Let's face it--there are only a handful of messiah legends around, and that they have lasted for thousands of years is testimony to a certain "something" that surpasses the constraints of earthly time and space to arrive at a moment when a man becomes more than a man. He becomes even more than a hero, or a legend. He becomes a messiah. That in and of itself is a momentous occasion from which seekers of true knowledge may find answers and understanding of things spiritual. At the very least, it is worthy of scholarly study into the motivations and beliefs of the human race.
Quetzalcoatl has been (rather controversially) called a messiah of the Mesoamerican people, equivalent of the Christ figure to Europe, at least in terms of his prevalence and importance to many ancient cultures including that of Teotihuacan, the Olmecs, the Toltecs, the Aztec, and even the Maya. In fact, had Moctezuma II not hesitated so long upon the invasion of Cortes into Mexico in the 1500s, wondering if Cortes was instead the prophesied Quetzalcoatl returned, history might have been written quite differently than it was.
Who was Quetzalcoatl? Was he a real person? How did be become a god of ancient Mesoamerica, and what was his cosmological significance to the ancient peoples?
History is somewhat sketchy, for the Spaniards destroyed most of the codices and other valuable written records handed down for centuries that to a large degree were in possession of the Aztecs when Spain conquered Mexico. The Spaniards, being devoutly Catholic, believed they were dealing with pagan cultures at best, and satanic cultures at worst. Wiping out the native religious icons and burning religious books was believed necessary to acculturate the natives to Catholicism. There were a few priests who went to the trouble to re-write ancient Mexican history, largely recounted to them by Aztec natives. One must keep in mind the filters and prejudices of the Spanish priesthood when studying these documents, however.
To date, two key Quetzalcoatl stories are known: Quetzalcoatl the man, and Quetzalcoatl, the god. Both are riveting tales of honor, suffering, and resurrection. Some experts might split hairs with me over shaping the first category as Quetzalcoatl the man; for the story has been classified as a myth or legend. But the context of it deals with the human form of Quetzalcoatl; hence my categorization. Modern research from the 1930s on has found some factual record for some of the key events of the tale, but much remains cloaked in the mysteries of ancient times. The story, as it has been handed down to us today, was recounted by an Aztec priest who was attempting to explain the meaning of a pictorial "book" (used by ancient people to assist in oral religious teachings) to a member of the Spanish clergy.
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