Atl Popoca (MH634r)
This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Atl Popoca (or Atlpopoca, attested here as a man's name) shows swirling (i.e. moving) water (atl) with curls of smoke (indicating the verb to emit smoke, popoca) coming up from the swirl. The name may translate as "Smoking Water."
Stephanie Wood
The movement of both smoke and water seems to have had an appeal in Nahua culture. This combination is also found in some of the glyphs for the personal name Tlachinol and teoatl tlachinolli (below). The latter also includes a serpent, which is possibly also appealing for its ability to coil. Flood and conflagration were serious threats to people living in urban areas on or around lakes.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
agua, fuego, humo, flamas, espirales, nombres de hombres
atl, water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
popoca, to smoke, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/popoca
Agua Humeante
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 634r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=350st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).