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| The Bearded Quetzalcoatl |
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While the Spanish sources frequently report Quetzalcoatl to be bearded, they do not necessarily agree on the color of the beard. Torquemada reports that Quetzalcoatl's beard was blond; Las Casas says that it was black, and Durán indicates that it was red and graying. (Torquemada, 1943, 1:255. Las Casas, 1967, 1:644, and Durán, 1969, 1:9.) The degree of variation on this point gives little hope that a specific color was part of the pre-Hispanic information on Quetzalcoatl's beard. Quetzalcoatl's beard was not simply a category of the Spanish tales. Sahagún's 16th Century informants also attribute a beard to the Toltec priest-king:"His beard was long, exceedingly long. He was heavily bearded." ( Sahagún 1950-75, 3:13.) In addition to the texts the frequent depiction of beards in Mesoamerican art verifies its importance in native iconography. However, it is not clear that the iconographic depiction of a beard is an exclusive marker of Quetzalcoatl. While Quetzalcoatl would appear to be a bearded god in the Nahua pantheon, it is by no means true that he was unique in this status, or that all iconographic beards served to identify Quetzalcoatl. In the Codex Nuttall, for instance, there are several figures shown with beards: 13 Reed, 1 Death, 4 Jaguar, 10 Rain, and 10 Grass. Interestingly enough, the representation of 9 Wind (this is one of the names associated with Quetzalcoatl, and is the name used in the Mixtec codices) is not pictured with a beard. The beard in the Nuttall clearly not only has a wider meaning than Quetzalcoatl/ 9 Wind, but is also not even a necessary iconographic element for him. (Codex Nuttall, edited by Zelia Nuttall, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1975. For 13 Reed see p. 7, 1 Death p. 10, 4 Jaguar p.14, 10 Rain p. 14, 10 Grass p. 15, and 9 Wind p. 15.) Similarly, The Telleriano-Remensis has two drawings of Quetzalcoatl, one of which is specifically labeled Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl. Neither of those representations of Quetzalcoatl are shown as bearded. The Codex Ríos has a depiction of Quetzalcoatl for which there is no analog in the Telleriano-Remensis. That drawing shows Quetzalcoatl on top of a pyramid, wearing his long cape with crosses. It does not, however, show him with a beard. (See the Codex Telleriano Remensis, 1964, 1:180 [11 in Ms], and 1:187 [10 in Ms]. See also "Codex Ríos" in Antigüedades de México, Mexico: Secretaria de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 1964, 3:29 [7v in the Ms.). While it is true that a beard was associated with Quetzalcoatl in many texts, it is also possible that a beard held a different connotation for a Nahua native than it did for a Spaniard. The Anales de Cuauhtitlan is an important early source which is particularly valuable for having been originally written in Nahuatl. The Anales de Cuauhtitlan describes the attire of Quetzalcoatl at Tula: "Immediately he made him his green mask; he took red color with which he made the lips russet; he took yellow to make the facade; and he made the fangs; continuing, he made his beard of feathers..." (Anales de Cuauhtitlan., 1975, 9.) It is probable that it is a beard of yellow feathers which is shown on the Quetzalcoatl figures in the Codex Borgia, plates 56 and 73. The mask is not green in either of those plates, but the rest of the characteristics fit. It is therefore unclear what meaning a beard would have had in a pre-Hispanic context. Where the beard was clearly an important pre-Hispanic cultural category, it is also clear that it was sufficiently represented by a symbolic beard of feathers. For the natives, the beard contained meaning, but not a meaning which clearly indicated a person of non-native origin. In the Spanish literature, however, there is no doubt. The Spaniards clearly considered Quetzalcoatl's beard to be facial hair. All Spanish influenced artistic depictions of Quetzalcoatl use facial hair rather than feathers to represent the beard. While subtle, this may be an instance of interpretive distortion of an native category. Analyzing this element as a possible indicator of an anomalous pre-conquest element, the evidence is equivocal. The beard was clearly an element of the pre-Hispanic Quetzalcoatl ritual symbology, but that does not make it anomalous. Beards were a feature of the iconography, and even if unusual, were not specifically related to Quetzalcoatl, or any other non-native which can be discerned. As an indicator of a Quetzalcoatl/Christ connection, the beard is ambiguous at best, and irrelevant at worst. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1998 |
One of the distinguishing
physical contrasts between the natives and Spaniards was the latter's proliferation of facial hair. Natives were
typically relatively beardless. In stark contrast to the beardless natives, the literature on Quetzalcoatl usually
describes him as bearded. So well known were the tales of Quetzalcoatl's beard that by the early 1600's that Fray
Juan de Torquemada could state: "This was held as very certain, that he was of good disposition... bearded..."
(Torquemada, 1943, 2:255.)
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