Art of the Americas

Feathered Serpent

The Feathered Serpent is a prominent supernatural entity or deity found in many Mesoamerican religions. It is called Quetzalcōātl among the Aztecs; Kukulkan among the Yucatec Maya; and Qʼuqʼumatz and Tohil among the Kʼicheʼ Maya. The double symbolism used by the Feathered Serpent is considered allegorical to the dual nature of the deity: being feathered represents its divine nature or ability to fly to reach the skies, while being a serpent represents its human nature or ability to creep on the ground among other animals of the Earth, a dualism very common in Mesoamerican deities.

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See also

• ▸History of Mexico
• ▸Intha-Danu language
• ▸Chachapoya culture

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.