Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl

Legendary priest-king of Tula. Conflated genealogically with the deity Quetzalcoatl through descent and through eventual apotheosis. The most important demigod-becoming-deity figure in Mesoamerican tradition. His prophesied return shaped Aztec response to Cortés in 1519. Among the most iconographically and politically over-attested figures in the entire pre-Columbian corpus.

Parentage

• Mixcoatl
• Chimalman

Powers

• civilizing arts instruction
• priesthood toltec
• self sacrifice rite
• wind mastery
• performs autosacrificial blood-penance as model priest
• Pierces himself in blood-penance
• Remakes humanity from underworld bones
• Immolates himself into the dawn-star
• Sweeps the road before the rains

Epithets

• Topiltzin
• Ce Acatl

Relations

• enemy: Tezcatlipoca
• interpretatio: Kukulkan

Sources

• Anales de Cuauhtitlán (Codex Chimalpopoca)
• Sahagún, Florentine Codex Bk. III
• Chimalpahin, Relaciones
• Codex Vaticanus A
• Anales de Cuauhtitlán