Chalchiuhtlicue (MH907r)

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chalchiuhtlicue (literally, “Greenstone Her Skirt”) is attested here as a woman’s name. She is a widow. The glyph shows the head of a woman (cihuatl) in profile, facing the viewer’s right. She has the traditional woman’s hairstyle, the neaxtlahualli. Below her head is a box containing swirling water, apparently representing the chalchihuitl (precious greenstone) part of the name, given that water droplets and greenstone beads were equated metaphorically. There is no obvious skirt (cueitl) in the visual representation of the name, although women were sometimes called “skirts.” (See Codex Chimalpahin, 1997, 224-225, where cueitl and huipilli are paired in the metaphor for women.) The possessor (i-, her) is not visible, either.