Was There A Real Quetzalcoatl?

[Xanatic*]

In mexican mythoogy, there are many gods. One of the important ones is Quetzalcoatl, described both as a winged serpent but at times also as a bearded man.
It has been said that when the spaniards showed up, the natives though those beardy weirdys were Quetzalcoatl coming back.

On another thread, Fabio Picasso posted some speculation about the mexican god Quetzalcoatl having perhaps been inspired by a visit to Mexico by St Brendan the navigator. Brendan is said to have journeyed across the Atlantic to do missionary work around the 600s.

It seemed worth having a thread about this. I`ll add the file that Fabio did, which is an article from 1888 about it.

Discuss.

 

[PeteByrdie]

Clearly, the legend conflates a bearded time traveller and his pet deinonychus, who visited meso-america in ancient times.

 

[Iris]

I've just finished watching a Graham Hancock documentary called Ancient Apocalypse.
His theory is that the snakes were falling comets that caused the end of the ice age and that after that people from more advanced civilizations came to help people gain skills again.
He says that more advanced people had lived beside less advanced people the same as today.

 

[Frideswide]

people from more advanced civilizations

if the way this works is that a species has to be uplifted by external aliens, who uplifted those aliens?

other aliens? so who uplifted the other aliens?

somewhere, somehow there must be a species that managed it all for the first time off their own bat?

So, if that mechanism exists, why do we need to invoke it here?

I can't see any evidence for the ancient alien theory that stands up. Is there a real argument that something other than the mundane explanations were in play on this planet and that therefore we need to explain what that something is?

Which is a classic lets invent something and build castles in Spain to explain it

 

[Iris]

He didn't mention aliens, just people from here who were more advanced.

 

[Frideswide]

He didn't mention aliens, just people from here who were more advanced.

seems fair!

although unless it's something specific, I'd favour a more allopatric (nicking a biology word) theory.

 

[Xanatic*]

The mormons do claim that Jesus visited the Americas. However he might not actually have been bearded.

 

[Mythopoeika]

if the way this works is that a species has to be uplifted by external aliens, who uplifted those aliens?

other aliens? so who uplifted the other aliens?

Chuck Norris, of course.

 

[Tempest63]

The mormons do claim that Jesus visited the Americas. However he might not actually have been bearded.

He must have thumbed a lift off the Vikings.

 

[Tunn11]

seems fair!

although unless it's something specific, I'd favour a more allopatric (nicking a biology word) theory.

I think it was aliens who built the offices we had to move into before I retired; probably the Borg.

Back on topic, does the timeline work? Aztecs migrated to "classic" locations about 1100 so Brendan would have encountered the Aztec in their original location or the peoples the Aztec displaced about 500 years before. Dunno, are my dates correct? Would the legend survive that long if there were changes in population?