 Cortes goes to great pains to present the naive gullibility of the Aztecs in general as a great aid in his conquest of Mexico.
Much of the idea of Cortes being seen as a deity can be traced back to the Florentine Codex written down some 50 years after the conquest. In the codex's description of the first meeting between Moctezuma and Cortes, the Aztec ruler is described as giving a prepared speech in classical oratorial Nahuatl, a speech which, as described verbatim in the codex (written by Sahagun's, Tlatelolcan informants), included such prostrate declarations of divine or near-divine admiration.
Subtleties in, and an imperfect scholarly understanding of, high Nahuatl rhetorical style make the exact intent of these comments tricky to ascertain, but Restall argues that Moctezuma politely offering his throne to Cortes (if indeed he did ever give the speech as reported) may well have been meant as the exact opposite of what it was taken to mean: politeness in Aztec culture was a way to assert dominance and show superiority. This speech, which has been widely referred to, has been a factor in the widespread belief that Moctezuma was addressing Cortes as the returning god Quetzalcoatl.
Other parties have also propagated the idea that the Native Americans believed the conquistadors to be gods: most notably the historians of the Franciscan order such as Fray Geronimo de Mendieta. Some Franciscans at this time held millennarian beliefs and the natives taking the Spanish conquerors for gods was an idea that went well with this theology. Bernardino de Sahagun, who compiled the Florentine Codex, was also a Franciscan.
Some scholarship still maintains the view that the Aztec Empire's fall may be attributed in part to the belief in Cortes as the returning Quetzalcoatl. However, a number of Mesoamericanist scholars (such as Matthew Restall (2003), James Lockhart (1994), Susan D. Gillespie (1989), Camilla Townsend (2003a, 2003b), Louise Burkhart, and Michael E. Smith (2001) among others) consider the "Quetzalcoatl/Cortes myth" as one of many myths about the Spanish conquest which have risen in the early post-conquest period. (Knight 2004)
Some scholars have noted a resemblance of the Quetzalcoatl legend with that of the myth of the Pahana held by the Hopis of northern Arizona. Scholars have described many similarities between the myths of the Aztecs and those of the American Southwest, and posit a common root. The Hopi describe the Pahana as the "Lost White Brother," and they expected his eventual return from the east during which he would destroy the wicked and begin a new era of peace and prosperity. Hopi tradition maintains that they at first mistook the Spanish conquistadors as the Pahana when they arrived on the Hopi mesas in the 16th century.
Quetzalcoatl and Hummingbird(Rebirth)
One theory of the Hollow Earth Hypothesis states that Quetzalcoatl disappeared on a UFO for 8 days. He visited the inner worlds beneath the sea, returning to create man, leaving messages in the Sacred Geometry of his design to be found at the end of time.
Pyramid of Kulkan at Chichen Itza - Quetzal Bird
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