and mother of mothers. Tiel History of

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the Egyptian Religion, page one thirty four I have endeavored
to explain this widespread belief in hermaphroditic deities in my
work entitled The Religious Sentiment, Its Source and Aim, Pages
sixty five to sixty eight, New York, eighteen seventy six,
end footnote. It is recorded in the old histories that

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the priests dedicated to his service wore a peculiar head
dress imitating a snail shell, and for that reason they
were called kwatsikik. No one has explained this curiously shaped bonnet,
but it was undoubtedly because ketzil Kowalta was the god
of reproduction. For among the Aztecs, the snail was a

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well known symbol of the process of parturition. Ketzil Kowalta
was that marvelous artist who fashions in the womb of
the mother the delicate limbs and tender organs of the
unborn infant. Therefore, when a couple of high rank were
blessed with child, an official orator visited them, and the baby,

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being placed naked before him, he addressed it beginning with
these words, My child and Lord, precious gem emerald sapphire
beauteous feather product of a noble union. You have been
formed far above us in the ninth heaven, where dwell
the two highest divinities. His divine majesty has fashioned you

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in a mold, as one fashions a ball of gold.
You have been chiseled as a precious stone, artistically dressed
by your father and mother, the Great God and the
Great Goddess, assisted by their son Ketzelcowattal. As he was
thus the god on whom depended the fertilization of the womb,

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sterile women made their vows to him and invoked his
aid to be relieved from the shame of barrenness. In
still another direction is this function of his god goddship shown.
The worship of the geniasic principle is as often characterized
by an excessive austerity as by indulgence in sexual acts.

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Here we have an example. Nearly all the accounts tell
us that Keselcowatto was never married, and that he held
himself aloof from all women in absolute chastity. We are
told that on one occasion his subjects urged upon him
the propriety of marriage, and to their importunities. He returned

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the dark answer that yes, he had determined to take
a wife, but that it would be when the oak
tree shall cast chestnuts, when the sun shall rise in
the west, when one can cross the sea dry shod,
and when nightingales grow beards. Footnote Duran in Kingsboro Volume eight,

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page two sixty seven. I believe Alva Exelchottel is the
only author who specifically assigns a family to Ketzocoato. This
author does not mention a wife, but names two sons,
one Gillochin, who was killed in war, the other Pocchoto,
who was educated by his nurse talks Quille, and who,

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after the destruction of Toyan, collected the scattered Toltecs and
settled with them around the Lake of Tezuco. Relacionis historicas
page three ninety four in Kingsboro Volume nine. All this
is in contradiction to the reports of earlier and better authorities.
For instance, Motolinia says pointedly, no fue casarlo ni selecnusio

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moher Historia de los indios Epristola promial and footnote. Following
the example of their master, many of the priests of
his cult refrained from sexual relations, and as a mortification
of the flesh, they practiced a painful rite by transfixing
the tongue and male member with the sharp thorns of

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the maguey plant, an austerity which, according to their traditions,
he was the first to institute. There were also in
the cities where his special worship was in vogue, houses
of nuns, the inmates of which had vowed perpetual virginity,
and it was said that Ketselkowatl himself had founded these institutions.

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His connection with the worship of the reproductive principle seems
to be further indicated by his surname chey Acatl. This
means one read and is the name of a day
in the calendar. But in the Nawata language, the word
acatal reed cornstalk is also applied to the virile member,
and it has been suggested that this is the real

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signification of the word when applied to the hero god.
The suggestion is plausible, but the word does not seem
to have been so construed by the early writers. If
such an understanding had been current, it could scarcely have
escaped the inquiries of such a close student and thorough
master of the Nawatal tongue as father Sahagun. On the

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other hand, it must be said, in corroboration of this identification,
that the same idea appears to be conveyed by the
symbol of the serpent. One correct translation of the name
ketzil Kowato is the beautiful serpent. His temple in the
city of Mexico, according to Torquemala, had a door in
the form of a serpent's mouth, and in the Codex

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Vaticanas numbered thirty seven thirty eight, published by Lord Kingsboro,
of which we have an explanation by competent native authority,
he is represented as a serpent, while in the same codex,
in the astrological signs, which were supposed to control the
different parts of the human body, the serpent is pictured

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as the sign of the male member. This indicates the
probability that, in his function as god of reproduction, ketzil
Koato may have stood in some relation to phallic rites.
This same sign che Kuato one serpent used in their astrology,
was that of one of the gods of the merchants,

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and apparently for this reason, some writers have identified the
chief god of traffic, Yakeatekutli, god of journeying with ketzil Kowatl.
This seems the more likely, as another name of this
divinity was Iacoco Lui Qui with the end curved, a
name which appears to refer to the curved rod or stick,

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which was both his sign and one of those of
ketzl Kuato. The merchants also constantly associated in their prayers
this deity with Wisilopochli, which is another reason for supposing
their patron was one of the four primeval brothers, and
but another manifestation of ketzil Koato. His character as patron

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of arts, the model of orators, and the cultivator of
peaceful intercourse among men would naturally lend itself to this position.
But ketzil Kowattle, as god of the violent wind storms
which destroy the houses and crops, and as one who
in his own history was driven from his kingdom and
lost his all, was not considered a deity of invariably

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good augury. His day and sign cheyacatl one read was
of bad omen. A person born on it would not
succeed in life. His plans and possessions would be lost,
blown away as it were, by the wind, and dissipated
into thin air. Through the association of his person with

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the prying winds. He came curiously enough to be the
patron saint of a certain class of thieves who stupefied
their victims before robbing them. They applied to him to
exercise his maleficent power on those whom they planned to
deprive of their goods. His image was born at the
head of the gang when they made their raids, and

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the preferred season was when his sign was in the ascendant.
This is a singular parallelism to the Aryan Hermes myth,
as I have previously observed Chapter one the representation of
Ketzil Kowattle in the Aztec manuscripts. His images and the
forms of his temples and altars referred to his double

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functions as lord of the Light and the winds. He
was not represented with pleasing features. On the contrary, Sahagun
tells us that his face, that is that of his image,
was very ugly, with a large head and a full
beard footnote La carkitenia era muifeya ila caresa larga ibarbua

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Historia Libro II, Capitulo three. On the other hand, ix
Letokitel speaks of him as the beya fegura aoya Chichimeka
Capitolo eight. He was occasionally represented with his face painted black,
probably expressing the sun in its absence end footnote. The

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beard in this and similar instances was to represent the
rays of the sun. His hair at times was also
shown rising straight from his forehead for the same reason.
At times he was painted with a large hat and
flowing robe, and was then called Father of the sons
of the clouds, that is, of the rain drops. These

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various representations doubtless referred to him at different parts of
his checkered career, and as a god under different manifestations
of his divine nature. The religious art of the Aztecs
did not demand any uniformity in this respect. End of
Chapter three, Part six