The third form of Quetzalcoatl, which also belongs to the south, is the snake; he is a snake-god, or, at least, merged into an ancient snake-god. The snake is not, as far as I know, a direct symbol of the air, and this attribute is, therefore, not the one pertaining to him from the beginning; but the snake represents the season which, in conjunction with heat and rain, contains the fructifying influence of the atmosphere, spring, the rejuvenating year. However, the very name of the god signifies, according to the usual explanation given to it, "the feathered snake, the snake covered with feathers, the green feathered-snake, the wood-snake with rich feathers." A snake has consequently been added to the human figure of this god. The other name, under which he is adored in Yucatan, is Cuculcan, a snake covered with godlike feathers. The entrance to his round temple in Mexico represented the jaw and fangs of a tremendous snake. Quetzalcoatl disappeared in Goatzacoalco, the Snake-corner (or nook), and a ship of snakes brought him to Tlapalla. His followers in Yucatan were called snakes, Cocome (plural of Coatl), while he himself bore the name of Cocolcan in this country as well as in Chiapas. The snake attribute signifies, in connection with Huitzilopochtli, also the beneficial influence of the atmosphere, the yearly renewed course of nature, the continual rejuvenation of nature in germs and blossoms. The northern celestial god, Odin, is in many ways connected with snakes, he transformed himself into a snake, and bore the by-name of Snake.
The relationship of Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, as given in the fable, may be touched upon here. The driving away of the latter by Tezcatlipoca does not, as may be supposed, signify a contest between the Aztec religion and the preceding Toltecan. In such a case Huitzilopochtli, the chief of the Aztec gods, by whose adoration the contrast is painted in the deepest colors, would have been a much better representant.
Quetzalcoatl no doubt preached against human sacrifices, brought into such unprecedented swing by the Aztecs, yet the worshipers of this god adopted the sacrifice of human beings in an extensive way during the Aztec rule, to which period this part of the Quetzalcoatl fable necessarily owes its origin. At this time the contrast was so slight that Quetzalcoatl partook of the highest adoration of Aztecs, not only in Cholula, but in Mexico and everywhere. His priest enjoyed the highest esteem and his temple in Mexico stood by the side of that of Huitzilopochtli. Montezuma not only calls the Toltec hero a leader of his forefathers, but the Aztecs actually consider him as a son of Huitzilopochtli. The opposition of the two gods, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, has another reason: the difference lies not in their worship, but in their nature and being, in the natural phenomena which they represent. If the god of the beneficial atmosphere, the manifested god-power of the atmosphere of the fructifying seasons, is adored in Quetzalcoatl; then Tezcatlipoca is his opposite, the god of the gloomy lower regions destitute of life and germ, the god of drought, of withering, of death.