Coatl (MH504v)

Coatl (MH504v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the personal name Coatl ("Serpent," attested here as a man's name) shows what seems to be a coiled snake. The head is in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. Its mouth is open, with teeth showing. Its tongue is long, thin, and bifurcated. There may be some shading on the snake's head and on its body. A shape like a three-leaf clover separates the head from what might be the coiled body. Coatl is a day name in the religious divinatory calendar, the tonalpohualli. Such a day name would have had a companion number from 1 to 13. Perhaps that part of the tradition was fading away, or perhaps there was an effort to disguise the continuing use of the sacred calendar by dropping the numbers.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This rendition of coatl is reminiscent of the Mixcoatl glyph on folio 519 verso of the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, which also has this unusual shape between the snake's head and its body (and, in the case of Mixcoatl, the additional volutes).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

diego
couatl

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Diego Coatl

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
fading tradition, or an effort to disguise?
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Snakes
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Tongue Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bifurcated
facing right
profile view
shading and parallel line hatching
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Keywords: 

serpents, serpientes, snakes, culebras, víboras, cohuatl, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

coa(tl), snake, serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 504v, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=88&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Mixcoatl (MH519v)