Cuetlach (MH639v)

Cuetlach (MH639v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuetlach ("Wolf," attested here as a man's name) shows the head of a wolf in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. His visible eye is open, as is his mouth, revealing a fang. The wolf's hair is marked, although some of the short lines coming off the head of the wolf might be like the tonalli vibrance of some other glyphs (below).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The Mexican Wolf is threatened with extinction, but it has had a notable presence in Nahua culture since the autonomous era, even though glyphs for cuetlachtli are somewhat rarer than other animals in this collection (see some comparisons, below), but many animal names come from the tonalpohualli, divinatory calendar of 260 days. See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary for more information about wolves, such as the wolf skin seat, a wolf skin cape, and a priest ("Old Wolf") who wore a wolf skin when taking a prisoner to the sacrificial stone, "weeping and howling" during this activity.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
shimmer, vibrance, shine with warmth & movement
Keywords: 

wolves, lobos

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

cuetlach(tli), wolf, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuetlachtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Lobo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 639v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=361st=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: 

Cuetlach (MH527v)

Cuetlach (MH493r)

Totonametl (MH525r)

Atonal (MH624v)