Temple+of+the+Feathered+Serpent

=Temple of the Feathered Serpent: = = = =Relief Sculpture on the West Façade =

By: Kristina Moncayo
media type="youtube" key="Si7BQtHubws" height="289" width="355" General introduction in first 1:40. 

The great city of the Mexican Valley was named Teotihuacan by the Aztecs; it means, “The place of the gods.” An appropriate name, the structures in the city are monumental examples of the inhabitants’ devotion to the gods. The third largest pyramidal structure is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent measuring about 4,225 meters square. Uncovered in the early 20th century, the structure was believed to have been dedicated to the myth of the origin of time with its repeated depictions of the feathered serpent and another unidentified figure. The two motifs surrounding the temple were strategically placed juxtaposed to one another as dualistic entities to emphasize the duality of Mesoamerican religion while focusing on the relationship between the human and divine worlds, which is seen through the organization of and iconography on the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.



On the southern part of the city of Teotihuacan, located to the east, within the walls of the Ciudadela, lies the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. Excavations at the site of Teotihuacan were initiated by the federal government in 1905, but in 1917, Manuel Gamio discovered a structure built during the 2nd century C.E; it was partially covered in a thick layer of plaster. It was later found that this structure was actually covering another which had carved stone blocks and 3-dimentional relief carvings on the surface. It was revealed that the west façade and staircase remained intact, though most of the other three sides had been badly damaged. The four-terraced structure (would have been seven but the upper two terraces have been badly damaged) depicted high and low relief sculpture and has a central staircase which is lined with high relief sculptures. The west façade has been preserved by the Adosada platform located directly in front of it. On the image below, the area circled in red is the Adosada platform and the west façade.



The structure is constructed in the talud-tablero style (this style is used throughout Teotihuacan) On a pyramidal structure, the style consists of a flat, horizontal portion (tablero), and an angled, sloping side (talud).

Relief carvings covered the entire area. If the temple had not been damaged, it is believed the same images would have repeated on all four sides of the temple. According to scholar Saburo Sugiyama, there would have been a total of 377 sculptural head: 191 serpent heads (including those on the balustrades), and 186 headdress heads (Sugiyama 2005:56) (identification of this second figure discussed later).



Two motifs displayed on the temple are serpents with feathers and another with fangs and two circles on the forehead (identification discussed later). The first is described as the Feathered Serpent, the god of life and rich harvest, also referring to the Aztec creator god, Quetzalcoatl. The serpent’s head projects from a ring of eleven feathers and feather-covered body stretches across the terrace in profile ending in a rattle tail. This shape is seen not only on the rectangular tablero, but also the talud in low relief; it continuously wraps around the temple resembling a flowing river. Images of the Feathered Serpent can also be found along the balustrade of the central staircase (depicted on right).



//**Who is the Feathered Serpent?**// The most famous feathered serpent god of Mesoamerica has been given several names; first appearing with the Olmec, there was no specific name but only the repeated images of a feathered or plumed serpent; to the Maya he was Kukulkan, the Feathered Snake god (also Gukumatz “sovereign plumed serpent”); to the Toltec and Aztec, he was Quetzalcoatl, the quetzal-feathered serpent and creator god. The deity will be referred to in this paper as the Feathered Serpent; it should be understood that the image of a “Feathered Serpent” was commonly used throughout Mesoamerica and has been given different names in different languages. Quetzalcoatl has been a name most commonly used to refer to the relief on the temple in Teotihuacan due to the Aztec founding in the 14th century. It is also necessary to note that the name Quetzalcoatl has be related throughout sources as rulers of Mesoamerican cities; distinguishing the rulers from the myth tend to be a trying task for scholars. All following myths and tales of the Feathered Serpent have some derivatives amongst cultures, though, overall, have the same basic storyline.

Quetzalcoatl translates to “Feathered Serpent;” he is covered in green feathers and has been depicted by most societies of Mesoamerica. To the Toltec, he the deity associated with scenes of human sacrifice. He is also opposed to the sky god; the green feathers represent the earth’s surface. Quetzalcoatl was also seen as the Morning Star whose opposite was Xolotl, the Evening Star. According to myth, Quetzalcoatl was tricked by Texcatlipoca into a “sexual misdemeanor” (Burland 1952:127) causing Quetzalcoatl to retreat from Mexico and burn on a raft of serpent skins; from this, his heart went into the sky to become the Morning Star. He was said to return on a day //Ehecatl// in a year //Ce Acatl//. //Ehecatl// means wind, which is associated with Quetzalcoatl because “he was also lord of the winds and consequently the breath of life” (Burland 1952:127). //Ehecatl// is expressed by a glyph in the form of a wind mask which may explain the alternating figure on the temple (discussion of this mask later).
 * //Myth//**

The second high relief sculpture alternating the Feathered Serpent has large eyes and tusks; its identity is currently debated amongst scholars. There are two possibilities; it is either a representation of Tlaloc, the Aztec rain god, or the representation of a headdress in the form of Cipactli.



