Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [223]
So, the question remains: did myth play any role in this fatal encounter? Most histories of the conquest state that Moctezuma believed Cortés represented the returning god Quetzalcoatl. But anthropologist and Latin studies expert Matthew Restall counts this as one of the Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, the title of his 2003 history. He is joined by other recent scholars who question this very old assumption. John H. Elliott, a British historian, suggests that this story of the role of Aztec myth in the conquest is layered with its own set of legends. First of all, Cortés himself never mentioned the Quetzalcoatl story in his own writings. Restall and Elliott believe that the stories of a returning god from the East only sprang up later—perhaps twenty years after the Spanish arrived. Elliott also dismisses Cortés’s accounts of two speeches made by Moctezuma as the elaborate creation of the Spaniard, written for the consumption of the Spanish royal court. There are no contemporary records—in the writings of Cortés or later Aztec accounts—to confirm the idea that the Aztecs thought the Europeans were gods.
Whether or not the Aztecs actually believed that Cortés was the returning Quetzalcoatl remains an intriguing historical mystery. But it is certainly not what brought about the ultimate downfall of a mighty empire. In his landmark book about the role of disease in history, Plagues and Peoples, William H. McNeill writes: “Four months after the Aztecs had driven Cortés and his men from their city, an epidemic of small pox broke out among them, and the man who had organized the attack on Cortés was among those who died…. Such partiality could only be explained supernaturally, and there could be no doubt about which side of the struggle enjoyed divine favor. The religions, priest-hoods, and way of life built around the old Indian gods could not survive such a demonstration of the superior power of the God the Spaniards worshipped.”
What is the “Day of the Dead”?
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico and the rest of Mesoamerica around 1500, one of the native traditions they encountered was a month-long ritual that seemed to mock death. Though the tradition had roots stretching back thousands of years, the Catholic priests saw it as “pagan” and did their best to eradicate it.
During this celebration, the Aztecs and other Mesoamericans displayed skulls, which symbolized the twin ideas of death and rebirth. The skulls were used to honor the dead, who were thought to come back and visit during the month long celebration, which was presided over by Mictecacihuatli, the goddess of the underworld known as “lady of the dead.”
The Spanish considered the ritual barbarous and sacrilegious, an extension of the human sacrifices that they had eliminated. “Good Christians” simply didn’t go around worshipping skulls or other body parts (unless, of course, they should happen to be the remains or “relics” of a dead saint!). In their attempts to convert the natives to Catholicism, the Spanish tried to stamp out this celebration, which fell in the Aztec solar calendar’s ninth month—around August. When they could not eliminate it, the priests simply moved the celebration to coincide with the Catholic feast days, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (November 1 and 2).
It is another classic example of how myths are transformed from one culture to another. Just