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"Now, apart from the
circumstance that the snowy
burial ascribed to the
followers of Kai Khusrau,
Enoch, and Quetzalcouatl
could hardly be claimed to
be an 'obvious' feature, the
fate of Quetzalcouatl's
companions might further our
understanding; more
correctly, the topos where
this event is supposed to
have happened might do so. The 'five mountains' of Mexican myth, their 'gods' respectively, the Tepictoton1, 1 See E. Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. 2, p. 507, for an Aztec drawing of the Tepictoton. appear to represent the five Uyaeb (= Maya; with the Aztecs: Nemontemi), the Epagomena, those days gained by Mercury from the Moon during a game of checkers, in order to help Rhea/Nut to days 'outside of the year', when she could bring forth the five planets. As a matter of fact, in his chapter on the clothes and emblems of the gods, Sahagún puts the 'Mountian-Gods' at the end of the list2. 2 See T. S. Barthel, 'Einige Ordnungsprinzipen im Aztekischen Pantheon', Paideuma 10 (1964), pp. 80f., 83. In this paper, Barthel has established, in a rather convincing manner, the presence of decans in Mexican astronomy. Worth mentioning might be two more traits which Quetzalcouatl shares with his old-world brethren: Quetzalcouatl and Uemac, like Kai Ka'us and Kai Khusrau, are said to have ruled together, and Quetzalcouatl is accused of incestuous relations with his sister, as were Hamlet, Kullervo, Yama and, we might add, King Arthur3. 3 See W. Krickeberg, 'Mexicanisch-peruanische Parallelen', in Festschrift P. W. Schmidt, p. 388." (Hamlet's Mill) |