The main god of Teotihuacan, Tlaloc, the god of rain (and water), rules the underworld and resides in a place deep underground where the water from heaven and the underworld meet; he regenerates life here (intro video). He was commonly depicted with large eyes and fangs and wore a headdress of heron feathers and carried a rattle snake. All these pointed to the mysterious relief representing Tlaloc, but recent research has concluded otherwise.

The rings, which were once believed to have been around Tlaloc’s eyes, were actually on the forehead. The eyes below the rings are also directly above what looks like the upper jaw (from where the teeth and fangs are visible). The rectangular shapes form scale-like patterns and knot at the top of the head. Scholars Karl Taube and Saburo Sugiyama individually concluded the relief as serpentine headdresses on the bodies of the Feathered Serpent. Sugiyama states the headdress is of the day sign //Cipactli//, which is the first day of the Aztec ritual calendar (Pasztory pp. 111). The association with the beginning of the calendar can equally relate to the beginning of time, a new cycle in the calendar. Reading the headdress as that of Cipactli, further states that the temple was dedicated to the myth of the origin of time.



Image (top right) highlights headdress on the temple at Teotihuacan. Other examples of the headdress found at Teotihuacan (a) Detail of a Zacuala mural showing part of a feathered serpent’s body with an overlapping headdress representation (Berlo pp. 209); (b) Detail of a Tepantitla mural. A feathered serpent on which a headdress representation is superimposed can be seen in the border (Berlo pp. 207)



Despite an uncertainty, the image is meant to be interpreted with the Feathered Serpent heads as “dualistic entities” (Sugiyama 2005:56). The opposition of the two figures are evident: the head shape (one round, one square), the petal-like feathers of the Feathered Serpent and the square scales of the headdress, the location of the sculptures are on two opposite side of the body of the serpent. The opposition plays in the Mesoamerican need for duality. The Feathered Serpent is a symbol for life and fertility (can relate to a wet season) while in Aztec iconography he is also a symbol of fire representing a dry season (Pasztory pp. 110). The images were juxtaposed to bring together meanings of the duality of life and death. For the inhabitants of Teotihuacan, how each day and season went was solely up to the gods, so the images on the temple worked together as a constant reminder of this belief. Besides sitting as low reliefs on a temple façade, the architects designed the reliefs to be almost 3-dimentional. The symbolism of the projecting heads is discussed in the next section.

Scholar Cecelia Klein has suggested that the ringed “eyes” of Tlaloc refers to mirror. These mirrors were associated with eyes and have been seen throughout Teotihuacan. According to George Kubler, the eyes in Teotihuacan iconography represent “shining brilliance” (Berlo 1988:181); they also represent the mirror face (which is simply a mirror identifying an entire face and not just eyes) which can be found at the center of headdresses (like those of the temple). The images below are mirrors which appear in the center of other Teotihuacan-style headdresses.



With specific reference to the Feathered serpent now, the ring of feathers around the protruding sculpture can be read as the “mirror as a flower” motif (or in this case, feathers) which refers to a natural form (the Feathered Serpent being associated with the green earth). Mirrors have also be said to represent fire or water, which are other attributes associated with the Feathered Serpent. The “mirrors as faces” (Berlo 1988:182) could even be a face reflected by the human world, but a more probable explanation is the mirror as a cave. Mirrors are considered to be “supernatural caves or passageways” (Berlo 1988:194) representing “a world to be looked into, but also one that living beings cannot pass” (Berlo 1988:194). It was commonly believed that mirrors were “caves for the gods to enter into the human world” (Berlo 1988:195). Mayan art depict serpents emerging from the face of mirrors (Berlo 1988:195). On the temple, the body of the feathered serpent seems to be passing through the feathered rimmed mirror entering the human world; this is the way the god communicated with the world of the living (Berlo 1988:197). The Feathered Serpent with his headdress is literally entering the human world from the divine to communicate a message to the inhabitants of Teotihuacan, and that is: to please the gods (which was usually through human sacrifice). A deeper look into the actions of the citizens of Teotihuacan and how they linked their world with that of the gods is looked at in the following section. The images below are representations of mirrors as passage ways from other Mesoamerican groups.

