Quetzalcóatl

Widely recognized deity known in many parts of Mesoamerica in Olmec, Toltec, Maya, Teotihuacan, and Aztec times. Usually depicted as the feathered serpent, but god of many things including the wind, the morning star, and the evening star. In Aztec cosmology Quetzalcóatl was the creator god of learning and patron of the arts, agriculture, and science. In Aztec legend Quetzalcóatl or a historical figure closely associated with him was banished from Mexico in c.ad 987, but in leaving he promised to return. This promise became so bound up in Aztec mythology that in ad 1519 when Cortez and his Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico he was regarded for a time as the returning deity.