Their mythology has been preserved in greater fullness than that of any other American people, and for this reason I am enabled to set forth in ampler detail the elements of their hero-myth, which, indeed, may be taken as the most perfect type of those I have collected in this volume.

Sec.1. The Two Antagonists.

The culture hero of the Aztecs was Quetzalcoatl, and the leading drama, the central myth, in all the extensive and intricate theology of the Nahuatl speaking tribes was his long contest with Tezcatlipoca, “a contest,” observes an eminent Mexican antiquary, “which came to be the main element in the Nahuatl religion and the cause of its modifications, and which materially influenced the destinies of that race from its earliest epochs to the time of its destruction."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Alfredo Chavero, La Piedra del Sol, in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tom.  II, p. 247.]

The explanations which have been offered of this struggle have varied with the theories of the writers propounding them.  It has been regarded as a simple historical fact; as a figure of speech to represent the struggle for supremacy between two races; as an astronomical statement referring to the relative positions of the planet Venus and the Moon; as a conflict between Christianity, introduced by Saint Thomas, and the native heathenism; and as having other meanings not less unsatisfactory or absurd.

Placing it side by side with other American hero-myths, we shall see that it presents essentially the same traits, and undoubtedly must be explained in the same manner.  All of them are the transparent stories of a simple people, to express in intelligible terms the daily struggle that is ever going on between Day and Night, between Light and Darkness, between Storm and Sunshine.

Like all the heroes of light, Quetzalcoatl is identified with the East.  He is born there, and arrives from there, and hence Las Casas and others speak of him as from Yucatan, or as landing on the shores of the Mexican Gulf from some unknown land.  His day of birth was that called Ce Acatl, One Reed, and by this name he is often known.  But this sign is that of the East in Aztec symbolism.[1] In a myth of the formation of the sun and moon, presented by Sahagun,[2] a voluntary victim springs into the sacrificial fire that the gods have built.  They know that he will rise as the sun, but they do not know in what part of the horizon that will be.  Some look one way, some another, but Quetzalcoatl watches steadily the East, and is the first to see and welcome the Orb of Light.  He is fair in complexion, with abundant hair and a full beard, bordering on the red,[3] as are all the dawn heroes, and like them he was an instructor in the arts, and favored peace and mild laws.

[Footnote 1:  Chavero, Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, Tom.  II, p. 14, 243.]

[Footnote 2:  Historia de las Cosas de Nueva Espana, Lib.  VII, cap.  II.]