The Feathered Serpent, according to A. Lopez, depicted on architecture is related to an actual attribute of the serpent; one which links a sacred, divine world with that of the human.

“Feathered serpents were related to time in a fundamental way; the creatures were believed to have brought time to this world and, by that act, to have defined space. [. . .] they were often used as columns to keep space open so that other entities could live between or under them. This cosmogonical meaning may have underlain an emic view of the Feathered Serpent representations on columns, balustrades, or moldings of pyramids or in border areas of mural that defined sacred space. This view seems to fit the interpretation of the headdress head carries [. . .] on its body.” (Sugiyama 2005:62)

By defining the temple space as sacred, the structure takes on a whole new meaning. No longer is it simple a square pyramidal monumental structure, but it is now a sacred place where the gods come to communicate with the human world (as represented through the mirror iconography).

If the alternating images are a representation of Tlaloc, it would make sense to relate the temple with the human sacrifices found and ultimately warfare (human sacrifice is strongly related with the Feathered Serpent and Tlaloc). There are approximately 200 bodies of young males found sacrificed at the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It would be appropriate to connect the sacrifices to the people’s belief that the rain god would give water to the land if they gave these offerings. It is crucial to note the bodies were dressed as warriors and had mirrors which would have been placed on their backs (Taube believed mirrors were also a symbol of war based on their association with fire and water) (Berlo 1952:365). Headdresses similar to the ones depicted on the temple façade are worn (evident by the two circles on the forehead, also known as “goggles”). Human sacrifice was a way to please the gods, but warrior sacrifice meant the blood was, in a sense, stronger, and believed to “slake the thirst of the gods, just as the sea provided water to the parched earth” (Read 2002:47).

If the images are representations of the headdress of Cipactli, according to Sugiyama, it is “an emblem of royal power” (Pasztory 1997:110). It would have been place with the Feathered Serpent to be interpreted politically as the power of the “priest-ruler” of the Ciudadela (Pasztory 1997:111). The Ciudadela was an area where ceremonies may have taken place such as the coronation of a king or the conservation of a high priest. Karl Taube also associates this relief as a form of the fire (or war) serpent, which is associated with warfare. Taube states that the headdress head put on its [Feathered Serpent] body probably represented specific attributes of the Feathered Serpent (Sugiyama 2005:76). By adding the representation of the headdress, all meanings associated with the Feathered Serpent are further emphasized which further emphasize the overall meaning of the temple serving as a sacred location representing the communication between the human and divine worlds. The humans communicate through sacrifice while the deity enters the human world and brings water and, thus, life to the city of Teotihuacan.

The sculptures on the west façade of the temple at Teotihuacan represent the Feathered Serpent who wears the headdress of Cipactli on his body. The archaeological materials (the relief sculptures) discovered at the beginning of the 20th century correspond with strong iconographic data and with this, its overall interpretation. The two motifs were purposefully placed juxtaposed to one another creating dualistic entities which communicate the duality of the Mesoamerican religion. Interpretations made show that this organization aids to conclude the overall purpose and meaning of the Temple of the Feathered Serpent as representing time and the life that the deities provide, linking the human world with the divine.

Recent Explanations
[|Click here for a more recent explantion of the reliefs on the temple's West facade]

Note: you may need to download Apple Quicktime to view film [|Download here]

Acosta, Jorge R. 1966 Teotihuacan: Official Guide. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Berlo, Janet Catherine. 1992 Art, ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 8th and 9th October 1988. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Berrin, Kathleen 1988 Feathered serpents and flowering trees: reconstructing the murals of Teotihuacán. San Francisco, CA: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Burland, C.A 1952 The Wind Mask of Quetzalcoatl. Man 52 (Aug.): 127-128.

Lubman, David and Brenda Kiser 2000 Ancient Echoes: The Origins of Sound Sculptures. Public Art Review 11 (2): 8-12.

Pasztory, Esther 1997 Teotihuacan: An Experiment in Living. University of Oklahoma Press.

Read, Kay Amere and Jason Gonzalez. 2002 Mesoamerican Mythology. USA: Oxford University Press.

Saburo, Sugiyama 1989 Burials Dedicated to the Old Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan, Mexico. American Antiquity 54 (1): 85-106. 1993 Worldview Materialized in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 4 (2): 103-129. 2005 Ideology at the Feathered Serpent Human Sacrifice, Militarism, and Rulership: Materialization of State. New York: Cambridge University Press.

