Its name literally means "Feathered Serpent" in the Nahuatl language.
One of the many ancient representations of this god was a bearded white man. Since the sixteenth century, it has been widely held that the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II initially believed the landing of Hernan Cortes (a bearded white Spaniard man himself) in 1519 to be Quetzalcoatl's return, thus facilitating the subsequent "Conquest of Mexico" and the defeat of his Aztec Empire.
Some Mormons even believe that Quetzalcoatl was historically Jesus Christ, who visited America in ancient times.
