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#and only answer questions when I'm not having top notch banter with a pal
draconesmundi · 2 years
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Were the feathered serpents ever given wings by the aztecs/mayans or was that added later on?
The Maya and the Aztecs did not give their feathered serpents wings, as far as I know!
I may be incorrect here, but I think the 'winged feathered serpent in Mesoamerica' thing became popular from the Dragonology books by Dugald Steer. Dragonology includes the 'Mexican Amphithere', a winged feathered serpent associated with Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan. The world 'amphithere' is from European heraldry (you can probably tell from a certain French-ness in the word 'amphithere'), and the Dragonology team merged 'winged serpent amphithere' with 'feathered serpent coatl' to create their dragon design, which caught on as a popular idea in a lot of fantasy art. As far as I know, winged feathered serpents from Mesoamerica are a fantasy art convention whereas wingless feathered serpents are more in keeping with art history from that area.
There are feathered and winged serpents in mythology, but they are not coameh from Mesoamerica - I don't have access to my books right now so off the top of my head I can only think of the gwiber from Wales.
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