ahuiliztli (Mdz10v)

ahuiliztli (Mdz10v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This element has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name Ahuilizapan. The focus here is the man standing with his arms raised, bent at the elbows. His head is in profile, facing to the viewer's right. We only see the upper part of his body, which is unclothed, and it faces toward the front.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Really, the entire compound glyph may show the pleasure or joy of ahuiliztli, given that the person who has his arms raised is perhaps happily enjoying being in water, bathing or playing. We cannot tell if he might still be wearing a loincloth, and therefore we do not know if nudity is part of an intended message about joy. But it is the person expressing emotion that is the focus of the term ahuiliztli. The water channel, apantli, plays a secondary role.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Emotions

Gender (male)

Nudity

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

brown

orange/terracotta

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

frontal view

profile view

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ahuiliz(tli), pleasure or joy, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ahuiliztli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

pleasure, joy

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el placer, la alegría

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 31 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).