Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl

Do not confuse with the god Quetzalcóatl.

Ce Ácatl Topiltzin (from Nahuatl: Cē Ācatl Topīltzin Quetzalcōātl 'One Reed Our Lord Serpent of Precious Feathers ') was a historical figure of Mesoamerica, which has been mythologized during the last centuries. According to some sources, he was born on May 13, 895 AD. C., at a site called Michatlauhco (translated 'Place of the fish in the ravine'), today associated with the town of Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl, state of Morelos, Mexico. He disappeared at the age of 52 on the coast of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.

He created a kingdom of peace, wisdom and artistic proliferation. The controversy of his reign forced him to leave for the east, but according to the sources of Chimalpahin, Motolinia, Ixtlilxochitl and the Códice Ríos, he promised to return.

According to the sources of Mariano Veytia, Las Casas and Mendieta, he would not return, but would send his envoys to judge and recreate the future of Mexicans.

Biography

His biography is preserved in various documents, such as the Anales de Cuauhtitlan, the informants of Bernardino de Sahagún, Ixtlilxóchitl and Durán.

Through these documents it is possible to reconstruct his life, whose main incidents were the following: around the age of thirteen he was a student in the city of Xōchicalco. He was elected king at Tula in 923. At some point during his reign, according to tradition, he was "tempted"; by the god Tezcatlipoca who convinced him to get drunk with pulque making him believe that he was "medicine", which is why he was expelled from the kingdom. He made a pilgrimage through the Anahuac and from there he marched to the east.

In 947 he headed for the city of Hueitlapala or Huehuetlapallan, near present-day Coatzacoalcos, where he embarked on a "raft of snakes" and there he burned himself. According to other versions, such as that of the Mexican historian and politician Vicente Riva Palacio, Quetzalcoatl would have died in 931, and his death would have been linked to a massive migration of Toltecs to Mayan lands, more specifically to Uxmal, around from the year 981.

Because of the nobility of his life and teachings, his descendants named him Nacxitl Quetzalcōātl, 'fourth step of the feathered serpent' or Meconetzin 'the son of the maguey'. Topiltzin defined the canon of Toltec knowledge, collected in various documents, mainly in the oral book Huēhuehtlahtōlli, 'ancient words', preserved through the transcriptions of Olmos and Bernardino de Sahagún.

The teaching of Topiltzin is collected in the following verse of the Matritense Codex: «God is one, Quetzalcóatl is His name. He asks for nothing, only snakes and butterflies you will offer him».

Another interpretation

According to legend, this was the priest king of the city of Tollan in the 10th century AD. Tollan-Xicocotitlan (Tula) was the capital of the Toltec culture. He was the main priest of the god Quetzalcóatl, and he took the arts and sciences from the gods to give them to men. He replaced human sacrifice with that of birds, butterflies and other insects. After seeing himself in a mirror that Tezcatlipoca showed him, he considered that his face was horrible, so he grew a beard and later began to wear a mask.

Ce Ácatl Topiltzin is considered a representation of said divinity on earth, which is why he leads an exemplary and chaste life. However, not all the inhabitants of Tollan-Xicocotitlan see him with good eyes and he begins to have confrontations with the worshipers of Tezcatlipoca, and it is they, through deception, who make him get drunk and break his celibacy. Due to his terrible lack, Ce Ácatl Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl must abdicate and go into exile, together with his followers, to the Yucatan Peninsula and the countries of Mesoamerica, but not before having promised his return.

Ce Ácatl Topiltzin's Legacy

Ce Ácatl Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl, according to legend, does not die in exile, but embarks again on the shores of the Gulf and disappears into the waters, becoming "the morning star", Venus. Ce Ácatl promised to return on a certain date from the Xiuhpohualli that coincided with the arrival of the Spanish in the year 1518, which frightened the Mexicas, who considered themselves heirs of the Toltec culture, despite having altered their teachings.

According to Jorge Larde y Larin's book, El Salvador: Discovery, Conquest, and Colonization, "At the dawn of 1520, Captain Hernán Cortés remained apparently victorious in Tenochtitlan, occupying in peace and quiet the capital of the Tenochcas, Mexicas or Aztecs and held prisoner Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, the huey tlatoani of the Mexica Empire. Some noble emissaries sent by the lords of Huehuetlapallan or Antigua Tlapallan, a mysterious oriental country located in the region of the sacred lake of Güija, from where, according to all traditions, legends and ancient paintings, emanated the high pre-Columbian cultures of America invoking Quetzalcóatl, the Star of the Dawn".

Ce Ácatl Topiltzin appears in many of the cultures, legends and traditions in Mesoamerican countries, recognizing him as the one who built, rebuilt and glorified many cities or ceremonial centers in Mesoamerica during his exile. The tradition of the Señorío de Cuscatlán indicates that the city of Cuscatlán was founded in 1054 by the old Topiltzin Atzil, last king of Tula of Anahuac.