The cross I have previously shown was the
symbol of the four winds, and the bird and serpent are simply the rebus
of the air god, their ruler.[119-1] Quetzalcoatl, called also Yolcuat,
the rattlesnake, was no less intimately associated with serpents than
with birds. The entrance to his temple at Mexico represented the jaws of
one of these reptiles, and he finally disappeared in the province of
Coatzacoalco, the hiding place of the serpent, sailing towards the east
in a bark of serpents' skins. All this refers to his power over the
lightning serpent.
He was also said to be the god of riches and the patron consequently of
merchants. For with the summer lightning come the harvest and the
ripening fruits, come riches and traffic. Moreover "the golden color of
the liquid fire," as Lucretius expresses it, naturally led where this
metal was known, to its being deemed the product of the lightning. Thus
originated many of those tales of a dragon who watches a treasure in the
earth, and of a serpent who is the dispenser of riches, such as were
found among the Greeks and ancient Germans.
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