Ophiolatreia or Serpent Worship by Anonymous Author

Author:Anonymous Author [Author, Anonymous]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Global Grey ebooks
Published: 2018-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6. Mexican Temple Of Montezuma---The Serpent Emblem In Mexico---Pyramid Of Cholula...

Mexican Temple of Montezuma---The Serpent Emblem in Mexico---Pyramid of Cholula---Tradition of the Giants of Anahuac---The Temple of Quetzalcoatl---North American Indians and the Rattlesnake---Indian Tradition of a Great Serpent---Serpents in the Mounds of the West---Bigotry and Folly of the Spanish Conquerors of the West---Wide prevalence of Mexican Ophiolatreia.

The monuments of Mexico representing the serpent are very numerous, and have been specially remarked by nearly every traveller in that interesting country. The symbol is equally conspicuous in the ancient paintings.

"The great temple of Mexico," says Acosta, "was built of great stones in fashion of snakes tied one to another, and the circuit was called coate-pantli which is circuit of snakes." Duran informs us that this temple was expressly built by the first Montezuma "for all the gods," and hence called Coatlan, literally "serpent place." It contained, he also informed us, the temple or shrine of Tezcatlipoca, Huitzlipochtli, and Tlaloc, called Coateocalli, "Temple of the Serpent."

Says Bernal Diaz, in his account of the march of Cortes to Mexico, "We today arrived at a place called Terraguco, which we called the town of the serpents, on account of the enormous figures of those reptiles which we found in their temples, and which they worshipped as gods."

It cannot be supposed that absolute serpent worship---a simple degraded adoration of the reptile itself, or Fetishism, such as is said to exist in some parts of Africa---prevailed in Mexico. The serpent entered into their religious systems only as an emblem. It is nevertheless not impossible, on the contrary it is extremely probable, that a degree of superstitious veneration attached to the reptile itself. According to Bernal Diaz, living rattlesnakes were kept in the great temple of Mexico as sacred objects. He says, "Moreover, in that accursed house they kept vipers and venomous snakes, who had something at their tails which sounded like morris-bells, and these are the worst of vipers. They were kept in cradles and barrels, and in earthen vessels, upon feathers, and there they laid their eggs, and nursed up their snakelings, and they were fed with the bodies of the sacrificed, and with dogs' meat."

Charlevaix in the History of Paraguay, relates "that Alvarez, in one of his expeditions into that country, found a town in which was a large tower or temple the residence of a monstrous serpent which the inhabitants had chosen for a divinity and which they fed with human flesh. He was as thick as an ox, and seven and twenty feet long." This account has been regarded as somewhat apocryphal, although it is likely enough that Serpent Worship may have existed among some of the savage tribes of South America.

It has been said "it should be remarked that Diaz was little disposed to look with complacency upon the religion of the Mexicans, or whatever was connected with it, and that his prejudices were not without their influence on his language. His relation, nevertheless, may be regarded as essentially reliable."

Mr. Mayer,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.