cuexyo (Mdz20r)
This example of iconography from the Codex Mendoza shows a feathered war shield {chimalli) in a design that Berdan and Anawalt (1992, vol. 1, Appendix G) call the "cuexyo variant 3." The predominant colors are turquoise and black. The hanging feathers along the bottom are turquoise, red, green, and yellow.
Stephanie Wood
The main cuexyo shield in Berdan and Anawalt is discussed in some detail in an article in Arqueología Mexicana. See also our dictionary entry for cuextecatl, which refers to a feather suit worn by a dancer. Cuexyo with the absolutive (cuexyotl) would be a noun, but here it seems to be modifying the noun for shield (chimalli), so it serves as an adjective.
Stephanie Wood
una rodila desta
divisa
plumas
rricas
una rodela de esta divisa [de] plumas ricas
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
feathers, plumas
cuexyo, a feathered shield design, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuexyo
cuexteca(tl), a feathered suit for a dancer, or the person who wears this suit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuextecatl
Codex Mendoza, folio 20 recto https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 50 of 188.
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).
